The most overlooked key to job interview success: The questions you ask in the interview. They can be the deciding factor in whether or not you’re hired.
In this article, I’m going to share 100+ good questions to ask your interviewer.
And it’s all broken down by category so you can ask a mix of questions about the job, the team, the company’s culture, and more.
Let’s jump into the list of questions to ask in your job interview to get hired.
Questions to Ask Your Interviewer About the Role
These are the best questions to ask the interviewer about the specific job you’re interviewing for. This is the most crucial type of interview questions to ask employers, because they’re hiring primarily for their specific needs in this role.
So before thinking about asking about the overall company’s culture, company plans and goals, etc., ask your interviewer at least two to three questions about the position from the list below:
- Who would be my immediate manager or supervisor in this position?
- Can you give me an example of how I would collaborate with my manager or supervisor?
- Why is this position open right now?
- How long has this position been open?
- How many people have held this job in the last two years?
- How long does someone typically stay in this job?
- What avenues are available within the company directly after this position?
- What can you tell me about the position that isn’t in the job description?
- What would be my top priority coming into this role?
- Can you show me examples of projects the person in this role will be working on?
- What are the most important skills to have to do well in this job?
- When and how is feedback given to me as an employee?
- What type of training and professional development is offered for the job?
- Will I have a mentor in the company?
- Will I be leading or managing anyone? Can you tell me about their strengths and weaknesses?
- What is the last person who had this job doing right now?
- Where have successful employees in this position progressed to?
- What is the process for formal performance reviews- how often are they conducted and who contributes to them?
- Has anyone failed in this position, and why?
- How will you judge my success? What will need to happen in the first six months for me to know I have met your expectations?
- With whom will I be working most closely or most often in this job?
- How does upper management view the role and importance of this position?
- Looking at the other people who have been in this role, what are one or two things that set the very top performers apart from the good or average performers?
- What have you identified as the most important things to find in a candidate?
- What can you tell me about the 6-12 month outlook of this position and where you see it going?
- What tasks are really going to define success in this position?
- How would I know if I’m succeeding or not month to month?
- What’s the toughest part of the job?
- Will the work be similar most days, or will there be variety from day to day?
- What will the typical day look like?
- Do you expect the main responsibilities for this role to change in the next six months to one year?
- What improvements or changes do you hope that a new candidate will bring to this position?
- What do you think are the most rewarding or gratifying aspects of working in this position?
- What personality traits would help someone perform well in this role?
- Would you like me to do anything differently than the previous people who have held this job? If so, what?
- What about my background interested you for this position?
- What are a couple of things I could do to quickly become a top contributor in the organization?
- How much of an opportunity will I have for decision-making when I start this role?
- How much interaction with clients or customers will I have?
- What types of strategic decisions will I be able to make immediately without getting approval from my manager?
- Will I have the opportunity to work with any cutting-edge tools, technologies or methods?
Questions To Ask Interviewers About the Company
After asking questions about the role, you can move on to questions about the company as a whole. These questions are suitable to ask a hiring manager but also a recruiter or HR person.
Chose one or two of the company-related questions below to ask in your interview, and you’ll impress the employer.
- What can you share about this organization that isn’t widely known?
- Where do you see the company in three years and how would I contribute to that if I’m hired for this role?
- What is an issue the company is facing right now that I could contribute to solving?
- How would you describe the company culture?
- Does the company have any traditions that you enjoy or think are interesting to share?
- What’s the most unique thing about working in this company?
- What steps do you take to keep employees highly motivated?
- What are some reasons people like working here?
- How many people joined your company last year?
- How is your turnover and what are you doing to improve it?
- Why do you think people leave the company?
- Have you cut headcount or had any layoffs in the past two years?
- How has the company changed since you’ve joined?
- What would you say is the most important aspect of the company culture?
- Who are the company’s typical customers and why do they choose you?
- What are the company’s strengths and weaknesses compared to its competition?
- Who is your biggest competitor and what would you say is one key difference I should know?
- How does the company attract sales or develop client relationships?
- What excites you the most about the company’s future?
- What new changes or developments in the company have been announced recently?
- How do you encourage your employees to keep current with professional developments in the field?
- Can you describe the company’s overall management style and the type of person that usually does well here?
- How do you ensure the salary of long term employees stays competitive with the overall market?
- How are raises typically handled and what is the standard timeline for increases in salary?
- How does the company view creativity and individuality?
- If you could change one thing about the company, what would it be?
- Would you say that management is open to ideas and suggestions?
Questions to Ask About the Team
Next, ask one or two questions about the specific team or department you’ll be joining. These questions are best asked of the hiring manager, since they’ll be most familiar with this particular team.
Whereas, an HR person or recruiter should be able to give you some general company information, and can be asked the questions from the previous section.
Here are the best questions to ask the hiring manager about the group or department you’d be joining:
- Are there any ways in which this team’s culture differs from the company culture?
- How much power do individual teams have when it comes to selecting technologies and methods to use for certain projects?
- How are your teams structured?
- How often will my team get together and meet as a group?
- Is the work on this team more collaborative or independent?
- What types of team events do you do together?
- Does anyone on the team ever get together outside of the office?
- Do you ever do joint events with other teams or departments in the company?
- What tools does the team use to communicate each day?
- How many people are in this group/department?
- Do you expect to do more hiring in this group in the next six months?
- Which other teams work most closely with this one in the company?
- Are there any skills missing on the current team that you’re hoping to fill with a new hire?
- What is the average tenure of the current team?
- How does upper management view this group’s function and importance in the organization?
- In what area could your team use some improvement?
- What are the current goals the company is focused on and how does this team support those goals?
- Is my boss’ performance evaluated based on how well they develop the talent and skills of the team?
- Can I meet more of the team that I’d be working with?
- What are some of this group’s greatest success stories in the past couple of years?
- How do you ensure that each team member is doing quality work?
Opinion-Based Questions to Ask in an Interview
Opinion-based questions (like, “what is your favorite aspect of working here?”) make some of the best questions to ask in an interview and will help you get hired in a couple of different ways…
First, asking opinion-based questions will help you bond with the interviewer.
Everyone likes to share a bit about themselves or share their opinion, so asking for the interviewer’s perspective or personal experience will boost their mood and help you build a connection.
You’ll also find out what it’s like to work at the company so that you can make the right decision about whether the job is the right fit.
Finally, since many of the questions below are opinion-based questions, you can ask multiple people the same question. This means you’ll never run out of questions even if you meet with far more people than expected.
For example, you can ask one of these questions to a recruiter, then an HR person, then the hiring manager, all in the same day of interviewing.
- How long have you been with the company and what made you decide to come here?
- What’s your favorite part about working here?
- Has your role changed since you’ve been here?
- What do you wish you had known before you joined the company?
- What have you found to be the biggest challenge in working here?
- What has allowed you to be successful here?
- How did you develop your career in this organization? Do you feel someone entering the company today would have similar opportunities?
- What excites you most about coming to work each day?
Questions to Ask About the Interview Process
Next, you can ask the hiring manager questions about the interview process and what to expect from the company as you continue to interview.
These are the best questions to ask the interviewer about the interviewing and hiring process for this job.
- When do you expect to make an offer?
- When are you hoping the person you hire will start in this role?
- How many people will be interviewing for this job?
- Who will make the final hiring decision?
- What are the next steps in the interview process?
- Who should I stay in touch with as things move forward?
- How should I follow up?
- When will I hear back from you?
How Many Questions Should You Ask in an Interview?
You should ask four to six questions in your job interview. Ask a mix of questions about the position, the team and company, and the interview process and next steps.
As you move through your job interviews, think about each person you’re speaking to and try to ask questions that they’re best-suited to answer, too.
Don’t worry if you’re not sure about this, but as an example, you’d want to ask a CEO higher-level questions about the company’s direction, strategy, growth.
You’d want to ask a recruiter about the basic duties of the job, the company’s story, etc. And for the hiring manager who would be your future boss, you’d want to ask about career path, training, what type of person they feel is the best fit for this role, etc.
That’s just a rough example, so don’t stress too much over which questions to ask which person in your interview. Almost any interviewer can answer basic questions about role, team, career path, and hiring process, and if not, the interviewer can go ask and find out for you.
Deciding on Specific Questions to Ask from the List Above
Now, the list of questions to ask the interviewer above is massive, so here are a couple of ideas to help you choose which of these questions to ask in an interview.
First, ask questions about topics that genuinely interest you. You’re going to be more authentic and impressive in the interview if you’re asking questions that you care about.
And you’ll find out lots of valuable info about each opportunity to help you make your decision.
Asking interview questions about topics that don’t matter to you isn’t going to help you much.
Next, pick questions that you feel comfortable with and that fit your personality. Which of these questions will fit into the conversation that you’re likely to have with an interviewer? That’s the type of question to ask them in the job interview.
You never want to sound too rehearsed or planned out, so it’s best to pick questions that sound like “you”.
Also, not all of the above questions will make sense for your situation, your industry, etc. So look for questions that really fit best for the employers you’re talking to and for the type of job you’re going after (entry-level, management, etc.)
Choose Your Go-To Questions and Stick With Them
There are a LOT of questions above, so you may need to just scroll back up and skim through it until a few stand out to you. You only need four to six good questions if you’re interviewing with one person, and you can reuse these questions with different employers.
So invest time in picking your go-to questions, writing them down, and practicing them. That way, you won’t have to think about the best questions to ask each new employer you interview with.
You’ll be familiar and comfortable with the questions you’re going to ask the interviewer and you’ll save time preparing for each interview you go on.
Questions Not to Ask the Interviewer
Make sure you don’t ask a question that could be found in the job description, on the company website or via a quick Google search.
For example, if you’re going to ask, “Does your company have a mission statement and core values?”, make sure it’s not on their homepage first.
Also if you want to get hired, avoid asking the interviewer questions about salary, benefits, vacation, dress code, etc. Why? The company is focused on finding the person who is the best fit and will be able to come in and solve their problems. How is it going to look if you seem more focused on vacation time and benefits?
Two Bonus Tips for Asking Better Questions in the Interview
Before we wrap up this guide to which questions you should ask in the interview, I want to leave you with two important tips…
1. Make sure you always ask, “When can I expect to hear feedback?”
Not knowing when you’ll hear back from the employer leads to anxiety about following up. So always ask, and make note of the timeframe that the employer gives you so that you’ll know when to follow up via email to get feedback.
2. Make sure you look through the section above called “Opinion-Based Questions to Ask in an Interview.”
Here, you’ll find opinion-based questions which are GREAT because you can ask the same questions to multiple people.
(Normally, repeating a question to multiple people is a big mistake to avoid, but it’s completely fine when asking the interviewer something like, “what have you enjoyed most about working here?”)
Here’s why this is great…
If you interview with three or four people in a day, that final person is still going to expect you to ask good questions. And they will NOT be happy if you say, “Sorry, the first three people answered all my questions.”
So opinion-based questions are the best solution to making sure you never run out of questions to ask in an interview.
There are other opinion-based interview questions to ask mixed into the list above too, for example:
- What do you think are the most rewarding or gratifying aspects of working in this position?
- What excites you the most about the company’s future?
- If you could change one thing about the company, what would it be?
More Tools to Help You Ace Your Interviews
If you want more tips to stand out in your next interview (and avoid mistakes), here are a couple of things to make sure you’re doing.
First, be sure to send thank-you emails one day after the interview. This is a great way to set yourself apart and show the employer you made the extra effort.
Also, I’d recommend reviewing this in-depth article on tips for how to pass a job interview. It contains some of the best info I learned while working 5+ years as a recruiter.
And finally, here’s a list of the key things every hiring manager is looking for. Make sure you review that so you target the things they care most about in your interview.
Asking good questions is one piece of the interview puzzle, but you also need to perform well in the interview and follow-up professionally after it’s over. So the resources above will help you with those areas.
