Peer Evaluation Form Include All Members Of The Team, Including Yourself Date Class: Fill & Download for Free

(Young India Fellows, Class of 2016–2017)Due to the holistic nature of the Young India Fellowship admissions process there is no ‘one size fits all’ cover to a successful application. The fellows range across the entire ambit of professions from business majors and engineers to journalists and astrophysicists, it is a proverbial melting pot of unique and diverse individuals.I’ll elaborate on the current system of the YIF admissions process while drawing anecdotes from my personal experience as to what makes a compelling application.Background Information :X/XII/UG : 90/90/80UG Institute : University of DelhiRound Applied : First Admissions Cycle (August-November)Testing the waters :Initially I started out by consuming all first order information that was available about the program. This includes reading the YIF Website extensively, answers on Quora, watching multiple YouTube videos - in order to understand what the program is, who it is for, what the learning outcomes are, how the evaluation is administered, what is the cost of the program, and what have past fellows gone on to pursue.In the next part I began going beyond the information readily available online - attending the webinars conducted by the admissions team, talking to current and past fellows. But most importantly asking the right questions. Like any other nascent program almost all the information available online would be in it’s praise, you would very rarely come across any information criticizing the fellowship. But it’s important to get as much information as possible and to ask the hard hitting questions, like ‘Who is the fellowship not for?’ ‘Is it possible to study such a wide variety of subjects in depth within the short span of 11 months?’ etc.During my year of application, Ashoka University was slowly rising to be one of the top universities in the country. But having gone to another premier institute and walking away with my expectations having not been met, I decided to take it a step further. I got in touch with a senior of mine from under-graduation and audited a YIF class (Issues in Social Democracy - Narendra Jadhav) to see whether the program and the pedagogy was right for me; it totally was.Essays :During my application process, there were four mandatory essays of 200-300 words each that were required to be submitted. The prompts were:1) What matters the most to you and why?2) What do you hope to accomplish from the Young India Fellowship?3) Tell us your personal journey highlighting challenges and milestones achieved.4) What has been your biggest achievement so far and why do you consider it to be so?The way I went about tackling them was by first introspecting. For the next few days I just let my mind wander. After three days, I took a notebook and began noting down the overall thematic layout of what I wanted to convey via the essays - my story. Because that is in essence what these essays are, stories; of yourself and by yourself.Then I began the long arduous process of editing and re-editing. This is an extremely iterative process and would vary depending on multiple factors. All in all the entire process took me about four to six weeks. This is because I would go long intervals without looking at the essays in order to come back to them at a later date with a fresh pair of eyes. I also sought the help of numerous peers, professors and mentors to gain some perspective and understand a few of the different outlooks one would have while reading them.Letter of Recommendation:Having just completed college, I had the fortunate opportunity of interacting with multiple professors with whom I had developed close bonds with during my under-graduation. I would advise you to initially create a list of all the people (both academically and professionally) you could reach out to, and then create a hierarchy based on the strength of the relationship and begin by approaching them one by one.I reached out to my tax professor with whom I had an extremely good professional relationship with and who’s class I ended up topping. I then collated all the information I had gathered about the program in a document and sent it to them, in conjunction with my essays.Note : I have gotten multiple requests from students asking what the university requires and expects from a recommendation. I would advise you not to violate the integrity of the recommendation process as the YIF team is extremely capable and can sniff out when a recommendation is too good or just plainly fabricated.My one piece of advice with regards to this section would be to fill everything. In my application, the only information that was mandatory were your personal details and the four essays. Apart from them, there were a couple of non-compulsory prompts asking :1) Your most preferred subject and why?2) What did you enjoy most in your undergraduate academic experience?3) The last five books that you had read.4) Three extracurricular achievements.If you are a serious applicant I would recommend that you put as much time into the above non-compulsory prompts as you would to your essays. Know that unlike most other higher educational processes the YIF admissions committee is not looking to reject you. They are on your side and are looking to you to help them admit you. Each application is reviewed by one individual from the committee and if they are of the opinion that it should not proceed to the next round, it is reviewed again by another individual. An applicant is rejected from this stage only after review by two separate members of the admissions committee.Telephonic Interview :Depending on when you submitted your application, your acceptance/denial to the next round would be communicated anywhere from 1–3 weeks.The telephonic interview is an eliminative filter round. The main purpose of this round is for a member of the admissions committee to verify and cross question you on the details you have provided in your essays.Personally speaking this round is extremely easy to get through provided :You are completely honest in your essays and with regards to the all the information you have submitted.You are confident in your reasons and motivations behind applying for the fellowship, what are your expectations from the program and what you hope to take away from it.A few of the questions I was asked were :1) I had mentioned in my extra-curricular’s that I had played tennis competitively - was asked a few questions about that and the current state of international men’s tennis singles.2) The interviewer had also read one of the Greek Philosophy books that I had mentioned, he asked me what my takeaways were from said book.Comprehension Test :Upon passing the telephonic interview round, you would be invited, usually between 1–5 weeks of completing your telephonic interview to a centre/Ashoka campus (depending on where you are located), to write a comprehension test and interview with a panel comprising of members of the admissions committee, YIF faculty and past fellows.At the YIF you would have to read, comprehend, analyse and synthesize copious amounts of information from a diverse set of themes - from art and polity to mathematics and ecology. The comprehension test is administered in order to ensure that you would be able to cope under such an academically intensive environment.In the test you are given 30 minutes to view and critically analyse an excerpt which is more often than not taken verbatim from one of the assigned readings in the program. For my comprehension test I was given a passage detailing the contrast between the western and eastern schools of medicine. This is not an eliminative section, all candidates who appear for the test are also interviewed by the admissions panel.As there is no definitive pattern to the nature of the text that you will be given, the best method to practice would be to look through the systems of preparation for similar such analytical comprehension tests like the SAT, GMAT and GRE essay sections.Personal Interview :Finally, the interview. This by far would be the most nerve-wracking part of the entire admissions process for most applicants. Each interview is completely unique, and is tailored to what you have mentioned in your essays. A few points which are universally applicable and would help in your preparation would be to :Know everything what you have submitted inside and out - from your personal details, to the books you have read, to what you even wrote in your test.Prepare for the common template of questions - Why the fellowship, Why liberal arts, How would the fellowship help in achieving your goals, etc.Practice a mock interview. Ask a friend/peer/co-worker to interview you. Based on the information you have provided and your profile, one can preempt the kind of questions the interviewer would ask. An example would be : If you are currently in your final year of under-graduation, and you do not have a job offer in hand, the interviewer might ask ‘Suppose you were denied admission to the fellowship, what would you do?’The interview process (for the most part) does not emphasize on what you have done or studied. Little to no importance is given to your general knowledge or aptitude. Major significance is given to your application, your way of thinking and your personality.Prepare for profile-dependent questions. I know of instances where the panel had asked the interviewee to practice their art form on the spot - ranging from Bharatanatyam rasas to beatboxing to even sketching.Lastly, I would recommend everyone and anyone who are considering applying, to view the admissions process in a similar vein to those of the Ivy Leagues. Do not put all your eggs in one (YIF) basket alone. I say this because, year on year the admissions process is extremely competitive.The 2016–2017 batch had 4500 applications for 215 seats.The 2020–2021 batch conservatively has 10,000+ applicants for 200 seats.(Reduced from the scheduled 325 due to COVID-19 considerations.)That is a <5% acceptance rate.In that light I will leave you with this piece of parting advice - Hope for the best but prepare for the worst.

First, take a hard look at the syllabus and the course requirements and make sure you are in the appropriate class. It may be that you’re in the wrong class and don’t have the necessary experience, knowledge, background or recommended prerequisites. If you’re not sure whether you have the scholarly background for the class then that’s a question you can ask the prof to help you figure out.Then go to your professor at the very beginning of her office hours. Show her courtesy and gratitude; recognize that she is busy. Make sure all your statements are not “you” statements but are “I” statements, as in “I had trouble understanding the concept of X” and not “You went too fast when you were explaining . . .” Along the same lines, talk only about the course material and not her own lecturing style. You want to articulate the position that it’s the material that’s difficult and not the prof.Consider the possibility you might be experiencing “cognitive dissonance” if you’re a first-year college student or this is your first class in this area. It could be that the way the course is structured is unfamiliar, or what the prof is emphasizing or drawing your attention to is very different from high school or in other majors. In history, for example, it may be you think it’s a course that requires memorization of important dates and events, while now your prof is looking at the social construction of what wealth is in a community or how have gender roles been defined regionally in the same historical period. She could be challenging you to think about material histories or what you think of the study of 19th-century Native American cultures when the library itself is built upon their ancestors? That would be a whole new way of understanding the significance of the past. All disciplines and majors have different ways of organizing or talking about their subjects. If this is your first course in this field of study start looking for what are considered good questions, what constitutes good evidence, and what are considered commonplaces in this discipline. (The latter would be those ideas or knowledge that are assumed by the field are shared. Perhaps it might be something like: “Empiricism (firsthand experience and collection of data that one sees/hears, etc.) and empirical research (first hand observation) is the only way to make an accurate, truthful claim.” Or “the notion of objectivity and universal truths is completely and demonstrably flawed.” In many humanities classes you may even be asked to challenge the dominant meta-narratives or cultural biases that inflect commonplace cultural narratives are commonplace. It is entirely possible that the topic and the way your prof approaches it is based on a whole new organizing principle that is completely unfamiliar. In sum it may be that you really just need to practice new ways of listening in class, and a new way of thinking about what you read. Again, those big questions to ask of any new field of study at an any level (BA/BS to PhD) are what counts as evidence in this sphere of knowledge, what are considered good questions, and what does the prof and those who wrote the materials you are studying assume is commonplace?_____________Unfortunately, there are few professors who are going to spend “a lot of office hours” on one student unless you mean spreading them across the whole semester. Unless you are in a class with very few students (5–15?) your prof is going to be too busy with other students to have regular, substantive meetings with a single student. It’s the rare professor who would take even an hour a week with a single student during her office hours or in scheduled appointments outside of them. Different kinds of colleges and institutions place a greater or lesser emphasis on good undergraduate teaching, and the amount of time an individual instructor will spend with you one-on-one outside of class changes accordingly.But the question isn’t one of time only. It’s also the question of fairness. Is it fair for a prof to help a single student in the class to a different degree than others? I don’t mean it’s not fair or appropriate for a student to meet with a professor during her or his office hours with specific, legitimate questions tied to the course material. But I’d personally not use “but the student took the initiative to come talk to me” as a reason to give so much extra help that that student is gaining a distinct advantage on graded assignments. If you want a formula, and this is just for me and only off the cuff, I would say if a student visited me in my office more than seven or eight hours total over the course of a 16-week semester, I would at that point stop giving one individual extra help. I’d explain that it seemed unfair and why.Typically the professor will need to set the frequency of such meetings through indirect or direct signals or words. She has other students and a lot of other responsibilities, some of which will be invisible to you (for example, all the meetings she goes to and the prep she does for classes, grading student papers, participating in the shared governance of the college or university). For every one-hour class period she teaches, she will have spent 2–4 hours preparing—more, if she hasn’t taught the course before.But it’s not all bleak. After you have decided you’ve got the right training and academic knowledge for the class, then you’ll have to buckle down and do supplemental work to understand the materials. Talking with your prof during her office hours is just one of several strategies.• You can form a study group of 3–6 people (more doesn’t usually work) from your class and meet once every week to share notes and talk through the lectures; together figure out what’s important about the week’s lectures. If you don’t know two or three or four other students from the class, you could ask you prof to help by announcing the opportunity to the whole class.• Or ask your prof whether she thinks working with a tutor would be helpful for a student like yourself; get her to recommend one, preferably free.• There is likely a Learning Center or something like it on your campus that might be able to help you learn ways of taking notes and digesting course materials. They can teach you some great skills.• There is no doubt that there will be other readings you can do in addition to assigned essays, papers, research articles, projects, and research you are already required to do. And professors love it when you demonstrate the desire to learn more about *their topic. Typically your professors are well-trained with deep knowledge of a topic that they never get to talk about comprehensively. So asking them for recommendations of apt readings to help you understand the themes and topics of the course better is a request that makes us glad to share our deeper knowledge in new ways.Good luck!_______________NB: After reading subsequent responses to this question, I’d like to formally agree with other professors’ assertion about the need for us professors to keep office hours whether or not a student shows up, whether or not we feel we have more important work to be doing. The role of office hours is to ensure students have a time to stop by for help or a course-related conversation at a time when they will always find an open door even if they didn’t make an appointment.Students with reasonable excuses for never being free during your current office hours can certainly ask that you meet them outside them by appointment. It’s rare that a professor is going to offer that extra, substitute office hour every week. It’s up to the discretion of the professor what constitutes a defensible reason for not being able to come to the usual ones (a student has classes that directly conflict with all your office hours is a good excuse; “but that’s a day I don’t have to be on campus and the only day I get to sleep in,” is probably not a good excuse, e.g.). I had a student who wanted regular out-of-office-hour weekly consultations for me to help him write every single Tuesday assignment because he was captain of the paintball team and didn’t have time to do his homework. He needed to talk with me about his paper-in-progress have me help him write it because he didn’t have time to do it on his own. Ummmmm—no. If you need help for an hour each week and can’t make the prof’s office hours, you are better off trying another of the strategies listed above.For professors, how many office hours and their attitude towards them depends in part on where they are employed and the value that is placed on teaching well in evaluations and promotions. Faculty at small, private liberal arts colleges and many community colleges see their primary role as being an excellent teacher––which includes holding a generous number of office hours. Having gone to and taught at universities like these (Middlebury; University of Puget Sound) I know that the roughly $55,000 price tag encourages undergraduate students to expect lots of one-on-one help. As a faculty member at institutions like those I was expected to hold, at a minimum, six hours of office hours per week, with more encouraged. As a faculty member at one of these “teaching universities or colleges” I was expected to have a minimum but no maximum number of hours available for students to drop by with questions. I might spend 12 hours in the classroom, a minimum of six hours of office hours, and another 6 hours working with students outside of office hours and the classroom each week––24 hours a week spent just teaching students with all my other duties taking place in any remaining time. Some colleagues would hold 12 office hours a week, and one professor I knew had an open-door policy from 9–12 every single morning. Because of the emphasis on teaching, and the small classes and commitment to being available outside of class, research requirements were lower and professors were expected to publish less.Not so much at Carnegie Research 1 universities where I teach now. (Some land grant state universities, universities with professional schools attached such as a med school or law school, or STEM-focused universities well-funded by grant dollars often are awarded this status.) For a professor to stay on the usual schedule of being tenured and promoted they have to publish a certain amount. They are evaluated on how many research/grant dollars they bring to the university and their engagement with the larger professional community through conferences, lively dialogue around peers’ recent research published as peer-reviewed articles in the discipline’s premier journal, as just a couple of examples.While Carnegie I universities likewise pay lip service to the importance of good undergraduate education and may even recommend best practices, the truth of the matter is the number of courses a tenured professor teaches is often just one or two a semester and only at the graduate or upper-level undergraduate level. (The rest of the time is presumed to be spent on research and the national and international communities of peers engaged in the same; shared governance of the university; developing new programs; designing community outreach opportunities; and perhaps chairing a department or serving as a dean.) And this leads to a smaller number of office hours and often less availability to undergraduate students.In both work situations it was extremely hard for me to take off even just one day each week, and at a minimum I put in 60-hour work weeks during the nine months I was paid for annually, with reading of current literature, designing major research projects, or simply thinking about the field and my work in it, was pushed to the summers when technically we are not under contract.My curmudgeonly view is that no matter what kind of university is paying professors their salaries, and no matter how a prof’s individual position is funded (big grants=less time in the classroom) or how big of a deal she or he is, part of a professor’s job both inside and outside the classroom, whether one-on-one with doctoral students in a lab or in a 250-student required first-year course that meets in an auditorium, is to help provide excellent undergraduate education. I believe that at least while professors are on campus they need to be working, talking, thinking, and producing research in ways that are ethical, scholarly, and at least sometimes explained to students.My manifesto would include these two sentences: All professors need to intellectually challenge our students, give them a set of skills that will help them to succeed in the world, and help them become good citizens of our own country and the larger global ecologies and economies that continually emerge. Further, professors need to respect students and understand them as whole people trying to find their way in the world. End of screed.I don’t always rise to the standard such lofty goals presume. I wish I did. But I believe in these aims and try to be widely available to students through holding ample office hours, or as is more typical for graduate students, meeting with them over a cup of coffee in the coffeeshop right across the street and talking about their ideas for conference papers, theses, or simply how to live a scholarly life and stay stable and sane. (I’m working on it!) I used to have a colleague who left for a publishing job. He would always make me laugh even as I knew he was right: “We’re doin’ it for the kids,” he’d say when we were faced with a mountain of files through which to evaluate a colleague’s teaching effectiveness; or when we were swamped with applicants for a tenure-track position; or when it was 10pm and we were still in a conference room reading the outside review letters for a tenure and promotion case. “We’re doing it for the kids,” he’d say, and I’d laugh, and we’d order a pizza and keep going.Hold your office hours, folks.

Imagine for a moment that you’re a world-renowned artist who’s just been commissioned to paint a mural in the lobby of a new museum in town.You arrive on location to begin your work, and you’re literally staring at a blank canvas. The possibilities are endless.What do you do?It might be tempting to take a brush out of your bag and just start painting, but you’re better than that. As a world-class professional, you understand that painting at this level requires a level of strategic depth that few others can execute.That’s where your tools come in. Your bag is full of different instruments, each designed to serve a specific purpose. There are wide, fat brushes for painting thick strokes. There are small, narrow brushes for painting thin strokes. There are aerosols, rollers, sponges, and other quirky gadgets.In the hands of an amateur, all these tools would be nothing more than curiosities, able to yield but a few random splotches on the wall.In your hands, however, these instruments become weapons of artistic manipulation, tools for creating breathtaking masterpieces that stir human emotion.When it comes to a job interview, the questions you ask your interviewer are the tools at your disposal for creating your own masterpiece that will set you apart from any other candidate competing for the role.The difference between a great interviewer and a masterful one is the strategy and intent behind the questions they ask and the answers they deliver.Great interviewers ask great questions.Masterful interviewers ask great questions and know exactly why they’re asking them.Looking at which questions are best to ask a potential employer in a job interview is a good start, but to truly master the interview process, you have to go a level deeper and understand the purpose those questions are designed to serve.I’ve identified five key purposes behind the questions you can ask in an interview that can be tied to any of six types of questions, which you can see in the following table:Let’s first take a look at these six types of questions before we dive into why you might ask them.The 6 Types of Questions to Ask in an Interview1. Role QuestionsRole questions are designed to help you better understand the responsibilities and requirements of the role you’re interviewing for in order to determine whether or not you’d be successful should you land the role. These include questions like:What are the most important skills that someone in this job needs to be successful?What are some of the greatest challenges that I’d face in this role?What would you expect me to accomplish in the first 30, 60, and 90 days in this role?It doesn’t do anybody any good if you land a job you’re ill-suited for. You’ll end up either quitting or getting managed out, leaving you back at square one. The potential employer has an obligation to vet you for the role, sure, but the ultimate responsibility for ensuring proper fit for the role rests with you.Doing proper due diligence by asking enough role-related questions will give your potential employer confidence that you truly understand what you’re getting into should you be hired, and they’ll be much more comfortable extending you an offer. Don’t skimp on these questions!2. Team QuestionsTeam questions are designed to give you a better idea of how you’d get along with the people on your immediate team should you land the job, which is important because you’ll be working alongside them every day. Here are some examples of good team questions:Can you tell me a little bit about the people I’d be working with?What kinds of conflict do you see arise between team members? How does that conflict get resolved?What makes your team unique from other teams at the company?Don’t underestimate the power that your coworkers can have on your long-term career success and happiness--ask the right questions and make sure they’re the type of people you can see surrounding yourself with on a day-to-day basis.3. Culture QuestionsCulture questions help you better understand how you’d fit in with the overall company culture (not just the people on your immediate team) should you land the job. Assessing culture fit in candidates is a top priority for most companies, and it should be for candidates as well. Some examples of solid culture questions include:If you could change one thing about this company, what would it be?How would you describe this company’s culture and values?What’s different about working here than anywhere else you’ve worked?It’s becoming increasingly important for candidates to demonstrate their fit with the company’s culture during the interview process. Gone are the days when you can just meet the minimum skill and experience requirements and expect to land the job; now, you’re expected to mesh well with the broader ethos and values of the company as well.A company is like a living organism, and its culture is like its immune system. The immune system will naturally attack anything that disrupts the natural flow of how the company operates and eventually push it out of the organism. Employees who aren’t a good culture fit end up either quitting or being pushed out, so it’s especially important to thoroughly vet this dimension during the interview process.4. Personal QuestionsPersonal questions help you get to know your interviewer better and build a personal bond which can strengthen your standing as a candidate. This is important because people hire people they like! Here are a few good ones I like to ask when I interview:Why is your current role at this company the best fit for your career goals right now?What are some of the guiding principles that you’ve used to navigate your career over the years?Why did you decide to leave your previous role for this one?Keep in mind that companies don’t hire people, people hire people. Establishing a personal connection with your interviewer is crucial for building the level of trust required for them to bring you on board. Even seemingly innocent questions like “So, where are from?”, and “Any interesting plans for the weekend?” can go a long way towards making a true connection with your interviewer.Some candidates feel like they have to be strictly professional in order to come off as serious in an interview, but doing so risks alienating the interviewer. Be yourself (keeping a professional manner, of course), be friendly, and don’t be afraid to show some humanity!5. Company/Industry QuestionsThese are questions about the company and the industry as a whole that help you understand how the company is positioned in the marketplace, what kinds of challenges it faces, its future prospects, etc. Some examples below:What would you say most distinguishes this company from its closest competitors?What are some of the greatest opportunities for this Company over the next three years? What steps is the company taking to pursue them?How would you describe the CEO’s leadership style?What a company says about itself and how it actually operates are two entirely different things. Your goal with asking these questions is to get a glimpse behind the curtain and learn things about the company that you may not have come across when preparing for the interview.You want to better understand the company’s future prospects, what kinds of challenges it’s facing, how it views itself in the marketplace, etc. This will help you make a more informed decision about whether or not you want a build your own future there.6. Interview Process QuestionsInterview process questions help you better understand the steps involved in the interview process and give you a better idea of what to expect as you progress through each stage. These are pretty straightforward and should naturally happen as a matter of course as you progress through the interview. Here are a few examples:What are the next steps in the interview process?How long does the interview process typically last?When can I expect to hear from you?Usually, whoever is guiding you through the interview process will provide this information upfront without you having to ask for it, but if you’re unclear about any part of the process don’t be afraid to ask for clarity--that’s what they’re there for.Okay, so we covered the different types of questions you can ask in an interview. Some of these you were probably already familiar with, some maybe less so, but all are important to know heading into an interview.Now, let’s dive into where the real mastery of interview technique comes in--the intent behind these questions. Once you get a firm grasp of these, you’ll be able to guide the interview in any direction you want it to go.The Five Purposes Interview Questions Are Designed to ServeThere are five key purposes that every interview question can potentially serve. Some questions serve only one purpose; others can serve multiple purposes simultaneously.The five key purposes are:BondingClarifyingCredibilityQualifyingAmbitionLet’s examine what each of these purposes entail.1. Bonding QuestionsBonding questions are designed to--you guessed it--form a bond between you and your interviewer. This is important because people tend to want to help other people who they like, especially if they see a bit of themselves in that person. From the time you sit down in the chair for the interview, your interviewer will be forming impressions about you that will linger long after the interview is over. Your job is to make sure those impressions are positive, and bonding questions are an effective tool for accomplishing that.These questions can range from the casual types of questions that you’d ask any stranger, such as “where are you from?” all the way to more formal interview-friendly questions like “What has kept you at this company?”. All personal questions are also bonding questions because they’re designed to build a relationship with your interviewer. Here are a few more examples with their corresponding question types:What led you to work in this industry? (Personal)What makes you proud to work here? (Culture)How does your current role align with your core purpose/philosophy? (Personal)Bonding questions send the subtext that “We’re not so different, you and I. See how well we get along? I definitely belong here.” Asking these types of questions gets your interviewer to open up and reveal information about himself that you wouldn’t know otherwise, which makes them highly effective for building comfort and trust.And building trust is absolutely crucial for succeeding in any interview.2. Clarifying QuestionsClarifying questions are designed to help you uncover information about the role you’re interviewing for in order to decide whether or not the role is right for you.These questions allow you to complete the picture of what the role entails so that, ideally, you don’t run into any nasty surprises should you decide to take the job. Sometimes those situations are unavoidable, but the more clarifying questions you ask, the closer you can get to the truth and the better foundation you’ll have to make the right decision.In addition to building your understanding of the role itself, clarifying questions can help you better understand aspects of the team, culture, company, and industry that are important to your decision. For example, if you’re only interested in joining companies whose future prospects are bright, you might ask “What gets you most excited about the company’s future?” Or, if you preferred joining a company with a leading position in the marketplace, you might ask “What would you say most distinguishes this company from its closest competitors?”When you ask clarifying questions, they should come from a place of genuine curiosity about aspects of the role that you’re most interested in. Don’t just ask questions for the sake of asking them--make sure they help you learn something about the role that will help you make a better decision.Here are a few examples of effective clarifying questions:Are you open to candidates learning necessary skills on the job, or do you expect them to have all the necessary skills before assuming the role?What’s important to know about this role that isn’t mentioned in the job description?What are the most important skills that someone in this job needs to be successful?How has this role evolved and how do you envision it evolving in the future? (this one is great for conveying long-term thinking)3. Credibility QuestionsAs their name implies, credibility questions are designed to establish your credibility as an astute, knowledgeable candidate by showing two main things:That you’ve done your homework, andThat you know what you’re talking aboutCredibility questions give you the opportunity to actually demonstrate your level of familiarity with the world your interviewer lives in and position you as someone who’s already comfortable speaking their language. They also do a good job of showing how prepared you are, which helps further convey your level of passion and commitment to the role.Here’s what a good credibility question might sound like:“I read in your last quarterly financial report that your costs have been increasing relative to revenues for the past year. Is this a concern for the company, and if so what’s your strategy to reverse the trend of declining profitability?”Questions like these bring you up to the interviewer’s level and help put you in the mindset of somebody who already works at the company. If you find yourself talking shop in an interview--discussing industry trends, recent events, etc.--that’s a good sign the interview is on the right track.Great credibility questions can be difficult to think up on the fly, so you should jot down a few as you’re preparing for the interview. You can even have these in front of you during the interview in a notebook so you don’t have to remember them.4. Qualifying QuestionsQualifying questions take advantage of a simple truth about human behavior: People want what they can’t have. Just as in dating, playing hard to get (tactfully, of course) can make you even more desirable to your interviewer.Interviewing is a two-way street: You’re evaluating the role just as much as your interviewer is evaluating you. You want your interviewer to have to sell you a bit on the role, to feel that your commitment to the role is not a foregone conclusion. When your interviewer has to work to sell you on the role, he’ll be more invested in you as a candidate.Qualifying questions give you the ability to position yourself as a careful, selective candidate while still expressing enough interest in the role to keep your interviewer engaged. These questions convey the subtext that you’re not going to settle for just any old opportunity, so if you don’t like what you hear then the company will lose their shot at landing an exceptional candidate such as yourself. Here’s an example of a qualifying question:What percentage of the team is currently meeting their goals?This question carries the subtext of “I’m not going to accept a job where I’ll be set up for failure from Day 1, so I need to know how my potential peers are performing so I can determine my own likelihood of success. I know you’re trying to sell me and will try and spin any answer as a positive, so I’ll be reading between the lines to determine what the real truth is.”Many different types of questions could be considered qualifying questions if you view them from the right angle. The credibility question above, for instance, also serves as a qualifying question because it invites the interviewer to explain why declining profitability shouldn’t be a concern for you as a candidate. Here are some other examples of qualifying questions:What do you think is the greatest threat to the company’s future?If you could change one thing about this company, what would it be?What’s the turnover rate for your team?How accessible are top leaders at this company?Any question that forces the interviewer to sell you on the role and company, rather than the other way around, is considered a qualifying question. These are some of your best tools for striking the right balance of power in an interview and bringing your interviewer to the same side of the table.5. Ambition QuestionsOne thing you need to remember throughout the interview process is that potential employers aren’t just looking for someone who can fulfill the minimum requirements of the job.Instead, they want someone who’s truly invested in their own success and who will work hard to achieve their goals. They’re looking to see the fire that burns inside you that will bring out your best effort without them having to prod and coerce it out of you.Because your potential employer won’t be able to see this fire burning in action until you actually have the job, you need another way to demonstrate your ambition while you’re still interviewing for it--that’s where ambition questions come in.Ambition questions go beyond simply asking about the basic fundamentals of the role and help you better understand how you’ll thrive and be successful. Here are some straightforward examples of ambition questions:What are the most important skills that someone in this job needs to be successful?What kinds of opportunities are there for advancement?How does the company recognize and award outstanding performance?What does it take to be a top performer at this company?The subtext with each of these questions communicates a strong desire to succeed, and not just to perform well, but to perform at the head of the pack. This is exactly what employers want to see: someone with drive, hunger, and an eagerness to push the boundaries of their own capabilities.These questions also convey the sense that if you don’t feel confident that you’ll be successful in the role, you’re not going to end up accepting the opportunity. In this way, ambition questions also play the role of qualifying questions because they make your interviewer convince you that there are ample opportunities for you to succeed. That makes these questions particularly effective for building your desirability as a candidate.Putting These Questions Into PracticeUnderstanding the different types of questions you can ask in an interview along with their intent is one thing, but putting them into practice is another thing entirely. You can easily become overwhelmed trying to remember the little nuances behind each question which can cause you to lose your focus and confidence in the actual interview--not something you want to have happen!The best piece of advice I can give on this is one I give early and often: treat the interview like a conversation.If the question doesn’t make sense in the context of the conversation you’re having with your interviewer, then you probably want to think of another question. Remember, your interviewer won’t remember what you said, but he will remember how you made him feel. Keep the conversation flowing naturally and try to avoid steering it in a direction that will puzzle your interviewer and make him wonder where you’re going with your talk track.Here’s an example of how this might look in practice. Say your interviewer asked you the following question:“Tell me about a time when you faced a challenging situation at work. How did you handle it, and what was the result?”After you answer the question, you’ll have an opportunity to ask a question of your own to smoothly place the ball back in your interviewer’s court. The wrong thing to do would be to ask a question that’s completely unrelated to the answer you just gave. This would be a poor choice of question to ask following the previous question:“Why did you decide to leave your previous role for this one?”A great question asked at the wrong time makes it a bad question. Unless your answer somehow incorporated the circumstances behind you leaving your last role or some other aspect of changing jobs, this question will appear to your interviewer to come out of left field, which won’t help his perception of your self-awareness or conversational abilities. You can do better.Your interviewer asked a question about a challenge you’ve faced at work, so that’s a great foundation upon which to pose your follow-up question. If you’re looking for more information about the role, you might ask a role-related, clarifying question such as:“What are some of the greatest challenges that I’d face in this role?”Or, if you feel like the connection between you and your interviewer could be stronger, you might ask a personal, bonding question related to challenges like:“What did you find most challenging when you first started working here?”Both make perfect sense in the context of the conversation and effectively shift the focus of the conversation back onto the interviewer, who will answer the question and follow with another question of his own.By taking this approach, you maintain a natural cadence to the conversation which makes the interaction feel less like an “interview” and more like two people getting to know each other--which is how it should be.Even though the questions you ask will flow naturally along with the conversation, that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t put any thought into your questions ahead of time so that you’re adequately prepared. As you’re preparing for an interview, jot down some questions that you’re genuinely interested in learning the answers to and that will help you build your understanding of the role, culture, company, and other aspects of the opportunity that you deem important.Keep it simple--don’t overwhelm yourself trying to squeeze in every question under the sun to make it seem like you’re prepared and engaged. A single, carefully considered question asked at the right time can deliver as much if not more impact than a series of questions asked in rapid succession. Remember, you’re the artist here--it’s up to you to use the right tools to create your masterpiece.For a more comprehensive list of my favorite questions to ask in an interview, check out my blog post: 101 Killer Questions to Ask in Your Next Job Interview.Happy interviewing!Dan Clay is the founder of the Conscious Career blog, where he teaches the strategies and techniques he’s learned over a lifelong career in sales to help people masterfully sell themselves through each stage of the job search process. He is also the bestselling author of How to Write the Perfect Resume, available exclusively on Amazon. To receive Dan’s weekly insights for getting more from your career, sign up for the Conscious Career newsletter.