Hump Day Hint 12#: Searching for perpetual happiness, the interview questions every EA must ask the Exec.

Job Interviews; EA jobs
The internet has an abundance of articles on it of questions you may be presented with when it comes to job interviews. And where most of the questions online are applicable for the EA roles you're interviewing for, its important to keep in mind a few key things when doing your interview prep. It's the interviewer's role to determine whether we are the right fit for the position by asking all these questions of course, and more. The preparation you do to answer these questions is paramount for you getting the role, but its not just their questions that you need to prepare for. You also should also be armed with what questions you will ask them too.

If you reach the end of an interview and are asked finally, 'and do you have any questions for me/us?' and your answer is 'no', then you can kiss that job goodbye. I've interviewed many candidates in my time and the ones that don't have a single question prepared for the interview's end, will not get a look in to the next stage at all. If you have no questions to ask you are basically stating that you have no interest in the role, no interest in the company or the job you would be being employed to do. Now why would you want to employ anyone who has no interest in what they're doing or where they're working? Or moreover, no interest in who they're working for and how they operate?! Even if throughout the interview all the questions you had prepared have been answered be ready to just make a couple up on the spot!

So what should you ask? Remember that these are not just general questions, you are interviewing them! The relationship with your Executive should be a two way street, and where they are trying to establish if you will be a good fit with them, you too should be trying to establish if they will be a good fit with you! These are my top ten questions that I always ask when interviewing and am happy to lend them to you for you to use too!  

1. Can you describe how you work? And how you interact with your EA?
Have them explain how they manage their email and calendar and what is the EA's role in this? There is nothing worse than starting a job to find out you have a boss that likes to manage his own calendar, when that's something you've always done for them in previous roles. Also have them detail to you how they see the role, what they see the delegated tasks to be and anything else specific that you'd be required to do? This is also the time to touch on whether you will be expected to do any personal errands for them.

Job interviews; EA jobs

2. Who is in your leadership team and is there an expectation to support any of them?
This one is an important one to ask, if they haven't covered it already. Its rather cheeky of them to employ you in a 1 to 1 capacity supporting the Executive only to have you start and find out you have the calendars of eight of their direct reports too. Boundaries need to be established from the get go. Have them explain the way the team is structured, what the percentage of women in the team is (if that is important to you), who does what, and how many in the wider senior team etc.

3. What sort of hours do you keep?
They may fudge the truth a little here as not to scare you off, but try to read their body language none the less. You need to determine whether there will be any expectation for you to match their hours. Ask them what time they start their day each day, and what time it ends. Do they expect their EA to be there at each end of the day? Although we are their support, we also don't get paid as much as them, so for us to be there 12 hours a day can be somewhat unreasonable. These are the pieces of the puzzle that you can asses following the interview to establish whether it will the right fit for you, not just the right fit for them.

4. How would you describe your management style with your EA?
Again they may just be inclined to tell you what you want to hear and then in reality do the opposite. I once was interviewed and asked the Executive this question, he replied back saying he let their EA work very autonomously and put full trust in them with the tasks he delegated to them. When I started with that particular boss I soon found out he was a complete micromanager and wanted to oversee every single thing I did and wrote. Complete and utter fail! And a mistake I made that I'll never make again.

So how do we take the answers they give us as gospel when we are just being told what we want to hear? This is an issue that applies for both parties. The interviewee will also upsell themselves even if that means fudging the truth a little. But the key is to start asking questions that will be revealing of their character. Its time to get strategic, in the same way they are strategic in what they ask you. How many times do you answer questions that start with "tell me about a time when........", well now's the time to ask them back! Perhaps don't start your questions with that preface, but maybe ask some questions like this:

5. What are your priorities in your role and how do you see me helping you achieve them?
Whether you actually care about their priorities or you don't, this question is actually designed to find out how they see you in the bigger picture. Are you actually going to be heavily involved in their day to day priorities or are you just going to be the assistant that sits there and screens their calls and get their coffee? You are obviously looking for a partnership that has mutual respect, so if you can get them talking about how they see you two working with each other it will reveal a lot about how they see the EA in their eyes, how valid the EA is and how much respect they have for them. Needless to say you don't want to end up with someone who doesn't see you as their equal.

6. How do you see me sitting on your leadership team and will I participate in your team meetings?
If you didn't get any insight from the previous question then this one should reveal how they actually see you. It's obviously important that you are made to feel like part of the team and being part of their team meetings and any other team activities they do, should serve that purpose. If you aren't getting a straight up 'yes' on this question then alarm bells should be going off with you.

7. Tell me about the relationship of the best assistant you've ever had. What was she/he like? What was it that she/he did well? What made you work well together?
This is an awesome question as they should literally tell you want they're wanting here. If what they tell you doesn't sound like you or sound like something you can do, then its time to exit stage left! And likewise, if they can't tell you anything about their best assistant be very wary. They either have way too higher expectations or worse still just don't see the EA role as being one of importance.

8. How has this role come about? And how long was the last EA in the role for?
It's really important for you to do some digging here and find out what happened to the last EA. Did they leave on their own accord? Did they get sacked? How long were they there for? You won't always get the truth with this question, in fact you probably won't at all. But listen carefully to what they do tell you as you can usually put the pieces together and work it out. How they left should generally give you some insight in to what the Executive is also like to work with.

9. What would you describe to be the single biggest challenge for me in this role?
As I mentioned in my other blog The struggles of being an EA, you're not alone there are always going to be similar struggles wherever you go and whoever you look after, but this question should reveal to you what they think will be your biggest challenge. And if they try to dart around this, or they don't give you a definitive answer then push a little harder. Every company has its weaknesses and although the interviewer/Exec may not be quick to reveal what that weakness is and how it will impact you, they may provide some sort of insight that you can read in to.

10. Am I the only EA in this company/ or in this team? If not how many EA's are in this team and do they have a strong network?
Network is the key word in this question. Unless it is your intention to work in a small company as the only EA, its always better to go for a company that has a good strong EA network that can support you with your on-boarding and then beyond. Again, the interviewer will always tell you that the EA network is a strong community that will always be there to support you, but this is where you need to ask questions beyond that, like "do they meet regularly for EA meetings?" and "what sort of leadership does the EA to the CEO give?" and finally "is there any type of mentor programme for the EAs, official or not, that I could get involved in?". These direct questions should reveal what the EA community really looks like and how active it is. Interviewer's will often use the strong EA network as a selling point to you, so make sure you delve deeper with these questions to find out whether they're being truthful or not.

In this day and age it's difficult to be picky or selective when jobs are so few and far between. But if you already have a job and can afford to be selective then by all means do it. If you are committed to finding one of those perfect and happy Exec/EA relationships, then you need to be prepared to change companies until you find your perfect match. This is a concept that not all generations get, my parents generation in particular struggle to understand my position on this. They often say to me that I'm not paid to be happy, I'm paid to work. And perhaps that might apply to other jobs, but I'm adamant they don't understand what it means to be an EA. The EA/Executive relationship is nothing like the normal employee/manager relationship. You work so closely with your Exec you basically know what they ate for breakfast this morning and when their last bowel movement was! To say you are close is an understatement. So to sit in an unhappy relationship 8 hours a day, 5 days a week is not something any one wants to do, and its not dissimilar to those wanting to get out of an unhappy marriage or relationship. If you get on each other's nerves or don't work well with each other then its a recipe for disaster and ultimately will just not last. So I'm all for searching for perpetual happiness in your work life. If you want something that badly then go get it! 



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