An Indian product manager in Canada has become an internet sensation owing to his experience of how just one question during the last phase of the interview process can make him lose an offer letter. Karan Gogna wrote about his experience in a LinkedIn post that started a discussion among the professional community on how to prepare for an interview and how important is it to ask a good question.In his experience, Gogna mentioned that he had been interviewing for a position at a startup in the used car business. As per him, he had cleared all the interview rounds and even the HR had told him to send his documents because the process was going to end soon. But then, before the company decided to extend their offer letter, they told him that the CEO would like to talk to him once again.
Gogna opens up about his experience
According to Gogna, the discussion went smoothly, and he felt optimistic about his odds of success. During the last moments of the meeting, the CEO asked Gogna if he had any questions. Wishing to ask an interesting question, Gogna asked, “Are you considering getting into the two-wheeler market?”The CEO didn’t answer but turned the question back to him, asking, “What do you think? Should we?” As he looked back at the encounter, Gogna realized that though he had extensively researched the firm’s four-wheeler division, he had failed to form an opinion regarding the two-wheeler segment.“I had done my homework on the four-wheeler area but I had nothing on two-wheelers. I floundered through an answer that did not have any point of view,” Gogna posted in his LinkedIn profile.As per Gogna, the next day, HR got in touch with him to let him know that the firm had selected another candidate for the position. As he thought about the incident, he feels that the last interaction might have made the difference.Sharing the lesson he learned, Gogna wrote, “We spend so much time preparing answers and almost no time preparing our questions. Your closing question is the last data point they get on how you think, so treat it with the same seriousness. Know why you are asking it, and be ready in case it comes right back at you.” He posted very rapidly and it caught fire on the internet because there were a lot of people who had similar experiences during interviews. Though some people felt that the problem was indeed the lack of questions from candidates, others were not quite sure about this.One user commented, “I can totally relate to this, I once asked a startup founder if you are still getting funding in this bad market, I was childish to ask this. I remember the expression. Now I can understand the pain it takes to build a company and disrespecting it knowingly / unknowingly is really not good.”Another wrote, “I think blaming the outcome on the question is a bit misleading. The real evaluation by that interviewer was maybe how you handled ambiguity when the question was turned back on you… handling a situation like that live and being prepared is a different skill than just asking good questions as mentioned.”This blog has led to a larger discussion on social media where many people have commented that interviews do not consist solely of answering questions but also require a person to be curious and analytical as well as handle pressure situations.
