As a candidate looking for a new position, your first interview will be with a recruiter, whether they are with a staffing agency or they are the recruiter on record for a company that you have applied to.
As a recruiter, their first responsibility is to find out about who you are before they can recommend that you move on to the interview stage of the position.
Below are questions that a recruiter should be asking you:
Can you tell me about yourself-this gives the recruiter an opportunity to assess your communication skills, career trajectory and to find out what drives you.
What are your current responsibilities- they ask this so that they can get a better understanding of what you are doing and how it may align with the current position that they are talking to you about.
What is your biggest accomplishment-this is asked so that the recruiter can see how effectively you are in your current position, this also allows the recruiter to provide a track record of you accomplishments.
Why are looking for another position-this allows the recruiter to understand your current situation and they can customize a search based on your feedback.
What is your ideal role-knowing exactly what you are looking for helps the recruiter understand what your ambitions are and whether they align with the available opportunities.
What is your timeline- this helps the recruiter know what your availability would be to start and also tells the recruiter if you are passive (just looking) or aggressive (definitely on the hunt for a new position).
Location- are you willing to relocate for the right position, are you only interested in remote positions, or hybrid or onsite. This allows the recruiter to eliminate any positions that are not in your location request.
What are your salary expectations- this can sometimes be uncomfortable for a candidate but to be forthcoming will eliminate having to play games and will allow the recruiter to know whether you fit in with the clients range.
Always prepare and rehearse your responses to these question, it will show your confidence and also how well prepared you are for this interview and future interviews.
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