Woman reveals the one question every employee should ask during interview to leave a good impression

Interviews can be quite daunting, to say the least. It is that time when a prospective employee presents themselves to the company and tries to leave a solid "first impression." Though every experience is unique, it is always helpful to have some pointers in one's back pocket. Catherine Lockhart–who goes by @catherine.lockhart on Instagram–shared with prospective employees one question that would elevate their performance immediately. The question would not only give the employees an idea about what is expected of them but would also show the hiring manager their commitment to the role.

Lockhart begins the video by sharing the role she has worked on in her career. She said, "Directly out of college, I worked at Deloitte and then after that, I went and did strategy at Salesforce." Having cracked interviews in such top companies, it is evident she knows what she is talking about. She shares that interviewees should always end the process with a question. In both interview processes, she felt a warm reception every time she asked this question. Before giving out the question, she warns people against asking about "PTO leaves." It is a common mistake many people make and even though it is a vital query, it shouldn't be asked during an interview as it could cause a bad impression.

The coveted question is, "What does excellence look like in this role?" Lockhart explained how it allows the manager to describe "a little bit more about the day-to-day functions of the role you're interviewing for." For the interviewee, this is an opportunity to understand how much commitment they need to put into their specific roles. "It also gives you a baseline for what excellence looks like and what you're gonna need to do to excel in this role," she added. This question also shows the employer that the candidate is "really interested in the job and you plan on doing an incredible job when you get it." In the caption, she goes into further detail about the impression the question can make on the interviewer. It informs the employer that "you're serious about performing and exceeding their expectations."

The comments section backed the advice. @alekshansss added to the question and wrote, "I think 'What does success look like in this role and how is it measured in the first 90 days?' is a good one too. It gives you an idea of what they expect of the other employees." @mallorymariev also had some suggestions and commented, "I also would add, 'What are the measures of success for this role at the 30/60/90 day marks?' I also would ask what is the culture like on the existing team." @ericaginzobean wrote how a similar question helped her bag a job, "I used this as my last question in a third-round interview recently and I got the job! I said something similar, like about what someone in my role that's going above and beyond would be doing."

You can follow Catherine Lockhart (@catherine.lockhart) on TikTok and Instagram for more beauty and lifestyle content.