“Do you have any queries?” (The answer is “Yes!”)

The other day, I conducted a phone interview with a strong candidate.  She was really nice-looking good, but I wasn’t quite convinced.  She had some stiff competition for this job.  When we were finishing up, I asked if there was everything else I needed to know about her.  She said, “No.”  Then I asked if there were any queries she had for me, and she said, “No.”  That’s where she bit the dust. 

pharma, sales, recruiter, pharmaceutical, hiring, job, interview questions

She needed to separate herself from the competition, and it should have been easy for her to have had a couple of queries prepared, like:  “What are my chances with this organization?”  Or, “When you looked at my RESUME, did you see everything I could change to make it better?”  Or, “If I was to read one sales book, Peggy, what would you recommend?”  Or, “What specific words could I Google that would give me some insight to this company?”  Or, “What advice would you give me, based on the interview we just had, to improve myself in the future?”  That last one is a no-brainer question that should be asked every time, especially by entry-level candidates, or by someone new to any area of pharmaceutical sales, laboratory sales, clinical device sales, biotechnology revenue, hospital equipment sales, imaging revenue, DNA products sales, medical diagnostics revenue, or laboratory sales.  That last question alone would have set her apart, because I would have known that 1) she’s looking to improve, 2) she had the guts to ask a question like that, and THREE) she wouldn’t have just told “no.” 

Because “no” is almost never a valuable answer in a career opportunity interview. 

Article courtesy of  Peggy McKee - Owner / Senior Recruiter at the nationally
recognized medical and pharma sales recruiting team of PHC Consulting.
© Copyright 2008 PHC Consulting | All rights reserved

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