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Answering Common Interview Questions

What questions should I be sure to ask?

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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.

What questions should I be sure to ask?

 

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Host: What question should I be sure to ask?

Karen James Chopra: You want to ask as many questions as you want to, to understand exactly what you are going to be doing when you get into the job. So what the day to day duties are for the position? What the top responsibilities are for that position? How much time you are expected to spend on each of the key responsibilities for the position? Who you report to? Who is going to report to you? Who are you going to be working with on the team? You also want to ask questions about why the position is open, if there was somebody who was in the job before you, you want to make sure to ask, "What happened to the previous incumbent? Why is the job open?

" If the previous incumbent has moved on to another job, you might say, "How long was the previous incumbent in this position?

" If the answer is, "Oh, three months or six months," you might say, "Well, how long was the person before that in the position?

" If the answer is, "Three months or six months," you might start to wonder about what's going on with this position that people aren't staying? So ask about who came before you in this job and what happened to them. If the position is new and no one has ever been in this position before, ask why it was created. This will give you a lot of information about what problems they are trying to solve with the position and allows you to interview strongly by demonstrating that you are the best fit for that particular need or problem.

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