Now that we’ve addressed a few stumping questions within an interview, it’s time to discuss asking questions at the end of the interview and specifically what you should ask.
At the end of every interview, the interviewer will almost always leave time for you to ask any questions you may have. You are doing yourself a disservice if you don't ask anything. Along the same lines, there are some questions you should avoid altogether.
Picture this: the interview is going great so far. You’ve answered everything thoroughly and feel that you’re really jiving with the panel. It’s time to wrap up, so they ask you if you have any questions. You take a second, realize they’ve covered everything, and say no. Boom, interview over. In its place, an instant buzzkill.
In this scenario, interviewers are always going to resort to one thought: wow, this candidate doesn’t seem very interested at all. If you just put in all of that work to make the interview great, the last thing you want to do is soil it with one last impression.
One easy way to counteract this? Be intentional and put in all of the hard work ahead of time.
If you’re anything like me, you’ll have a list of great questions in your head to ask only to get nervous and forget them halfway through. After a time or two of doing this, I implemented the notepad.
In every interview I attended, I brought some sort of pad-folio, notepad, or binder full of paper (and extra copies of my resume). If you suffer from forgetfulness, this comes in handy. If nothing else, this makes you look crazy organized.
The night before the interview, I would run through possible interview questions, come up with a few examples to showcase, and research the company. I would first write down things I was curious about: day to day responsibilities, what the makeup of the team looked like, some key projects that were occurring, etc. After that, I turned to the internet to help me out.
Here are some things that search yielded:
What does a typical day look like in this role?
How do you measure success in this role?
What are the biggest challenges that someone might face in this position?
What does the training program look like?
What do you enjoy about working for this company?
Can you tell me about the team I’d be working with?
What does company and team culture look like?
Is there anything else I can answer or provide for you that would be helpful?
Lastly, what will next steps look like?
Quite honestly, there are entire 50 page lists of questions online. Do some digging and find exactly what you want to know!
This doesn’t mean you’re not allowed to ask questions throughout the interview, though! It shows genuine interest in the position and that you want to know more.
There are always a few questions that should be avoided. These include:
Anything related to salary or benefits. While I understand this question, (job descriptions should always list pay no matter what) an interview is usually not the time or place. At times the salary decision makers won’t even be in the interview at all. It’s understandable to want to know this, after all the main reason to do a job is for money, but it should be reserved for receiving the offer and the negotiations that follow.
How soon do employees get promoted? There is a tactful way to ask about career progression, but this isn’t it. Ultimately, a company is hiring you for the role you’re interviewing for. While they want you to stick around and move up, they also want to count on you being happy in the role you applied for first and foremost.
Anything quickly answered in a Google search, such as what the company does. It’s always important to ask clarifying questions but this is something you should go into the interview knowing.
At the end of the day, preparing a list of questions will boost your rep as a candidate and show your interest in the role. Follow some of these tips and you’ll wrap up the interview in the best way possible.
This article is my own and does not necessarily represent the views or opinions of TEKsystems.
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