Many people enter an interview expecting to be grilled by tough questions: “How would you handle X,” “What makes you different from all other candidates?”, “How many windows do you estimate are in Manhattan?” And to their credit, many candidates can handle these questions with ease.

But what we so often forget is that an interview is a conversation – not an interrogation. And a conversation means that both parties ask and answer questions, not just one.

How do you want to be remembered after the interview? As the candidate who simply provided dry answers to the questions and left? Or the candidate who created a meaningful dialogue that made the interviewer want to work with you from 9-5 for years to come?

For the benefit of both the interviewer and the candidate, the candidate needs to take part in driving the conversation.

And what is the trick to taking control? Ask baited questions.

In an interview, you need to be constantly selling yourself. Not like a used car salesman, but like a modern salesman who asks questions to uncover pain points. Baited questions allow you to not only uncover the pain points, but also allow you the opportunity to follow up with the solution to their problem.

Here are ways to interview the interviewer and drive a conversation in the direction that will most benefit you:

#1 Ask Questions About the Competitive Landscape

Research the company, the industry, and their competitors. Uncover problems that you know you can address and then ask the interviewer about them. Listen to their response so you can get the full view of their problem and follow up with a response that shows how you have solved similar problems before.

For example, a marketing professional may ask: “I noticed your competitor (company name) is driving robust social media campaigns to attract more Millennial customers. Has your company made plans to increase social media activity to stay competitive?” Depending on the response, you can have your answer in place and show how you have been successful in the past, and would drive value in the future.

#2 Ask Questions About The Role

Unless it is blatantly obvious, ask questions about why the opportunity has been made available. Depending on the reason, you have another opportunity to build off the conversation and sell yourself.

Generally you can assume it was created for one of a few reasons:

1. Someone Was Fired. In this case, you want to politely ask for the details why the last person was fired, then explain how you would be able to succeed where the previous person could not.
2. Need to Scale. You may be entering a high-growth organization that simply needs more manpower. In this case, you want to show how you can move right in on day one and hit the ground running.
3. Skills Gap. The job description will usually make a skills gap pretty clear. If the company needs a Software Engineer who knows JavaScript like the back of their hand, you bet the description will have it. But you may be able to uncover other skills gaps by asking the right questions and share how you have those skills, and how you have used them.

#3 Ask Questions That Show You Fit

Last but not least, ask plenty of questions about the company, the team, the culture, and the role. You want to ask how work gets done in the company, how the teams interact, and how you are expected to perform to work with the team. Draw parallels to your most recent work experience to show the interviewer that not only are you comfortable in such a work environment, but that you thrive in one.

By asking bait questions, YOU drive the conversation in the direction that will help you sell yourself (without sounding like a used car salesman).