Questions to ask at the end of a job interview

Most interviews end with some version of "What questions do you have for us?" It's a real part of the interview. Good questions get you information you need to decide whether you want the job, and they show the interviewer that you've thought about the work and not only about getting hired.

Prepare five or six questions and expect to ask two or three, since some will be answered during the conversation. This Purzue guide groups useful questions by topic, explains which interviewers to ask them of, and lists the ones to hold back until later.

Questions about the role

These questions fill in what the job posting leaves out, and they suit almost any interviewer. The second one is especially useful, because the answer tells you what the manager will be judging you on in your first few months.

• What does a typical week in this role look like?
• What would you want the person in this role to have done in their first 90 days?
• What's the hardest part of this job for someone new to it?
• Is this a new position, or is it open because someone moved on?

Questions about the team and the manager

The people you'd work with every day shape the job as much as the duties do. If you're talking with the hiring manager, ask about how they work. If you're meeting a future colleague, ask them what working on the team is like.

• How is the team organized, and who would I work with most closely?
• How do you prefer to give feedback, and how often?
• How does the team decide what to work on first when everything is urgent?
• What do you enjoy about working here?

Questions about how success is measured

Asking how your work will be judged shows that you're thinking about doing the job well, and the answer helps you compare offers later. Listen for whether the interviewer can describe success clearly. A vague answer can mean the role itself isn't well defined yet.

• How will my performance be evaluated, and by whom?
• What would a strong first year in this role look like to you?

Questions about the company

Ask about things you can't find on the company's website, since a question answered on the home page suggests you didn't look. Questions about recent changes and about how the team fits into the larger organization usually get thoughtful answers, especially from senior interviewers.

• What's changed for the team or the company over the last year?
• How does this team's work connect to the company's goals for the next year or two?

Questions about next steps

Close every interview with a question about the process. "What are the next steps, and when should I expect to hear back?" gives you a date to plan around and makes a follow-up email easy to time. If the interviewer gives you a date and it passes, a short, polite note a day or two later is reasonable.

Match the question to the interviewer

Different interviewers can answer different questions. A recruiter knows the hiring process, the timeline, and the pay range, so ask them about those. The hiring manager knows the work, the priorities, and what success looks like. A peer on the team can tell you what the day-to-day is really like, and a senior leader can speak to direction and change.

If you have several interviews in one day, you can ask more than one person the same question. Comparing their answers is useful, and consistent answers are a good sign about how well the team communicates.

Questions to hold until later

Pay, benefits, and time off are fair topics, but in a first conversation with a hiring manager they're usually better raised with the recruiter, or once an offer is close. If an interviewer brings up salary, answer with the research described in the salary negotiation guide. Skip questions that the website or the posting already answers, and skip "Did I get the job?" which puts the interviewer on the spot.

Your questions also work best when the rest of the interview went well, so prepare your answers alongside them. The STAR method guide covers how to structure stories about past work, and the requirements you marked while tailoring your resume are a good guide to which questions about the role matter most to you.