What Color Is Your Parachute 2018 by Richard N. Bolles copy

Conversation Tip #14
As the interview proceeds, you want to quietly notice the time frame of
the questions the employer is asking, because it’s a way of measuring
how the interview is going. If it’s going favorably for you, the time frame
of the employer’s questions will often move—however slowly—through
the following stages.
1. Distant past: e.g., “Where did you attend high school?”
2. Immediate past: e.g., “Tell me about your most recent job.”
3. Present: e.g., “What kind of a job are you looking for?”
4. Immediate future: e.g., “Would you be able to come back for another
interview next week?”
5. Distant future: e.g., “Where would you like to be five years from
now?”
Well, you get the point. The more the time frame of the interviewer’s
questions moves from the past to the future, the more favorably you may
assume the interview is going for you. On the other hand, if the
interviewer’s questions stay firmly in the past, the outlook is not so good.
Ah well, ya can’t win them all!
When the time frame of the interviewer’s questions moves firmly into
the future, then is the time for you to get more specific about the job in
question. Experts say it is essential for you to ask, at that point, these kinds
of questions, if you don’t already know the answers:
What is the job, specifically, that I am being considered for?
If I were hired, what duties would I be performing?
What would you be hiring me to accomplish?
What responsibilities would I have?
Would I be working with a team, or group?
To whom would I report? (Remember, the communication skills and
personal warmth of an employee’s supervisor are often crucial in