The Best Questions to Ask a Hiring Manager During a Job Interview
So, you’ve made it through the interview so far: you’ve got the perfect joke for every question, you’ve honestly but tactfully admitted your weaknesses and made the interviewer laugh. You are ready to go into the sunset with this job, but then the interviewer gives you the floor to ask his questions. What do you have to ask to look smart and knowledgeable, interesting and memorable?
While the questions you ask during an interview may not land you a job offer on a silver platter, they can definitely move the needle and give your interviewer the confidence to add you to the team. This is a chance to show that you are thinking carefully about this opportunity and distinguishing yourself from other candidates, as well as to learn information that will really help you decide if you want to join this company.
I’ve heard all sorts of advice about the perfect question (“ask for success rates so they know you’re motivated”, “ask if there’s something about you that bothers them so they just tell you everything that they are liked you and tricked them into having positive associations with you”), but ultimately we don’t have to waste time with Jedi mind tricks.
During my recruiting years, I’ve come across several questions that I’ve been asked by candidates I love and often prompted me to write “asked great questions” in my notes. These are my favorites because they are specific, quite out of the ordinary, and send positive signals about being in one’s culture.
If this was your last week at [company], what would you miss and what wouldn’t you miss?
It’s a much more interesting way of asking, “What do you like most about working here?” to which I already have a ready, honest, but sensibly cleared answer, but if I ask the question in this way, my mind will move elsewhere. and encourages me to answer more honestly and naturally.
I first heard this question while working at a company I didn’t like – when the candidate asked this question, I accidentally honestly answered that I would miss people, but not the unrealistic pace of work and half-baked projects. Not my best moment, but extremely useful information for the candidate!
What steps is [the company] taking towards diversity, fairness and inclusion?
A specific question about how a company is moving towards improving DEI (or whatever) is ten times more useful than a general question about whether a company cares about DEI. (“Yes, of course [the company] cares about DEI! Next question.”) Most companies still have a long way to go to achieve true diversity, fairness, and inclusion, but I think this question is a good opportunity to find out if there really are real plans and steps being taken, or if the team is just full of platitudes about social justice.
How does [the company] collect and respond to feedback? Do you have an example?
A company’s willingness to accept feedback and act on it is a good key to understanding what the corporate culture will be like. We are looking for a culture where feedback is valued, collected and action is taken consistently because that means your voice and suggestions are more likely to be welcomed. As with the DEI question, we want to know how they collect feedback, not just whether they collect feedback. It could be through polls, town halls, suggestion box, one on one – there are a lot of potential good answers here, if it’s not some kind of general hand wave based answer.
Tell me about the CEO [of the company].
Even if you don’t interact with the CEO every day, it will still be the person who will make important decisions about the company and changes that will affect your day-to-day work and work safety. This question gives you a good idea of how involved the CEO is with what’s really going on in the company (does your interviewer have a history of interacting with him or is it all just vague general statements?) and can also give you an idea about how much actual employees love and trust them. If all someone can say is that he is a “genius”, run.
When was the last time you took a vacation?
I am interested in answering and you will get some factual data on whether people in this company can take paid holidays. Anyone can say “we encourage people to take vacations” but we really want to know if they’re really walking. It’s also a good option if you’re a little nervous because now you can talk to the interviewer about their lovely recent vacation.
You shouldn’t feel like you have to ask all of these questions, and the right combination of questions for you is likely to be a combination of similar questions and some tactical questions about the job itself or the next steps. Your ideal question will be different from my ideal question and will depend on where you are in the process, but it should give you a few options on the way to getting a job offer.