20 questions to ask a recruiter (or friends in the target company)

Pay and reward

1. How will my performance be measured?
2. How will my targets be set? And how much say will I have in setting them?
3. Who are the key decision-makers that I will need to get along with? And how would you describe each of them?
4. How regularly will my pay be reviewed? And when will be my first review?
5. How much of my bonus is guaranteed? And how much of it is dependent on performance?

Doing the job

1. Be honest with me, what do you really think of the members of the team that I would be running or working with?
2. What do you see as the immediate challenges for me if I were to be given the job?
3. When was the last company restructuring? And how did it affect this department?
4. How is the organization performing? What do staff and shareholders think of the company’s performance?
5. Are there any big changes or restructuring planned for the near future?
6. So what exactly happened to the previous job holder?

Culture

1. How would you describe the culture of the organization?
2. What is the best thing about working for this organization?
3. I promise that I won’t mention it to anyone, but just between you and me, what frustrates you most about working here?
4. Would you describe this as a political organization? And if so, why?
5. How much inter-departmental rivalry is there in the company?
6. How much do people socialize together outside of work? What was the last social event that you went to?

The future

1. What training and development is given to employees?
2. What opportunities are there for promotion?
3. Could you tell me about the sorts of people who have failed here? What was it they did or didn’t do that made them unsuccessful?

The above has been extracted from “The Ultimate Career Success Workbook” by Rob Yeung