Questions You Ask in an Interview

During a job interview, you are usually expected to ask pertinent questions related to the position you are seeking. A good interviewer will ask if you have any questions. If you are not invited to do so, you should take the initiative to ask questions anyway. Your questions are indicative of your motivation, objectives and interests. Your prior research on the organization and the career field will help you formulate good questions. Be sure your questions are meaningful and job related; try not to ask for information already available in the organization's brochure or other material. Be sure to research recent newspapers or magazines for articles about the organization so that you can form relevant questions and comments. The part of the interview in which you ask questions is both a chance for you to demonstrate your motivation and interest in the job as well as a chance for you to get the information you may need later when evaluating job offers.

The following list provides a selection of questions you may want to ask the interviewer. Your questions will vary depending on whether the job is in the corporate or not-for-profit sector, so you should choose only those that are relevant for you and the position for which you are applying and add others if you would like. Keep in mind that there will usually be time for only a few questions.

About the organization:
  1. What makes your organization different from others in its category?
  2. What are your organization's strengths and weaknesses?
  3. What is the single biggest problem facing your organization now?
  4. What are your organization's plans for future growth?
  5. How would you describe your organization's personality and management style? Its "culture"?
About the job and its position in the organization:
  1. What is the overall structure of the organization?
  2. What is the overall structure of the department in which the position is located?
  3. What are the future plans for that department?
  4. Where does this position fit in the overall organization?
  5. How much contact is there between departments/between individuals in the organization?
  6. What are the typical first-year assignments? About what percentage of my time would be spent in different tasks/functions?
  7. Tell me about your initial and future training programs.
  8. Is it organizational policy to promote from within? What percentage of supervisory positions are filled from within the organization? What is the work history of your top management?
People issues in the organization:
  1. What characteristics does a successful person have at your organization?
  2. May I talk to someone who currently holds or recently held this job?
  3. How is an employee evaluated and promoted? How often would my performance be reviewed?
  4. Why do you enjoy working for this organization?
  5. What qualities are you looking for in new hires?
  6. From what schools were recent graduates hired during the last two years?
  7. Are any Barnard/Columbia graduates working here?
You may want to see a counselor in Career Development or attend an interviewing workshop to discuss interviewing. You can also call an alumna in a relevant career field and ask that she critique your questions/answers or give you a mock interview. You can also use the fact sheet entitled Questions You May Be Asked in an Interview and two books in the Career Guides section of the OCD library – Interview For Success and Knock `Em Dead with Great Answers to Tough Interview Questions.

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