The final hurdle to impressing in your interview is knowing which questions to ask that will impress and engage your interviewer. The quality of your interview questions will solidify your position as a lead candidate. By contrast, you may worry about asking unintelligent questions, or worse you can’t think of any questions to ask at all. Either of these would give the impression that you are not enthusiastic about the role, or that you simply don’t understand it. It’s also a great opportunity for you to ask questions to help you understand what exactly you are getting into and if there are any red flags.
Preparing Interview Questions To Ask Is Essential
Preparation is the best way to be successful in having great interview questions to ask. Even the most confident of interviewers may feel fatigued by an interview. After answering numerous questions, you may feel so relieved that you would be happy just to end the call.
Therefore, you need to prepare your questions in advance and should write down at least 5 questions to ask. You should hopefully be able to tweak these or even think of new ones as your interview progresses. However, at the very least you need a fail sale to ensure you have some solid questions at the end.
My Top 10 Interview Questions To Ask
In my last few interviews, of which 2 out of 5 have resulted in job offers, I had a list of 10 questions which I have used. These are the types of questions that have helped me secure jobs in July and September of 2020. They have also secured me roles in business critical roles at leading UK companies. You should start these questions with openings such as “If I was to be successful”. Try not to be presumptuous with any of your questions but express your further interest in the role.
1. How Do You Help Your Team Grow Professionally
Asking what opportunities there are for development, show that you are serious about becoming an important asset at their company. It also shows that you are proactive about your development. So consider where you want to develop the most. Do you want to build technical skills or people skills? Perhaps rather than development you want promotions and responsibility.
You need to identify and show them that your professional goals align with what they can offer you. As interview questions to ask go, this is a great open-ended question that should get the interviewer excited to display what they can offer. It’s a great positive note to start on because you can get the interviewer to start selling you the role.
2. How would you expect my role to develop over the next 3, 6 and 12 months?
This is a powerful interview question to ask, because it not only demonstrates you are trying to see how you start to have an impact in the role. From an interviewer perspective, they are starting to visualise your integration into the company. If you can pull this off then you have one foot in the workplace door already.
This interview question shows that you are conscientious and are planning your introduction into the business. You want to know exactly what to expect so you can hit the ground running.Towards the 6 and 12 month stage, you are essentially asking what can you look forward to delivering. This highlights that you have the strategic ability to not just do your day to day job but deliver in the long-term.
3. What challenges do you foresee for the potential candidate?
This should be one of your top interview questions to ask. This is because it builds up a conversational narrative of what challenges you will be tackling together. It also gives you the opportunity to show that you have the skills and experience to tackle these issues. By quashing any doubts, this can put you beyond any doubt that you are the best candidate for the job.
It’s also a further opportunity to combine the information you have already researched with what they tell you to show you understand the industry and business well. This interview question is also great to ask because it can also elicit a response where they can’t hide red flags such as a pressured, stressful or environment with a lack of support.
Personally, if a hiring manager talks to me about a 3 to 6 month period or learning the role and getting to grips with things, then I know they will be supportive and realistic. By contrast, if they talk about a steep learning curve and key deliverables I know it could be a stressful experience.
4. What are the key challenges for the team over the next 12 months?
Compared to the above, this is a comparable but different interview question to ask. Whilst you are still talking about challenges, you are more focused on where the team is heading. Crucially you are asking how you will be working together, what type of team or department it is. You are also asking if there is a hectic transitionary period or if the team is a smooth operating machine. This is yet another opportunity for the hiring manager to visualise how you fit within the team and how it will effectively help them overcome the key challenges they need to move past.
5. Are there any interesting or fun projects to get involved in?
This interview question will get the hiring manager reselling the role to you. It gives you an opening to discuss things you might enjoy and can pick up once you join. It shows you are not just thinking about picking up a pay-check but engaging intellectually in what the work available.
The reason this is such a powerful interview question to ask is that it gives them a clear message: It highlights that you are Intrinsically motivated and want to be engaged in your work. This is a strong indicator you will actively seek business problems to resolve with a great attitude. It shows you are proactive and not just reactive in the workplace and this is a fantastic trait.
6. Who are the main stakeholders for the role/department?
This is definitely the question to ask if you want to get down to business. Who are the people you will be working with? Are they serious high-level directors or people in similar roles? Are they external to the business or other departments? Be a little cautious how you ask this question if they’ve given you this information in some way already. You don’t want to give the impression that you are not listening.
If they have, then you can still feel free to clarify and develop your understanding. Clarifying and expanding on information they have given you demonstrates attention to detail. All of which highlights that you are keen to understand and deliver in the best way possible.
7. How Do You Measure Success In This Position
This is not an interview question to ask light-heartedly. I use this sparingly to test an interviewer if I’m a little unsure about their relationship with the people they employ.
If they are happily reeling off KPIs, objectives and client satisfaction scores then you have to ask if the role is right for you. Do you like to be measured and do you like pressured roles? Do you want to be seen as a resource and a machine or as a person?
A personable and approachable manager would probably struggle to answer this question. If they place the needs and wellbeing of their employee-first they will probably resort to talking about your attitude and your positive role within the team or business.
8. What do you personally enjoy about your role and the work the team does?
This is quite an easy going but conversational interview question to ask. This is probably one to ask either at the start or the end of your questions to open or close with a positive note. With this interview question, you will be able to collect all the positive and engaging aspects of the role, in addition to some personal information about your hiring manager.
You will get to build that professional relationship around their attribute to work, what they enjoy doing and how you fit into all of that. You will also get to see how they interact with their team and how everything comes together. Do people specialise, or all muck in and where’s the gap in that for you.
9. What are the ideal traits and skills you would want the successful candidate to have?
This is a good interview question to ask in order to circle back and reaffirm how your skill strengths match the ideal traits and skills that the job requires. It also gives you the opportunity to close off on the fact that you most enjoy the key aspects of the roles and that you naturally have the natural qualities of someone who would be successful in the role.
10. What is the team and company culture like?
This is probably one of the best interview questions to ask to elicit red flags about a company’s culture. If they can’t answer it they certainly don’t have a good one but if they say something like:
“We have a family culture” – this usually highlights a toxic work culture. This is probably a demanding work-hard-play-hard culture. In my experience, it all becomes a little cut-throat. I survived all of 5 weeks in the job where I was told it was ‘like a family’.
However, if they talk around positive points such as a laid back, down to earth friendly culture this might be something that suits you more. Companies that outline healthy perks such as holidays and the personalities in their team generally have people-centric cultures.
Now you have great interview questions to ask, you should be interview ready. Hopefully, you will also have ready my posts on how to prepare your answers for interviews and how to build your confidence prior to the interview.
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