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Job Hunter's Guide Logo Step Five Interview:
Employer Questions

The "Super Seven" Questions You Need to Know

Hiring someone is one of the riskiest moves an employer can make. If they choose unwisely, it will cost them lots of money, time and energy — as the box below reveals.

That's why employers ask applicants a lot of questions. They want to lower the risk and make sure their decision is sound. For you, though, all those questions just make it hard to prepare for the interview. Do you have to practice answering every possible question an employer might throw at you?

Luckily, the answer is no. The truth is that employers really only want to know the answers to seven questions — the "Super Seven." They can't ask these questions directly, though, so they ask other questions instead.

This means that every interview question really tries to answer one of the "Super Seven." You can decide which question is being asked by listening for key words and looking for the hidden concern behind the question.

If you prepare your responses to just the "Super Seven" questions, you'll be ready for any question you get! Keep in mind that some of your responses will be verbal, some non-verbal and some you'll put off until you get an offer.

To practice translating typical questions into the "Super Seven" questions, complete the exercise on Interview Questions Identification.


"A bad hire can cause missed deadlines, unmailed reports, shoddy support work, embarrassment. A bad hire can bog you down."

Martin Yate
Hiring the Best

TURNOVER COSTS MONEY!!

Employers face huge costs when they hire the wrong person and must re-hire someone else. Costs include:
  • actual hiring expenses (ads, sign-on fees) for the bad hire

  • time spent interviewing the bad hire and checking references

  • time spent training the bad hire

  • damage done if the bad hire injures people or property
  • time spent repairing the poorly-done work of the bad hire

  • cost of the time spent replacing the bad hire

  • productivity and profit lost while the position is vacant

These costs can run from the hundreds to the hundreds of thousands of dollars depending on the job in question, how long it's vacant and how much damage the "bad hire" did.

As a result, the employer's credibility, even job, may be on the line.

That's why employers ask so many questions of you. They want to lower the risk that they won't have to go through all this again!

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Last Revision: October 13, 2003