Career Cube Blog

Do you get stuck trying to come up with unique, interesting questions to ask in an interview? The interviewer will ask the “Do you have any questions for us/me?” question toward the end of the interview and will be asked in each and every interview you have. If you interview with multiple people, then you’ll be asked it multiple times.

Throughout the interview you’ve given intelligent, thoughtful, and even some responses so well phrased that you could have written a script for Stephen Spielberg on excellent interview answers. So why do so many people waste this golden opportunity to show how much thought they’ve put into the company by not having some interesting questions to ask the interviewer?

To get you started, and even give you some good questions you can ask, I’ve developed a method to examining the position at the job, department and then company/industry level to allow you to vary your questions based on the person you’re interviewing with and where you are in the process (first vs. third interview). Keep in mind that if you interview with multiple people at a company that they will ALL ask you if you have any questions for them, and you should ALWAYS have a question for them. No excuses. .

First, start at the job-level. I don’t recommend asking the manager questions about themselves such as their background, career moves through the company,etc. It’s always made me squirm a bit because I’m not always comfortable talking about myself with a person whom I barely know and may never see again. I’m just not that invested in the relationship to share that information, and frankly-it feels like a suckup move. What I do recommend you ask is how this position you’re interviewing for fits with the rest of the department? You can ask if this is a new position, or where the previous person went. You can ask what the biggest challenge is to doing this job well. What skills would you (the candidate), improve while in this position? What types of people would not do well in this job? You can use the hiring manager’s answers to further promote yourself for the position by pointing out your strengths, but I’d rather use their answers as conversation-starters for you to find out even more about the company and decide for yourself if you’re going to be a good fit. I have interviewed and hired many candidates whom I thought would be a good fit for the position, but if they had been honest with themselves in the interview and asked me some of these questions, they might have realized that they’re not such a great fit after all and not taken the job. And both of us would have been better for it.

Second, move to the department level. Ask questions about how this department fits with the rest of the company? What other departments rely on this one to accomplish the company’s objectives? Has the interviewer seen, or do they think it’s possible, to transfer between departments in the company? Are the skills transferable? How does this department rank in terms of workload relative to others in the company? Are there any social activities for the group during the year? Again, just be chatty and friendly. This is all good information for you to learn about the company culture, and assess if there’s any other opportunity for advancement.

Third, look at the entire company. From your research on the web, who are this company’s competitors? How does this company differentiate themselves from the competition? Are there any new products on the horizon that they can tell you about? (and understand that they may not legally be able to if it’s a top secret project.) What has been the company’s biggest success in the past 5 years? Are there any industry trade shows that the company presents at every year? What has been their biggest area of growth?

Those are good, basic, thought provoking questions that you should have in your back pocket for every interview. Remember, the interview isn’t just a chance for the company to get to know you, but it’s your opportunity to find out more about them and decide if they can offer you what you need to excel in your career. If you get a bad vibe or are unsure about taking a position-listen to that instinct and move onto another opportunity.

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