Questions to ask during an interview?

Usually at the end of the interview you have time to ask the interviewer questions about the position. In my case, I have never had the need to ask anything because either it's clear during the interview or I don't have any question at all.

However yesterday during an interview, the interviewer "looked" (phone interview) pissed when I did not flood him with questions. I asked two: "how does the work environment looks like" and "is there always something to do? Or once everything is set you just need to monitor?" But he wanted more and more. He told me "go on, ask more", "are you sure you don't want to ask anything else?".

What questions do you ask during interview?

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Comments

PurpleIT

In addition to the two you listed, I typically ask:

What's a typical day like?

Why is this position available?

How long have you been with the company?

Are there opportunities to cross-train? (I would ask this more elegantly)

And when in doubt, say, "I was going to ask about X, Y, and Z, but you already answered those."

iBrokeIT

This topic has already been discussed less than a month ago, use the search feature...

http://www.techexams.net/forums/jobs-degrees/105012-how-answer-dreaded-do-you-have-any-questions-question-interviews.html

techfiend

An interviewer pushing for questions is a bad sign, I've experienced it and I quickly lost interest in the position.

First interview with HR:
Try to think of a question about the company they described, HR likes to talk about the company in my experience.
What is the environment like, laid back or under high pressure?
What is the typical attire, casual, business casual?
Is there an emphasis on continuing education?
While I can kind of judge by the interviewer's description of the position, if it's a call center, I'd ask how many tickets are expected to do a day and is there heavy reliance on metrics?

Technical Interview:
What's the role's typical day/week like?
Is it mainly working as an individual or in a team?
Any upcoming projects the role would play a part in?
Anything done regularly on a daily basis the role should know?

Face to face (challenge them):
What do you expect the person in this role to know in 30 days?
Where do you expect them to be in 6 months?
What type of person is successful at <company name>?
What have you (the interviewer) enjoyed most about working at <company name>?

At the end ask what is the next step in the process and how you can followup, send a thank you letter that day.

This is what I picked up from this forum and googling. I'm sure there's many others that are better and would be glad to hear them.

techfiend

PurpleIT I used something like your "I was going to ask you this but you already answered it" earlier today for what I thought wasn't going to be an interview but turned out to be and he was really good at explaining things and answered many of the HR questions I posted earlier. Recent experience on first contact, which this was, has been to set an interview. Now that I'm replying to these threads I'm thinking of some questions I should have asked and I do have to email him something tonight. Should I ask these questions in the email or save them for the interview on Tuesday?

markulous

Some good questions here.

I like to repeat some of the same questions back to him exactly as he asked me. This lets him know that you were paying attention and that you find his questions to be very relevant.

Priston

I've been on interviews where the interviewers would give me the rundown on what they do and how they operate and explain as much as they can about the job. By the time their done explaining everything they've usually answered all my questions, so I simple tell them "I believe you've answered all my questions." Sometimes there is only 1 questions left and I just ask one question.

bridgestone

You asked two questions, that's more than enough. He shouldn't have been annoyed. I take that as a bad sign. He could be a boss who is never satisfied with your performance.

PurpleIT

markulous wrote: »

Some good questions here.

I like to repeat some of the same questions back to him exactly as he asked me. This lets him know that you were paying attention and that you find his questions to be very relevant.

I've done that as well. One I like to do is turn the hated, "What is your biggest weakness" back on them. You have to be careful about the tone, but, "What challenges does this company face" or similar questions can get them to open up about some issues you may want to be aware of. Of course they will never say that they are 6 weeks away from bankruptcy, but I have had some interesting answers to this, especially when talking to some of the lower-level employees.

As for techfiend's question, I would be careful emailing too many questions when you have an interview coming up in a few days. If there is something you need to know BEFORE the interview, go for it. Otherwise, print them out and have them handy so you don't forget them while you are under the pressure of the interview.

techfiend

I emailed him a few questions with the application. No reply yet, I'll just keep them for the interview if he doesn't reply. It would be kind of awkward interview with him 4 days after he didn't reply but so it goes.