Some people are good at asking questions and getting people to talk about themselves. They know how to get to the core of an issue and retrieve the right information Does that describe you? If it does, you might want to consider a career in asking questions. Business interviewers work to help people get the information they need to work with others.

Suppose a business owner wanted to sell dog food to a chain of grocery stores. The seller would have to know a lot about the buyers before they could really be sure of what kinds of products or services to offer. Maybe the grocery stores are in areas with many more cats than dogs. The seller is unlikely to make much money in that case.

How can business owners find out what they need to know before they spend a lot of time on something that is unlikely to work? They can hire an interviewer who can go to the other businesses to find out what they need. The interviewer then does research on possible customers for the product or service and asks questions about what kind of help people want.

If you’ve ever answered a survey, you know that the questions depend on what kind of information the people want to know. The same thing happens with business interviews. Good interviewers will choose their questions to reflect the kind of information that the company needs.

Business interviewing requires many of the same skills as employers need for interviewing possible employees. Interviewers have to choose their questions carefully to get the right kind of information. They also have to be good at understanding what is not being said. In job interviews, people often leave out a lot of information, possibly because they are embarrassed about it or maybe they just think that it is not important. It is not mandatory to answer certain questions in a job interview, however. For example, it is illegal for an interviewer to ask how old you are when interviewing for a job position.

Part of the job is to take the information that comes out of interviews and to assess it, deciding what to pursue if another interview is necessary. This step might require repeat visits to the company’s office to talk to people and to learn more about it. Business interviewers often work at whatever time suits the other person, and they might spend little time in their own offices.

Becoming a business interviewer requires a thorough knowledge of the type of work that the company does. The interviewer has to know how well the products or services match with what other companies need. Being able to talk easily with other people is also necessary, and technical knowledge might also be required in some cases, especially for companies that deal with computers or other technology. Some full-time business interviewers earn about $12 per hour or more, but it depends on the company.

Do you like to talk with people and to ask them questions? If so, you might be well suited for a job as a business interviewer.

Bibliography:

Business Interviews.com. “Our M.O.” http://www.businessinterviews.com/about/.

Call Centre Job.ca. “Business Interviewer.” http://www.callcentrejob.ca/en/job-offer/qc/montreal/greenwich-associates-19272/business-interviewer/690610.

Entrepreneur.com. “How to Conduct an Interview Effectively.” http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/225960.

Statistics Canada. “Job Description (Interviewer).” http://www.statcan.gc.ca/eng/employment/otheropp/interview/description.