Originally published January 18, 2022. Updated September 2026 with a summary, next steps and answers to common questions.
One of the greatest challenges for any company or small business is attracting quality candidates. There is a good reason for this difficulty. Note that for any business, no matter the industry, bad hires can be a nightmare. On the other hand, good hires are gold dust.
Hiring excellent employees is essential to growing your business. A thoughtful and strategic hiring process includes effective recruitment ads, well-written job descriptions, and strong interview processes.
However, you may have noticed that a job interview usually concludes with the interviewer asking the age-old question, “Do you’ve any questions?” After that, the job candidate has a chance to ask about anything that was not covered. They can also get clarification about something that was said. This is, at least, the idea behind the format.
However, keep in mind that this assumes that a job candidate is calm, cool, and collected—and can easily remember or recall everything that was said during the interview and what may have been confusing, vague, or omitted.
For many candidates, an interview entails sitting on a hot seat. Keep in mind that it can be challenging enough to answer all questions, let alone come up with relevant questions to ask when the interview is over. As a result, usually, a candidate has no questions or one or two that they already had coming into the job interview.
Why You Should Care
As a recruiter or hiring manager in your company, you want a job candidate to ask relevant questions. Remember that questions show that the candidate is engaged and interested in the conversation and interested in the designation and the company.
You should ask questions to know your candidates better. And the questions that a potential candidate asks provide insight into what the individual values. And candidate questions will help determine fit. It is time to change the narrative and focus on the talent instead of your company. You should know more about their unique journeys, career aspirations, and goals.
Flip the Script
If you do this right, you are more likely to find and hire high-quality candidates who will stick around. It is common knowledge that a good candidate should ask thoughtful and relevant questions during the interview.
However, experts recommend thinking of the interview process less as a question-answer session and more as a meaningful and open dialogue, where both you and the potential candidates ask each other pertinent questions to determine alignment.
Interviews are not one-sided—they should be conversational. Did you know that the best hires care about the team they will be on and who will manage them? They also want to know how they can help take your business forward. This is why you should focus on them.
For many recruiters, getting a sense of the aspiration, career goals, and preferences of each potential candidate is an essential part of the interview process.
Final Thoughts
It is crucial to get a clear idea of both how you foresee the perfect candidate growing in the job role that you are hiring for and an understanding of the career goals and motivation of your potential candidates. Keep in mind that getting a reasonable sense of both aspects will help you figure out whether or not there’s alignment between your potential candidate and the company’s objectives and goals.