6 Questions to Ask in a Job Interview
Job interviews usually close with the same five words: “Do you have any questions?” It may sound
benign, but for a job applicant, it can feel like the moment of truth.
By this point, the employer has read your cover letter and resume, corresponded with you by e-mail and
phone to learn more about you and has probably just finished lecturing you on the company and the
position. It’s been a long process of showing your worth, and when they ask this final question, it may feel
like it’s the last real opportunity to prove yourself to a potential employer before they decide if you are, in
fact, the one.
But according to several career experts we spoke with, job candidates should never feel pressured to
make up questions.
“The biggest problem when asking questions during a job interview is that if the question isn’t something
you genuinely need to know, it can be way worse than not asking anything at all,” said Penelope Trunk, a
popular business blogger and CEO of the Brazen Careerist, a career management site. “Once you make
it to the job interview, you’ve already passed the skills test, so it’s all about personality. And nobody
becomes likeable by asking disingenuous questions.”
Trunk urges job applicants to change the way they think about the interview process. Rather than waiting
until prompted to ask questions in the final moments of the interview, it’s crucial to take the initiative to get
your questions out during the course of the conversation.
“Don’t wait until the end if you have questions you want answered. It screams, ‘I’m not a self-starter,'” she
said. “As soon as it’s time for you to talk in the interview, start asking questions and engage with the
person interviewing you.”
As Trunk and other experts point out, when the interviewer asks if you have any questions, it’s generally a
formality, but a formality that may hurt you if you don’t take advantage of it.
“You absolutely must ask at least two questions. Staying silent shows you haven’t done enough
homework to know what to ask,” said Alexandra Levit, a career expert and author of “New Job, New You:
A Guide to Reinventing Yourself in a Bright New Career.”
Keep in mind that just because you are encouraged to ask questions doesn’t necessarily mean you
should ask a thousand of them.
“Your job is not to ask questions or to interview the interviewers, so I wouldn’t ask too many questions,”
said John Challenger, CEO of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, an outplacement consulting firm.
We’ve rounded up the six best questions to ask in your next job interview, as suggested by our panel of
experts, which can help you get a better idea of whether the position is right for you and perhaps even
impress the interviewer in the process.
What do you really enjoy about working here?
When you step into an interview, it’s important to remember that the person conducting the interview isn’t
just there to intimidate you; he or she is also your window into the company. And with this question, you
can tactfully get a better sense of how the interviewer — and perhaps employees in general — feel about
the company you may one day call home.
“The answer to this question as well as the tone of the answer will provide critical insights as to how
happy and supported employees feel at the organization,” Levit said.
If you want to take this question one step further, Tory Johnson, founder of WomenForHire.com, suggests
rewording it to ask what one thing the interviewer would change about the company if he or she could.
“This is a way of asking, ‘What’s wrong with this place?’ without being so direct,” she said.
What are your goals for the company in the next year?
Much of the interview itself will likely be devoted to the specifics of your position and your qualifications
for it, so it’s a good idea to break out of that pattern when possible to get a sense of the big picture.
According to Levit, this particular question can give you a better sense of “how your position fits into the
company as a whole, and more broadly, about whether the company is a good place to work.”
What skills do I need to have most to help the team?
Trunk emphasizes that the best questions one can ask are the ones that show you care about teamwork,
bottom line results and know how to manage yourself in a group. With this particular question, you
accomplish all of those points and can get better a sense of what will be expected of you once you start
working.
If I were hired, what would you like to see me achieve in my first three to six months on the job?
As with the previous question, this one will help you get a better sense of how you’ll be judged in your
new career.
“It’s important to understand expectations from the get-go,” Levit said. “This is especially true if you are
being hired for a management position.”
Why is this position vacant? (I’m personal not big on this question.. it may build negative chemistry)
It may sound like an off-putting question at first blush, but according to Johnson, it’s essential.
“It’s important to know whether the position is vacant because someone was promoted from within, or the
job is newly created because of growth or if it’s a vacant because of high turnover,” she said. “Don’t wait
until getting hired to discover you’re the sixth person in three months to occupy the seat.”
Indeed, this question could lead to others and prove to be the most profitable exchange you have in the
interview.
“Many times a position is vacant because the previous person wasn’t right for the job. You’ll want to
explore why through follow-up questions like, ‘If you could have changed something about that person,
what would it have been?’ This line of questioning will absolutely make you more memorable to the
interviewer,” she said.
Do you have any reservations in hiring me?
If all your questions have been answered, Trunk recommends ending the interview with this powerful line.
“Just have some self-confidence and say, ‘No, I don’t have any questions, but I’ve learned a lot here and I
know this is a great job for me. Do you have any reservations in hiring me?'” she said. “It forces the hiring
manager to tell you what reservations they do have, and gives you an opportunity to combat them.”
What Not to Ask
For all the questions you should ask during an interview, there are many more that you should generally
avoid asking.
“Don’t ask them questions about what you want out of the job — money, advancement opportunities — it
just comes off as selfish,” said Challenger, the consulting firm CEO. Likewise, Trunk recommends holding
off on asking about vacation days and salaries.
“These are kiss-of-death questions,” she says. “Save them for after you actually get the job offer.”