Questions to Ask in an Interview

In addition to being asked questions in your job interview, it’s likely you will be asked if you have any questions for the interviewer.

You want to take advantage of this opportunity by asking questions to:

learn more about the job opportunity to help you stand out
understand the work environment to see if it’s a good fit
determine the next steps in the hiring process to determine your follow-up game plan

Learn More about the Job Opportunity to Properly Position Yourself

The goal of asking questions about the job itself is to not only understand what the key responsibilities for the position are, but to use the information you learn about the position to properly position yourself in your interview thank you email and in the second round interview.

As an example, if you learn that key responsibilities for the position will be to support new product launches or to develop training materials for the field sales force, you would want to highlight your related experience in these areas in both your interview followup email and in your second round interview.

Understand the Work Environment to Determine Fit

If you know that working remotely is important to you or that you work best in a team environment, it’s important for you to ask questions to learn about the work environment to see if it would be a good for for you.

Questions about the work environment could include questions about the corporate culture, the hiring manager’s management style, and the company’s organizational structure.

Understand Next Steps in the Hiring Process

Finally, learning about timing and next steps in the hiring process can help you. Use what you learn about timing to guide you in terms of when to followup on the job opportunity.

If you learn the next step would be for you to make a presentation to a hiring panel, you can take some time while waiting to hear from the employer to think of a topic for this presentation and create a rough outline.