What questions should I ask at the end of an interview?

You should always prepare questions that you can ask at your interview. Many of your questions may have been answered during the interview, so you need to prepare about a dozen questions just in case and so you can also demonstrate that you have prepared thoroughly beforehand.

When asked if you would like to ask any questions; you may decide that a lot of the questions you had wanted to ask have already been answered, but you can also have a look back through your notes to see if there are any that haven’t been answered yet. At this point it is perfectly acceptable to take your notes out and scan through them for any questions you would like to ask.

Below are examples of questions you could ask:

 What do you see as the main challenges currently facing the team?
 What targets would you be expecting the successful candidate to achieve in the first six months?
 How does this vacancy fit in with the rest of the team?
 How would you describe the company culture?
 What level of budget would I have responsibility for?
 What would the role involve on a day-to-day basis?
 What is your policy on staff development?
 What level of training would I receive initially?
 How will my performance be measured?
 Would there be opportunities further down the line to develop into other roles?
 What longer-term opportunities are there for working in other areas of the company?
 What kind of career paths are open to people in the company?
 Why has this vacancy arisen?
 How do you see this role developing?
 What are the organisations’ plans for growth?
 Are there any restructuring or change programmes planned in the near future?

It is important that you select questions that are in line with the role you are applying for. You don’t want to look as though you are showing off by asking irrelevant questions or trying to interrogate the interviewer.

When asking questions, ensure you sound interested in the responses. You want the interviewer to realise you have a genuine interest, and this is also another opportunity to demonstrate your suitability for the role. As you ask, listen to the answers, try to generate a further discussion by making comments and asking further questions, e.g. “What does that mean for your department?”, or “That sounds interesting, can you tell me a bit more about how that works?”.