20 questions to ask at the end of an interview

In this article, I suggested that one way to be thoroughly prepared for an interview is to write a list of questions that you can ask the interviewer. 

When I was interviewing candidates, I was always unimpressed when, towards the end of the interview, I would ask “What questions do you have for us?” for candidates to respond with either “no” or “I did think of some but can’t remember what they were now”. Really? You came into a stressful interview situation to present your best self and thought you would rely on brain to bring out intelligent questions at such a crucial time??!! 

“Your head is for having ideas not holding them”  David Allen (Author "Getting Things Done - The Art of Stress-free Productivity")

This is your opportunity to leave the interviewers with a great impression of you, so be prepared and write down the questions that you would like to ask at this point. 

Before we get into the questions themselves, let me share a trick with you. Have these printed out on a piece of A4 with the company logo in the top right hand corner. The heading should feature the role you have applied for, the name and job title of your interviewer(s) (you will of course know who is interviewing you) and the date. 

You don’t need to ask all of your questions as I guarantee you will cover some of these during the course of the interview, but you need to be prepared. When you get to this point pull out 2 or 3 that are most pertinent at this stage - you could even use this sheet to write some notes about the response.

Some great questions to ask are:

• What would be the one thing that I could do to make most impact in this role?
• How do I compare with the other candidates you’ve interviewed for this role?
• What do you think are the most important qualities for someone to excel in this role?
• Why did you choose to work for x organisation?
• What is the best thing about working here?
• What is the worst thing about working here?
• How would you describe your management style?
• How would you describe the culture of the organisation?
• What is the typical career path for someone working in this role?
• How will the merger with x impact this role?
• I read x about your CEO and her plans for the business, can you tell me more about y in particular?
• How would you score the company on living up to it’s core values? What’s the one thing you’re working to improve?
• What were the highs and lows from your latest Employee Opinion Survey? What actions are you taking in response to this?
• How do you help your team grow professionally?
• Is this a new position? If not, why did the person before me leave this role?
• How do you evaluate success here?
• Will I have an opportunity to meet my team during the interview process?
• What qualities would my team be looking for from their next manager?
• What’s your staff turnover rate and (if it's high) what are you doing to reduce it?
• Have I answered all your questions?

And of course, at the end of any sales pitch, you need to close . . . this is a great question to ask, the caveat is, you must ask it with confidence and conviction:

Do you have any concerns about putting me forward to the next stage of the process?

If there are any concerns, this is the opportunity for you to allay them by sharing an additional STAR story related to the concern, if the answer is “no” then slam dunk, you are through to the next round! Congratulations!

What have I missed? What other questions have you asked that you could share to enhance this list? Please comment below.

#interviews #preparation #jobhunting #bestself #40Questions #focus

?Jane began training as a coach with Ashridge Business School in 2011, while working as an HR Business Partner at British Airways. She works with clients to devise a strategic plan and take massive action. She has held a variety of Senior HR positions, most recently as Head of Training roles in an SME and Head of Talent at British Airways.

If you would like to work with Jane on a 1:1 basis to write a new chapter to your life story then please get in touch via LinkedIN, email: [email protected] or call: +44 (0) 7961 426886.