During the past couple of years, I assisted a couple people who were going through job interviews. I was mainly helping them with the financial model test that is required for some positions. While talking to these candidates it made me realize the amount of pressure on them to make a good impression and prove themselves to the interviewers. Of course it is normal and part of the process that candidates should play the role, impress the interviewers, and make sure they are well prepared to answer any questions they might have. However, one thing that seems very important to me is that candidates sometimes neglect the fact that they should also use the opportunity to assess the company through the interview and ask genuine questions that they have in mind regarding the position and organizational culture.

One of these people who I helped was eager to get the job and told me, “Hedieh, this is my dream job.” I responded, “if they are smart, they will hire you.” Because he is really a smart guy of excellent character. He got the job and three months later, he called me complaining that the department he was assigned to was a madhouse. I asked him what was going on there and he told me that the person in charge of that department was a toxic control freak who would not delegate work and hid information from everyone, creating conflicts among the whole team. What caught my attention was him telling me that five people had left the department in the past 12 months. That’s when I realized that employee retention/attrition rate is an important piece of information that you need when considering joining a team. It’s a metric tracked by most HR departments so should easily be obtainable.

The basic formula for calculating retention rate is the number of individuals who remained employed for entire measurement period divided by the number of employees at the start of the period, then multiplying the answer by 100.

In his case, the department he was working had 12 employees and over the past year, 5 of the 12 left the company and they were replaced. So the employee retention rate was (12-5)/12 = 58%. The metric by itself tells you that there’s a dynamic going on in that department. It might be a positive dynamic and might be due to a management change and restructuring of the team, or it might be a negative dynamic like in my friend’s case that people are leaving due to the character of the head of the department, and people do not see any career progression staying within that team.

I am not saying that this is the question that you should be asking, just that you should be using the opportunity of the interview to ask the questions that are important to you. When preparing this post, I did a quick search on what people are advising job candidates when it comes to questions to ask your employers at interview. The ones that showed up mainly related to the concept of asking questions to impress the interviewer, and I am not in agreement with that. When preparing your questions, you should not think about how to make the interviewer think that you are smart or that you are extremely passionate for this job. Again, I insist that you should be using this opportunity to ask questions that are important to you and your future as an employee. For example, if training is important to you, you could ask if they have a training budget and whether you will have the chance to have on-the-job training. Can you choose your subject or it is dictated by the company? Another example is asking about their policy on working from home, if that’s important to you. Just ask genuine questions and use the opportunity to get clearer about whether this position and this team you could be joining match your preferences and priorities in life.

Furthermore, try to adopt the mindset that you are aiming to get the job but you are also going to evaluate and assess the company from your point of view. This will boost your self-confidence and release some of the pressure that you might feel.

If you are preparing for a job interview, my sisterly advice is to prepare a list of things that are important to you and that you consider as your requirements and preferences when it comes to the job and the work environment. Don’t think about any constraints when preparing the list and just write down what comes to mind. Once you have the list, go through the company website and the job description and see if your criteria match the information you have in hand. If there are things that are unclear from the information you have then take a note of these, which can form the questions that you will be asking during the interview.

It is always good to be clear about what you want in life, whether it’s a job, a house, a mate or anything else. Make sure you know what you want and know what you don’t want and then go for it.