5 Questions You MUST Ask During a Job Interview!

Jeff -

tl;dr

There are 3 very good reasons to ask your interviewer thoughtful questions:

  1. It’s a very simple way to show your enthusiasm for the job
  2. You get to showcase your critical thinking skills
  3. These questions are a great way for you to screen your future employer

In this post not only will I share 5 brilliant questions to ask your interviewer, but I will also share some practical tips to help you avoid coming off as robotic and overly-rehearsed.

Watch it in action

Ask Interviewer-specific Questions

You can start off by asking a question about the interviewer themselves.

This acts as a transition to get the interviewer talking after having them mainly listen to you for the last 30 minutes.

Instead of asking something generic like “how do you like working here?” try this:

By just adding their job title and the number of years worked, you’ve changed the question enough to go from something you’ve clearly memorized for this occasion, to a tailored question for your interviewer.

And guess what? Finding this information on LinkedIn takes less than 5 minutes!

Unconvinced something so "small" can actually make a difference? Check out what Mark Cuban said doing your research beforehand!

The biggest mistake you can make is to ask questions you can find the answer to online.

And as you’ll soon see, the theme of this post is to ask questions only the interviewer, the person sitting across from you, can answer.

Tell Me About a Recent Hire

The second question to ask the interviewer is:

If you think back to a recent hire that impressed you, what characteristics did they have? What did they do?

This is an amazing question to ask because it prompts the interviewer to think about a specific person and provide concrete examples, making it much more meaningful than something like “what advice do you have for someone like me?”

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Pro tip: Note down what the interviewer says and see if you have relevant experiences you can bring up in the next interview

Which Teams Will I be Working With?

Third question you want to ask in all your interviews. Who will I be working with most closely? Which teams will I be working with?

There are actually two reasons this is a must-ask:

  1. A selfish reason, by knowing which teams you’ll end up working with, you might be able to see if the role aligns with your long term career goals
  2. This question allows for natural follow ups, making it more of a two-way conversation than a robotic question answer question answer

Here's an example of a natural follow up:

You mentioned the marketing team gives heavy input on the content we share with clients. How is the dynamic between these two teams?

How Will My Success Be Measured?

Nothing gets the hiring manager more excited than new hires demonstrating they are data-driven and results-oriented!

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Pro tip: You always want to follow this question with “how do these metrics tie into those of the teams I would work closely with?”

This shows the interviewer you are already thinking about the implication of those success metrics and gives you more insider information on how the teams work together.

Do You Have any Hesitations About Hiring Me?

The fifth question to ask is also the scariest to ask as an interviewee and that is: “Do you have any reservations or hesitations about hiring me?”

We are scared of asking this question because we’re not sure what to expect, but if you think about it, there are only 3 possible answers the interviewer can give you:

Possibility #1 - The "Politician" answer

You get the “politician” answer, which is something like “nope it was great chatting with you, nothing jumps out so far. We’ll reach out with next steps.” Great! No harm done and you showed confidence in asking this question

Possibility #2 - They got you

The interviewer actually replies with something you can’t really defend against. You’re missing a hard skill or lacking in years of experience

Do not panic. Acknowledge this is an area you are still working on, then highlight transferable skills that apply to your situation. More often than not, the way you handle their objection matters a lot more than the substance of that objection.

Possibility #3 - You were misunderstood

You may be told something the interviewer straight up misunderstood.

Perfect!

This is your chance to demonstrate humility and turn a B+ interview into an A 🤩

Sorry about that, I didn’t communicate this very clearly just now, but interestingly I do have experience with retail export clients. During my time with Shein, I was actually responsible for…

Before your next interview…

Remember to check out my Common Interview Questions and Answers playlist!