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Avoid Asking about Salary or Benefits during Job Interview

While we have already touched on asking the right questions, we did not really focus on refraining from asking the WRONG ones. One of the biggest initial job interview mistakes that you can make is to ask about salary or benefits during your interview. The appropriate time for you to discuss compensation andbenefit information is once a real, firm offer has been placed on the table. You should refrain from bringing this topic up prematurely.

Take the time to learn more about the company and the position that the company is looking to fill. In the end, money is not everything, and is definitely not what you should be obsessing about before you have even fully proven yourself to the company that you are interviewing with. Career satisfaction comes in a variety of different forms, so focus on joining a collaborative team environment with plenty of opportunity for growth rather than worrying about the benefits package. During the interview process, you should focus and concentrate on the things that really matter -Not compensation.

There are a number of other questions that should be avoided during the initial job interviewing process. The following is a list of questions in addition to “What is my salary?” that you should avoid at all costs when interviewing with a potential employer.

- How long does it take to be promoted? – While it may be fruitful to ask about advancement within the company, it is more important that you focus on the job that you are actually interviewing for.

- When will I be able to take a vacation? - If you are already asking this question at the interview, then you are already thinking about taking time off, and this does not look good to the employer.

- Will I be required to work overtime? - Asking about the hours that you will work says that you are the type of person who likes to watch the clock, and this is not something that a hiring manager is going to want to look for.

- What kinds of employee activities are held? - This question can be a real interview killer. It tells the interviewer that you are more interested in the company activities than in working hard and moving up within the company. Wait until you are hired before you begin to ask questions like this.

- What can I use my company computer for? Even though many employees use their computers for purposes other than for company work, you should never bring this up during an interview. This shows both a lack of maturity, and a lack of business sense as well.

- Will I be able to work from home? - While this may appear to be a good question, new employees need to come to understand the dynamics and the politics of the office before they should even begin to think about working at home. New employees cannot learn anything about the tempo, the faces, the politics and the dynamics of the company if they are working at home. The hiring manager is going to be looking for someone who will be right there all the time, both working and soaking up the dynamics of the office in order to become more successful and to make the company more successful as well.

- While many of these questions may seem native, and when you see them in print you may wonder why anyone would ever think to ask them, all of these questions have been asked through numerous job interviews in the past. So there are people out there who are naïve enough to ask these questions in job interviews – And many of them do not understand why they did not land the job after the fact.

Not only is it important to know what questions not to ask, it is also important to have a small list of questions that you SHOULD ask, so that you can be prepared when the person interviewing you asks “Is there anything that you want to ask me?” The only thing worse than asking an interview killer of a question, is simply saying “No”.

 

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