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

Some advice from an ex-hiring manager: This is one of the most important parts of the interview – the part where you really get to make an impression. You are essentially taking control of the interview at this point, and demonstrating your understanding of the particular issues that may be involved in the position you're seeking. You should always prepare at least three questions before an interview, specific to the industry, the company, and the role of the position you are seeking. You should tailor these questions as much as possible to the company in question, so you will need to do a bit of research first. Choose questions that demonstrate your expertise, and choose questions that the interviewer can answer in a positive light. Here are a few examples to use as a starting point: 1) What tools do the [insert job title here]s use here at [company x]? (Do the PMs use MS Project or Product X?) Some of this will probably come up in the earlier stages of the interview, so if you know going in that expertise in a given system/application/technology is a requirement, you'll need to go a little deeper with this question, perhaps asking about development lifecycles, configuration management tools, databases, networking, etc. Make sure the questions are related to the job, and that you appear both knowledgeable and agnostic about the subject. Be prepared to respond positively no matter what their answer is. They should get the impression that you understand the options, but that you're flexible, not limited. 2) Can you tell me a little bit about how the teams/departments/work groups are organized? But you're just curious about the environment – you're perfectly comfortable working in the [x] style of organization. 3) I’ve read/heard that your company is starting to develop/work toward [new product/technology/methodology] – can you tell me more about that? If you've heard anything negative about the company, DON’T bring it up. Let them. If they don’t, and you decide it’s important, save it for the follow-up interview. Remember – keep it positive. But make sure to ask real questions that the interviewers will feel invested in following up on. At this point, the objective is to get them to start selling the company to you. If you can get excited enough about the job to be genuinely curious about the details, it will show. -and on preview, what they all said. Also, on the "Describe your weaknesses" question: the most obvious thing to do is take a strength and talk about it like it's a weakness (I tend to be a bit of a workaholic, etc.). Sure, we know what you're doing; but we knew it was a bullshit question to begin with (but don't do it unless you can sell it).

Thanks for the suggestions all. It's been a while since I've had to job search and I'm hoping to expend less time than the last go around. If I can talk the tech I'm fine but some of these professional interviewers bring out the worst of the introvert in me. The last interview I was on the team didn't know their butt from their elbow as far as the tech went. I try to get into back and forth conversation mode as much as possible however it seems many of these team style interviews are rigidly scripted. On the upside painquale your friend probably didn't want to work there if the HR guy is so unhappy.

My standard response was: "What do you think of this company? Do you like working here?" This seemed to catch the manager/HR person off-guard, and I know whatever answer they gave me was sugar-coated, but they seemed to like it.

If you feel comfortable, ask questions back at the interview throughout. For example, if they ask you, "Do you work well in a fast-paced environment?" answer, then ask back, "How does the pace of work vary throughout your fiscal year?" If they ask you, "Where would you like to be in five years?" ask back, "Where do you see this department going in the next few years?" If you can be confident, really listen to their answers, and not sound like you're parroting them, it's a great technique.

I'm pretty much in the position described http://ask.metafilter.com/mefi/14288#246253 by WestCoaster and so I thank you all for this advice! (In addition to the other threads on job hunting tips since I'm fairly inexperienced at it--at least the parts beyond sending a resume to a generic [email protected] address).

There are a lot of good suggestions here. I'm sure it depends a great deal on the industry as well as the kind of person doing the interviewing, so this isn't meant to be a dismissal of sled's advice, but just another data point to keep in mind: When I've been in a position to interview people, if I heard any of the questions sled lists above, especially phrased as they are, I would be strongly put off. They have a very canned, business-speak sound to them that I would consider a mark against the applicant. I think Coffeemate's suggested strategy is particularly good. It works to give you a way to avoid canned questions while acknowledging that even if you are really engaged and interested, it can be hard to think of good questions on the spot. It would also combine well with cogat's suggestion about taking notes over the course of the interview. I like falconred's "Do you like working here?" too. A possibly more useful variation, since you know they aren't going to feel comfortable dishing dirt, would be "What do you especially like about working here?"

I think asking questions about vacation, policies, advancement, and compensation is appropriate when you are doing an HR interview if you have one. During an interview with people who are actually the people you'll be working with, I like Coffeemate's suggestion. I've been on a hiring committee recently, and the best interviewees were ones who engaged us in conversation. Pay close attention to who you are talking to, and ask questions about their work and how it relates to what you'd be doing in the position you're interviewing for. Taking notes is totally acceptable and a great idea. As for the end of the interview, the "where do you see this department headed" or the company/institution is a great question, too.

I like to ask "How did do?" followed by "What could I have done better in this interview?" If they give you answers you can work with, you can respond by answering their concerns and if they don't you've impressed them with your frankness and embrace of accountability.

"Do you like working here?" I tend to think that's going to get a BS response. They're recruiting, so they're not likely to be too candid. Not a bad question, but it's not going to make you stand out and it's not going to garner any useful info in most cases. As others do, I like to ask questions throughout, using a notepad as a cheat sheet and to jot down info. I always get the "any other questions," at the end, though, so I try to reserve a couple for then. One good generic one is, "what kind of characteristics will it take for a candidate to succeed in this position," and then use the answer to discuss how those happen to be your exact strengths (always use examples). The failure version of that one is good, too, but I like to focus on success. Another is to ask about metrics for success, often they don't have formalized metrics worked out, but would like to, and that's a good opportunity for you to show how important benchmarking and quantifying success is to you, and how you would definitely build that into the position should you get it.