Interviewing is a 2-way street.



I’m sure you’ve heard this before, but you’d be surprised how many candidates struggle with asking valuable questions. They get to the interview and when it’s turned over to them, they go with a lame question like “Tell me more about the company,” or “What type of books do you read?”



Tell you more? Haven’t you done your research? Didn’t YOU apply for this job? Be more specific or deal with my awkward silence and tilted head.



What types of books do I read? What if I said vampire erotica? Where would you go from there? I’ll tell you what. Any type of book I read is not gonna help you get this job or build a relationship. You should’ve done that for the last 30 minutes.



When you get the chance to ask the interviewer (or hiring manager for this post) questions, the purpose isn’t too wow them. It’s to ask about areas that are important to you. Should they be wowed by what’s important to you, great. Otherwise, your questions should tell you more about the company’s plans for growth, opportunities to move upward or laterally, what it’ll be like to work for that boss or on that team, and so on. There are a ton of questions you could ask, but for today I just wanna share a four of my favorites:



There’s the job description and the actual job. Can you tell me where most of my time would be spent if I was selected for this role?



As someone that writes job descriptions, I can tell you there’s always a bunch of stuff in there we’d like you to have. The truth is the majority of your will be spent in a couple areas or on a couple responsibilities. One of those responsibilities may be to “scramble your ass off from 9-6 to fulfill every random urgent request,” which means the job may be like 70% transactional and 30% long-term projects. You may not know that just from looking at the description. With this approach, you’re also acknowledging you’ve reviewed the entire description, but would like to know the focus points. If you realize you didn’t cover something earlier in the interview, you may have a moment to clarify or you can include it in your thank you/follow up.



Can you give me a couple examples of projects that have been delegated to the person in this role in the past?



This is a good follow-up to the first question. If they believe past performance is an indicator of future success, then past projects are an indicator of future work.



What three words or phrases do you think previous employees or direct reports would use to describe you? (And why?)



I find this question to be on par with “What’s your philosophy on people management?” I like this one more because it’s fun and they won’t be able to give you a canned response that doesn’t reflect how they actually manage. This isn’t to say that hiring managers lie in interviews, but I think you’ll get less practiced and subsequently more honest answers.



Can you give me an example or two of how you’ve developed your staff? Could be bringing subpar performers up, or getting great performers prepared for the next step in their career.



You’re not gonna lose the job because you asked tough questions. However, you may lose your sanity because you didn’t and ended up working with a maniac tyrant who doesn’t care about your development. It’s important to know how your future boss will interact with you during the highs and lows. And again, past performance is an indicator of future success (or struggle).



Keep these questions in your bank. You’ll need ‘em one day. Don’t worry. You won’t crash.