Questions to Ask the Hiring Manager During Job Interviews 1. How It Helps You It really helps to know what challenges you could find yourself or your team up against ahead of time. ;) How It Helps You This gives you insight into what motivates your future colleague or manager, as well as insight into what the company offers its employees. You've been at this company for while. If your interviewer has been at the company for several years, understanding why could give you some really interesting insight into the company, how it treats its employees, and a taste of what motivates the people who work there. If you would be working with the person interviewing you, this is another tough question that can give you some insight into how the team works. Questions to Ask HR Manager During Interview What do you like most about working here? What is something the company is still working on getting right? This can include what the responsibilities looked like, how many other people currently hold this position at the company, and even where HR thinks it's going in the future. What is something the company is still working on getting right?
“Do you have any questions for me?”
We’ve all been on the receiving end of that question in an interview. If you’re prepared, you’ve probably got some good questions you usually cycle through.
But we want to be better than “good” in an interview. We want to be standout candidates that hiring managers are excited to extend an offer to.
One thing you can do to separate yourself from other applicants? Ask good questions.
“I’m always surprised at the lack of good questions candidates have, and I always respect the candidates that ask insightful questions during interviews,” says Andrew Quinn, former VP of Learning and Development at HubSpot.
To help you prepare to stand out at your next interview, here are some questions that’ll make hiring managers’ ears perk up. Then, discover some valuable questions you might want to start the recruitment process with when you’re on the phone with human resources (HR). Try them at your next interview and see how the conversation changes.
Questions to Ask the Hiring Manager During Job Interviews
1. How does this role contribute to larger company goals?
It’s not terribly difficult to find a candidate that can execute on a role. It is terribly difficult to find a candidate that can not only execute on their role, but also understand how it fits into larger goals. This includes being able to self-manage, prioritize high-value activities, and grow their role in a direction that aligns with the company’s growth.
How It Helps You
This information can be hard to come by if your company isn’t very communicative or transparent, so this is a good chance to get that information while the gettin’s good, and use it to guide your decisions if you land the role.
2. What do the most successful new hires do in their first month here?
This question shows that you’re the type of person who likes to hit the ground running, instead of spending a week filling out HR forms. It also shows that you recognize patterns of success and want to replicate only the most effective performers.
How It Helps You
Every company has its weird nuances, its own environment, and its own unspoken expectations. This helps you start with a little bit of the insider info so you don’t suffer a case of “if I knew then what I knew now” in six months.
3. What metrics would you use to measure success in this role?
Asking a question like this shows that you’re goal-oriented and aren’t afraid to be held accountable for those goals. You don’t shirk accountability. You welcome it — and will work hard to hit the goals you’re responsible for.
How It Helps You
It’s shocking how many people don’t actually know what they want from their employees beyond a vague idea of some work that needs to get done. Asking this question will force a hiring manager to figure it out — and then can communicate it to you, so you can execute on it.
4. What are some of the challenges or roadblocks one might come up against in this role?
A question like this indicates that you’re already envisioning yourself in the role and thinking through a plan of attack, should you land the gig. It’s also a sign that you’re well aware that no job comes free of roadblocks. It shows that not only are you not afraid to deal with those challenges, but you’re also prepared for them.
How It Helps You
The response you receive should help you better understand some of the less-than-ideal aspects of the job — difficult colleagues, bureaucratic processes, internal politics, and so on. You can use that information to decide that the role really isn’t a good fit for you … or that you’re up for the challenge.
5. What is the biggest challenge the team has faced in the past year?
While the interviewer might be trying to paint a pretty perfect picture of what working on the team might look like, asking this question will help you uncover some of the realities the team has been facing recently. If you end up joining, you’ll inevitably hear about these challenges — and you may have to help solve them, too. This is a question our principal recruiter Katie Donohue says she likes to hear during interviews.
How It Helps You
It really helps to know what challenges you could find yourself or your team up against ahead of time. In some cases, it could affect whether you accept the role. Not only that, but learning about these challenges could give you some great insights into the steps the team has taken to overcome these challenges already.
6. Why did you decide to work at this company?
This question gives an interviewer a chance to do two self-serving things: talk about themselves and perform a no-holds-barred sales pitch on the company. For promising candidates, the sales opportunity is welcomed. And most people love any excuse to talk about themselves. 😉
How It Helps You
This gives you insight into what motivates your future colleague or manager, as well as insight into what the company offers its employees. If those all line up with what you’re looking for in a job, you’ve got yourself a good fit.
7. You’ve been at this company for while. What keeps you motivated?
If your interviewer has been at the company for several years, understanding why could give you some really interesting insight into the company, how it treats its employees, and a taste of what motivates the people who work there. Plus, it shows you’ve done your research on the interviewer, which is always an impressive sign.
Depending on the interviewer’s answer, you might learn something about the company’s career training, leadership opportunities, workplace flexibility, internal job opportunities, and more. You might dig a little deeper by following up with related questions, like, “What do you enjoy most about working here?”
8. Where do people usually eat lunch?
Do they take the time to go out? Do people bring lunch but eat in groups? Do folks normally eat at their desks because they’re too busy to socialize? Asking this question serves as a great way to find out a little bit about the company culture. Plus, this is a more lighthearted question that might relax a stiffened atmosphere or lead to a conversation about shared interests.
Along with learning about company culture, it doesn’t hurt to get a few good lunch suggestions for the future.
9. What is your company’s customer or client service philosophy?
This is an impressive question because it shows that you can make the connection between how the company thinks about its customers and the end result. In other words,…
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