CEO Insight: Here’s that one question you should not ask during job interview

Higgins suggests that job seekers should “never ever ask an employer what their remote work policy is during the job interview.”

A 2022 survey conducted by GoodHire showed 78 percent of managers prefer some in-person work at the office while 51 percent said they would “definitely consider” salary cuts for employees that refuse to come back to office.

This is in line with leaders and CEOs, like Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk’s thinking that remote work has gone too far, and performance is suffering as a result.

The ideology is evident in the decision making of the companies as Meta has paused offering remote work options for new hires following their mass layoffs.

Explaining this, the investor and author suggests that securing employment in the soon-to-be cutthroat job market will require some finessing and compromising when it comes to remote work and he says, “It doesn’t matter how exceptional you are.”

According to Higgins, some managers will perceive initial interview questions about remote work as telegraphing the wrong priorities and for him personally, it would be an immediate red flag.

He explains it with a scenario where a job seeker closes the interview with a question about remote work and gets a chilly reception. The next day, the same hiring manager comes across another candidate who says they could be in the office without a problem.

In this case, even though the first candidate may be more qualified, there is a strong chance that the other job seeker will be perceived as more committed even to managers of companies that have very robust remote work policies, according to Higgins.

Higgins suggests that job seekers should wait for a call back to ask remote work-related questions in case it is an absolute deal breaker for them.

He suggests that they should put in the work and defer the question until they are called back for a second round. He believes that managers will be more flexible towards a candidate whom they have already cleared for the given role.

Thus, making a great first impression is important especially when the stakes are high and a job seeker’s excellent job interviewing skills may help them create some leverage to fit within a company exception.