Question

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

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Answer

Having no questions is the one answer that actively counts against you, because it reads as indifference or as not having thought about the role. Beyond that, the questions serve two purposes simultaneously: they demonstrate how you think, and they get you information you genuinely need.

The second purpose is the one candidates underuse. An interview is mutual, and you are deciding too. Questions asked only to look engaged tend to sound like it.

The most informative questions are concrete and about the actual work. What does a typical week look like in this role. What would you want the person to have achieved in the first six months. What is the hardest part of this job. Why is the position open. What would make you consider this hire a success in a year.

Questions about the team and how it operates reveal a great deal: how decisions get made, how work is prioritised, how feedback happens, what the last significant change was and how it went.

Asking the interviewer about their own experience often produces the most candid answers, because it invites narrative rather than a company line.

What to avoid at a first interview: anything easily answered by the website, which suggests you did not look; and salary, holiday and flexible working, which belong once interest is mutual, usually at offer stage or with the recruiter rather than the hiring manager.

Three or four prepared questions is enough, and it is entirely acceptable to say a question has already been answered and ask a different one.

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