15 Clever Questions To Ask Your Interviewer!

• A job interview is a two-way street; you should assess the company while they assess you.
• Asking questions during the interview shows engagement and can impress the interviewer.
• Use interview questions to determine long-term career growth and cultural fit.
• Inquire about the company's challenges and future strategies.
• Make sure to assess the hiring manager’s leadership style and the role's expectations.
• Don't shy away from asking about past layoffs and the company's commitment to employees.

you have to remember that a job interview is a two-way street you should be interviewing them as much as they're interviewing you. and if you're not sure what to ask the job interviewer, don't worry. in this video I'm going to share 15 of my favorite questions that you can ask. as you've probably heard, asking questions in your interview shows a level of Engagement and can impress the interviewer. but more importantly, I'm also trying to assess the company to make sure it's the right cultural fit for me. because after all, just like they're assessing me for the job, I should be assessing them just as much. because one bad job can derail your career, we certainly don't want that to happen.

furthermore, I'm using these interview questions as an opportunity to establish some strategy in my interview. what the interviewer tells me I can use throughout the rest of my interview process to position myself to be the best possible fit. keeping in mind that I don't ask all 15 of these, I might pick two or three that I think are relevant and then mix them up from interview to interview. these are just suggestions; you can wordsmith these any way you see fit to make them work best for you.

but before we get into that, if you're interested in learning how to approach your job search with a higher degree of authority and conviction, make sure you sign up for my free Weekly Newsletter. because in it, I share concise actionable tips on how to approach your job search, interviewing, résumé writing, LinkedIn networking, and all kinds of career-related tips. keep in mind it's absolutely free, and I hope to see you there!

these first few questions are designed to be strategy-based, and you're using them to try to learn about the challenges in the department so that you can start to market yourself as a good fit.

all right, so the first question that I like to ask and I ask this one universally in all of my interviews is: Why is the job open? because this is the single most important question that I can ask in any interview. because if I can determine why the position is open, it's going to give me a huge advantage to start to position myself to be the best possible fit. so in every interview, I ask the interviewer why the position is open. I listen very intently and then try to incorporate some of what they say into my interview answers.

or another alternative might be asking: Why is this job important to you? keeping in mind that different people are going to have different perspectives on that position. so the hiring manager may have their own unique perspective on why the position is important. but furthermore, people deeper into the interview process will also have other reasons why the position is important to them. and you could take this line of questioning a step further and ask them: How does this role contribute to the success of the department? because if they elaborate on how this role integrates into the rest of the group, you'll start to get some perspective as to why the position was open to begin with and how they envision it fitting into the broader context of the business.

and all the information that you learn there will help you assess whether or not you're well-equipped to help the department contribute to that success. because we don't want to find ourselves landing in a job where the likelihood of us being successful is pretty slim because they're expecting something.

the next question I normally direct at the hiring manager is: What's one thing that this department does particularly well? because what you're listening for is the strength of the department. something that's going to align with your strengths, and furthermore, can you complement it and maybe fill in the gaps?

or an alternative way of asking this question, or potentially even a follow-up to the last question is: What about one thing that your department doesn't do well? because if the hiring manager admits that they don't do a particular thing well, and you just so happen to be really good at that, it would be a great opportunity for you to market that you can help fill that gap for them and show them that you're a really great fit for the job.

the next series of questions is designed to flush out whether or not there's long-term career growth in the role. to start with, you have to be a strong performer in order to reasonably expect to get promoted. so we should try to learn what the hiring manager is expecting.

so I'm going to ask that question: What do I need to do in the first year for you to give me an exceeds expectations on my first-year performance appraisal? and what I'm looking for is what the hiring manager's expectations are for this position and if they're even realistic. because if their expectations are unreasonable—or even worse, they haven't thought through what their expectations are—they could set you up for failure in the first year if you're trying to meet impossible standards. so we want to make sure that the hiring manager has reasonable expectations for success.

now you've asked the question why this position is open, and let's just assume that the person got promoted and moved on to bigger and better things. they have left me a roadmap of success that I want to try to duplicate myself. so I'm going to ask the question: What about this person who was in this role before was so successful that they ended up getting promoted?

because I'm going to listen very carefully to what the hiring manager says and take some really dubious notes. because they're giving you a roadmap for how to duplicate that same thing yourself. and if the person wasn't successful—and let's just assume that the hiring manager discloses that—you may want to follow up with the question: What competency or skill or experience are you missing that you would like this role to fulfill? so in other words, you're not directly throwing that person under the bus, but you are trying to learn a little bit about what the hiring manager's expectation is so that you don't make the same mistakes. furthermore, you want to make sure that you're equipped to do a better job than the person who wasn't successful before you.

keeping along the same line of questioning, I want to know what the long-term career prospects are for this role. because most of us don't want to go into a dead-end job. someone asked: What do you see as potential long-term growth opportunities here? now I want to be careful not to come across as not being interested in the role that I'm interviewing for, so I'm going to put the context of "in the future," but hopefully the hiring manager can highlight some career opportunities that you may be able to grow into with this role. and if they can't, it's probably a red flag that you should be aware of.

if you want to hold the hiring manager's feet to a little bit of fire, you could ask in a tactful way: So tell me about the last person who got promoted in this group. and if the hiring manager looks at you and says, "Uh, well, um, I've never actually promoted somebody before," again, that could be a red flag. especially if the hiring manager has sat in the role for a long period of time. we want to see hiring managers who develop their people and a culture of promoting from within. because let's face it, you don't want to be stuck in this role for too terribly long if you value upward career mobility.

next up, when we try to determine the company's prospects, I might ask a few questions around that. the first one being: What's an issue or a concern that keeps you up late at night? so in other words, you want to try to figure out what the pain points are of the hiring manager. and if they seem to be systematic—in other words, their systems are not set up properly, the company doesn't seem to be supporting the group to be successful—you have to listen very carefully and read between the lines. you don't want to join an organization that doesn't provide the right tools and the right systems for you to be successful.

I may also ask this of the senior leadership team just to see if they're looped in on the strategy of the organization. now keep in mind a company is probably not going to disclose trade secrets or something that they're working on that's confidential, but I still may ask the question just to see what happens: Notice that your competitor has this new product or this new division or this new development; what's your company's strategy to address that in the marketplace?

and ideally, what you want to hear is that they're taking their competitors seriously, they're aware of what's going on in the market, and they're continuing to invest in the business. because a lot of times, low-quality employers won't reinvest the money into the business and give the people the proper tools that they need to be successful, and they fall further and further behind. and of course, in an unstable economy, you want to position yourself to be working with one of the leaders in the industry, or at least one that is taking it seriously.

the next question that I do tend to ask frequently, because I really think that's very insightful, is: If there was one thing about this company that you could change, what would it be? and then listen very carefully to what they say. if it's again systematic—they don't provide enough resources for the company—that could be a red flag. if it's that they don't have a culture of quickly pivoting in the marketplace, that could be a red flag. you want to listen to the pain points that the various people in the company have and see if there's any common denominator between all the different interviewers that you talk to.

again, we're trying to put together the pieces of the puzzle; we're trying to assess the company to see if the culture is going to be a healthy one. and these subtle questions that you ask can help you determine that.

next up, we need to make sure that we assess the hiring manager to make sure that they're going to be a good boss to work for. the first question that I ask is a tenure-related question of: How long have you worked here? if they've been there for a long period of time, then I would ask them a follow-up of: What about this company has kept you around so long? and listen very carefully to what they say. is it a culture where they want people to stick around that they value loyalty and tenure?

on the flip side, if they're a relatively new hire themselves, maybe ask: What about this company got you to sign the dotted line too? because their perspective may show you some interesting dynamics that you weren't aware of. and if they're still excited about the job, they're still excited about the company, maybe they can give you a little bit of insight into some of the big things that are kind of brewing behind the scenes.

you want to ask a little bit more of a challenging question for them, but certainly do it in a tactful way: If I were to go out and ask the people in your department how you are as a leader, how would they describe you? and this question is designed to see how self-aware the boss is about their own leadership style and how they're perceived. and maybe you can glean what the work culture is like inside of that department.

you may want to follow it up and actually talk to some of the people in that department before you sign the dotted line. of course, we want to make sure that they're reasonable about what they're expecting for the role. we've talked a little bit about performance earlier in this video, but I may follow it up with an additional question about: What metrics or measurements will I be assessed against in this role? and then what I'm listening for is: Are they being realistic?

in your role, you should be very familiar with the certain key measurements that everybody's measured against. if your boss is coming up with something that seems like it's a bit of a stretch, maybe you can ask for clarification about what they're doing so much more effectively than the rest of the market.

and another fun question that I recommend that everybody gets in the habit of asking every interviewer is: What about my resume stood out to you? because it'll give you a lot of context for what about your resume is standing out to those hiring managers so that you can continue to leverage the right things to get even more interviews. you may not get direct feedback about why you weren't selected for a role, but at least you can get an understanding of why you were selected for the interview, and that's worth a lot too.

and just as a little added asterisk as a possible additional question that I may ask in the interview—and this is all dependent upon you doing your company research and discovering that they had recent layoffs or they've laid off more than once in the last few years—I would very strongly recommend that you ask them: Why did they lay off in the past, and what about the business is different today? and taking that even a step further: What commitments do you have that you wouldn't lay off people as a first option going forward? because when the employer has demonstrated that they lack loyalty, that's a huge, huge red flag, and you should not be bashful about asking this question. employers should be held accountable for poor decisions and knee-jerk reactions that affect their employees.

I know oftentimes when we're desperately looking for a new job, we might gloss over some of the red flags just to get back to work, and I just implore you to think long and hard about your strategy and targeting those low-quality employers. I just don't want to see you in another situation like that.

anyway, hopefully, this was valuable for you. you may want to consider bookmarking this particular video for future interviews and doing your prep. and if you're somebody that's struggling with your interviewing, that's actually something that I specialize in. I've got a website called lifealayoff.com and it's loaded with tips and tricks, all from a recruiting insider perspective. and I share some of my deepest and most intimate knowledge in the form of some training courses and in the context of interviewing.

my flagship course is called the Ultimate Jobseeker Boot Camp, and we cover everything from job search all the way through each step of the interview process and then ultimately get you to the job offer, and then we help you negotiate it so you don't leave a dime on the table.

if you're looking for just the scaled-down version, though, and you only want the interviewing skills, I actually created another course, and it's a my Interviews Essentials—it's called the 48 Hour Interview Crash Course. you can check both of those out.

and if you're sitting there saying, "well, that's great and all, but I don't even get any interviews," it's probably a résumé issue. and if you feel like you're struggling with your résumé, check out Résumé Rocket Fuel, which teaches you exactly how to write a résumé that's going to give you the best chance of getting phone calls back for those first-round interviews.

and if you do need some more personalized help, I do offer some limited private one-on-one coaching where we go through interview strategy, career coaching, and all that kind of stuff, and you can reach me through my website for that.

anyway, good luck on the interview! make sure you ask those great questions, assess them as much as they're assessing you, and I know you'll do great. appreciate you watching, and we'll see you on the next one.