Is there anything I shouldn't ask my interviewer?

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Karen Chopra
Licensed Professional Counselor
www.ChopraCareers.com  
 

Karen James Chopra, LPC, MCC, NCC, has been counseling career clients since 1999 and has helped hundreds of clients change careers, find new jobs and deal more effectively with workplace challenges.

In addition to her private practice, she has worked for two national corporate outplacement firms: Lee Hecht Harrison and Resource Careers. These are the organizations that help people who have experienced a layoff or downsizing to find new jobs, and their programs are usually considered the gold-standard of job search technique.

Ms Chopra is a regular presenter on career issues, having taught career theory at the graduate level, designed and delivered numerous workshops, and served as a regular guest commentator on WMAL’s career radio show “Your Career Life.”

She is a career-changer herself. Before entering the counseling field, she worked for nearly a decade as a trade negotiator for the United States Government, first at the Department of Commerce and then at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.

Ms. Chopra holds a number of relevant licenses and certifications: licensed professional counselor (LPC) in the District of Columbia; Master Career Counselor (MCC), a designation of the National Career Development Association (NCDA); and National Certified Counselor (NCC), a designation of the National Board of Certified Counselors (NBCC).  She belongs to all of the relevant national and local associations involved in career counseling, including the American Counseling Association (ACA),  the National Employment Counselors Association (NECA), the National Career Development Association (NCDA) and the Washington Metropolitan Area Career-Life Planning Network (MAC-LPN).

Her B.A. is from the University of Virginia, and she received a masters of science in foreign service from Georgetown University, and a masters in community counseling from George Washington University.

Is there anything I shouldn't ask my interviewer?

 

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Is there anything I shouldn't ask my interviewer?

Karen Chopra: The only thing that you should not ask the company or the interviewer is something that you should have been able to find on their website, which is why it's important to read the website before you are going to an interview. That's the question, when I talk to employers that is the thing that always sets them off. They you didn't read the website, it was clear from the questions they were out asking that they never read the website.

So the rule of thumb is, if it's on the website, don't ask about it. But ask about what you have read on the website. So indicate that you are aware of what's on the website, and then say, I read on your website about XYZ program. I would like you to tell me a little bit more about that. So that's the only absolute, don't ask about it.

The other things that you may want to avoid asking about if you can are what the job pays, because that's a question that's likely to get into salary negotiations sooner than you would like to. So that's one that I normally recommend again, but every once in a while, you are going to ask that in an interview.

Everything else, you should be able to find some formula, some neutral way of asking. If it's a question you have about the company, you should be able ask it in an interview, and indeed if they don't want you to ask difficult questions in an interview, you have to wonder whether this is a company that you really want to go work for.

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