In our weekly series on 8 questions that candidates must ask, TimesJobs.

com gets industry leaders to tell you what questions you must ask at your next job interview! Manish Singh, Head HR, Haier India

What would be my priorities and expected accomplishment for the first 6 months? A right candidate will be interested to know how they can make a difference- right away and not spend this time just getting to know the organisation The answer to this question will also tell the candidate if the HR and the hiring manager has thought through the priorities and deliverables of the vacant designation. What does it take to be successful in this industry/ organisation? The candidates who have set their eyes on success would want to know about the attributes that will help them in achieving this success. This will not just tell the candidate whether or not he/she fits in the role but also in the industry. For instance, maybe your top performers are available for customer calls throughout the day or maybe creativity is the best economic resource in the organisation or maybe its the ability to build long term relationships. How does this company plan to deal with the economic challenges? Every industry has its set of challenges. A candidate who is here to stay would like to know what perspective does his hiring manager has and how his potential workplace organisation plans to deal with them. It lets the candidate know about the organisations vision and its strategy to succeed despite challenges. What are the training and development opportunities for my designation? One of the main reasons why employees leave is lack of enhancement of their skills over a period of time. Employees understand that training and development help them reach the next level in their career irrespective of whether they stick to a workplace or not. Hence it becomes important to assure potential candidates of such opportunities. What is the career progression potential at this organisation? Right candidates would also like to know what their career graph would look like in an organisation. They make seek a specific role based, responsibility based or incentive based progression pattern over a period of time and they will not hesitate to enquire about the same.

How do your employees wind down? This is basically a culture question. Candidates seek to know how much attention is paid to employees work- life balance in their future workplace. This will tell them if they will fit in or not and also what leadership style to expect out of their immediate seniors. What are some of the most common HR related concerns that you have heard from your employees? This will answer for them certain hiccups that they can expect if they choose to join your organisation. These concerns can be in terms of infrastructure, employee incentive policies or workplace culture.