I was in the clinic the other day and there was this auntie who approached the nurse and threw questions after questions.

“This doctor can or not?”

“Why ask me to come here when that doctor not around?”

“How long have to wait?”

“So many patients one, so how long ah?”

…and all the while, the nurse was on the phone with another doctor.

We’ve seen this multiple times be it in a meeting, in an interview, during a presentation, in the operation room, etc. But bombarding the other person with questions after questions is useless if you don’t at least let that person time to think how to answer you. Or worse, not enough time for the person to even give you an answer.

And if there’s no answer, what’s the point of asking questions in the first place?

So if you really want to get some explanations or some proper answers, please respect the other person and give that person some time to reply you. Unless, the sole purpose of your questions is to make the other person feel stressed up – some interviewers do use this technique. Otherwise, you should always refrain from being so impatient.

Ask – respect – be patient – wait – get the response – and ask your next question.

Oh, and the auntie, she didn’t really get her answers back. She asked more than 5 questions but the nurse only heard 1 of them. But kudos to the auntie, she was actually bringing her elderly mother to see the doctor. For this, I respect her and I think a lot of young people should learn from her.

I always ask this question to myself and people close to me. I feel that this is one of the most important questions one should always ask.

• Why are you here in this company?
• Why are you here in this job?
• Why are you here in this shopping complex?
• Why are you here in this gym?
• Why are you here in this world?

All these questions only have 1 similar purpose – to make your presence in whatever place to be more worthwhile. Ask yourselves why are you here in this company? What is it that you want to do? And what is it that makes you join this company? Are you here because you want to contribute? Or are you here because there’s something this company has that attracted you?

Or if you’re asking why are you here in this world, then things like your purpose of being here, or what makes you feel your stay can be more meaningful, or perhaps what are the things that you think will allow you to answer the first question?

And this does not apply only on personal level. A team manager should always know the purpose of his/her subordinates of joining the company. Is it because of the job scope? Or perhaps the money? Or the benefits? Know the reasons well and try to make them happy by managing those reasons.

However, I realized that most people, including the managers, bosses, etc, do not care about this question at all. People will just be here for the sake of being here. They never think about the reason of being here. If you ask them, they wouldn’t be able to tell you.

Hmm, sounds a little bit like sleep walking, no? You go to a place without realizing why you are there!

Come on people, I’m sure you can do better. It’s fine to go to a place without any reason from time to time but it’s not really a good habit and you will not appreciate the time spent. Wanna go to a vacation? Then state your reasons of going there – spend more time with your parents, take a break, etc.

Ask more such questions and I believe once you found out about your reasons of being here, you will appreciate the moment more.

Hope it helps.

It is good to ask questions during job interviews because it shows that you are interested in the job and you are eager to join the company. But whenever you have the urge to ask questions, try to think about the questions first because asking something irrelevant and stupid will not only annoy the interviewers, but it will definitely make them remember you – remember you so that they won’t hire you.

Mmm, maybe this can be used in job interview instead?

A friend of mine recently interviewed a fresh graduate. The fresh grad was doing fine in the interview until the question & answer session where he took out an A4 paper full of questions. He started asking whether the office is safe, the surrounding area is safe, will there be terrorist attack since it’s near KLCC, the working culture, will people work late, is there compensation for OT, is it easy to get food, how’s the traffic, etc.

The questions were so annoying that my friend replied the candidate “Our office is very safe but if you step outside of our building, I cannot guarantee if you will get robbed”.

So the next time you attend a job interview, be careful of what you ask. Keep the questions at a tolerable level….and also make sure they’re relevant. Remember that the Q & A session is like a bonus round. If you do well, you’ll most probably give a good impression…..but if you don’t do well……..you’ll definitely get a very bad impression. So if you seriously don’t know what to ask….just keep quiet.

And if you really want to ask, here are some ‘strandard’ questions.

• How’s the working culture like?
• What kind of tools is the company using?
• How many employees?
• What is the organization’s plan for the next five years, and how does this department fit in?

For more examples, head over to – HERE.

Hope it helps