How To Answer “Do You Have Questions For Me?” (With Examples)

At the end of an interview, you will most likely hear “Do You Have Questions For Me?” It’s one of the most common job interview questions and it can be a pretty important one.

Despite having plenty of correct answers, this question has a definite wrong answer that’s easy to accidentally give, and that’s “no.”

Don’t worry, we’ll go over how to answer this questions, and what you need to know for answering so you don’t get caught unprepared during an interview.

Why It’s Important to Ask Questions

Perhaps the most common final question in any job interview, “What questions do you have for me?” is a no-brainer on the interviewer’s part. In one fell swoop, they put the responsibility on you, the applicant, to figure out how to end the interview.

Having no questions to ask a hiring manager at the end of an interview can have a negative impact when it comes to job hunting, so here’s why its important to ask questions:

• It shows your interest. When you ask questions in the interview, it shows that you are interested and want to know more about the company. Questions show the hiring manager that you are serious about the position.

  Without questions, they could be asking themselves “do you actually want the job you’re applying for? Or are you just going through the motions because this is the sort of position you know you’re qualified for?”

• It’s a chance to learn more. While the interviewer is asking questions about you and your qualifications, this is a time when you should be conducting an interview for yourself. When asking questions about the company, this is a chance to see if you will be a good fit and be happy in the position. Without asking questions, you won’t be able to do that.

• It’s a chance to make a memorable last impression. If there is another candidate that has the same qualifications as you and the interviewer is trying to decide who to pick, the questions you ask could make you stand out. The questions you ask could show the interviewer your interest and dedication to the position.

How to Prepare an Answer to “Do You Have Any Questions For Me?”

Here are some tips to follow when asking questions while interviewing:

• Focus on your future role. Ask questions about your (possible) future role in the company. You’ll want to focus on questions about how you can benefit the company instead of your own personal gain. Again, try to keep the focus on what you’ll be doing rather than on how you’ll be compensated.

• Ask (business-related) personal questions. This is definitely a situation where you want to be careful about crossing any lines, as not all interviewers want to be interrogated themselves.

  However, many people like the opportunity to brag about themselves a bit, and finding common ground with a hiring manager is a great way to make you stand out in their mind.

• Be prepared with several questions. During the course of your interview, the hiring manager or recruiter might answer a bunch of your questions before you get a chance to ask them. It’s a good idea to bring a notebook so that you can have your options there in front of you. You can also add questions as the interview progresses if a more pertinent question comes to mind. It’s better to be overprepared than underprepared.

• Research the company. When interviewing, one of the best ways to be prepared to answer this and other behavioral interview questions is to conduct thorough research beforehand. They want to know about our qualifications and accomplishments, but you should already know a thing or two about the company so you don’t ask any obvious questions. It’s not a good look if you don’t understand the basic responsibilities for the job, and will certainly stand out as a weakness for the hiring manager.

• Practice beforehand. Mock interviews are always a little awkward, but they provide a good chance to see yourself in a new light. Your friends and/or family can point out weaknesses in how you frame your questions. You’ll be more confident having practiced for the interview and feel more ready for the job as well.

Examples of Questions to Ask At The End Of The Interview

In this section, we’ll detail some of the possible questions you could ask your hiring manager and weigh some of the benefits of these questions.

You should note that these sections are somewhat arbitrary, and many of these questions could fit within multiple different categories.

1. Clarifying Questions

   The purpose of these questions is to showcase your genuine interest in the company you’re applying to, while also clarifying anything that you might still be concerned about at this stage.

   These questions include things like:

Clarifying Example 1

“You’ve been here this long at the company, can you tell me about what attracted you to the company and what has made you stay this long?”

Why It’s Good
If this is a job that you’ve never worked before, this can give you a good idea of what actually working it consists of.

Alternatively, if you’re a job veteran, this question can be used to suss out how this company operates differently than your old one.

Clarifying Example 2

“What projects are currently being worked on?”

Why It’s Good
This question will help you prepare for the sort of introductory work you’ll be doing once you sign in, in addition to showing the interviewer that you’re already thinking about how you’ll be applying your skills to help the company in a measurable way.

Clarifying Example 3

“What methods of communication does your team use?”

Why It’s Good
This is more for your own organizational purposes, but it’s good to be abreast of the expectations for keeping in contact with folks that you work with.

What services do they use to communicate, and how often do they use them in a given day?

2. Personal Questions

   These are purely so you can get to know the hiring manager better and hopefully establish a personal connection with them.

   Part of this is obviously to make yourself stand out a little more and help you get the job, but in the event that you end up working with this person, it will also be helpful to you to know a thing or two about them.

   These questions include things like:

Personal Example 1

“How long have you worked at the company/in this position?”

Why It’s Good
This is a pretty standard get-to-know-you sort of question and is mostly to help you form a personal connection you can find with your interviewer.

Personal Example 2

“What’s your favorite part about working here?”

Why It’s Good
This question is often a little disarming — people want to talk about themselves, but as a hiring manager, they’re also trying to be careful about the way that they portray their company.

Even just a little hesitation on the part of the speaker can tell you a lot about the working environment as a whole.

If they seem hesitant to talk about the corporate culture, it’s probably not all that great.

On the other hand, if they immediately start to gush about all the things they like about their work and their co-workers, there’s a better chance that they’re being genuine with you.

3. Investigative Questions

   Believe it or not, there are some folks out there who might try to take advantage of unsuspecting workers. It can range from the intentional, like unfair wages or misleading promises about working conditions, to the unintentional, like inefficient management or a toxic corporate culture.

   These questions include things like:

Investigative Example 1

“Can you tell me a little about the history of this position?”

Why It’s Good
This question can be crucial when it comes to understanding the context that you’ll be entering, should you get the job.

Basically, what you want to figure out with this question isn’t so much why they’re hiring this particular position as it is why they’re hiring this position right now.

Investigative Example 2

“What’s the leadership style like?”

or

“What’s the corporate culture like?”

Why It’s Good
If used correctly, this question can be used to gauge the working environment in terms of your bosses. Don’t ask about who is in charge — instead, ask about their methods for dealing with certain situations.

Be wary of answers like “She (or he) is quite the character,” or “They’re very particular about the way that things get done.” Taken in context, these answers might be indicative of a hostile work environment run by a difficult boss.

If you can think of something that bothered you about your last position, that’s good to ask about at this point. If something about the way your last job worked is a dealbreaker for you, this is a great way to head off anything that might prevent you from enjoying a new position.

Investigative Example 3

“How long do workers tend to stay with the company?”

Why It’s Good
Pretty self-explanatory, but this can tell you a lot about this company’s career goals and expectations.

If the answer to this question is a significantly longer amount of time than you were planning for, there’s always the off chance you’ll be butting heads with your boss somewhere down the line.

Mistakes to Avoid: What Not to Ask

All right, so you’ve probably got some questions to ask already. But to answer this behavioral interview question, you should also know what not to say. Avoid the following mistakes, and you’ll be fine:

• Say that you have no questions for them. This is a big one. You should always have at least one question on deck and ready to go for the end of the interview — otherwise, you come off looking unprepared at best and uninterested or incompetent at worst.

• Ask questions about salary or benefits. Unless it’s brought up specifically by the hiring manager or recruiter, salary information is often seen as one of those “What’s in it for me?” questions. Those can come later, once they’re more prepared to make you an offer, but for now, you’re trying to convince them that there’s something in it for them.

• Questions you should already know the answer to. You’re not expected to know everything about how the company operates, but if you ask something that’s obvious from the company’s website, they’ll be pretty sure you didn’t do your homework.

• Out-of-work questions. There’s nothing wrong with being interested in the broader company culture, but steer clear of questions about happy hours, vacations, or anything unrelated to the job in question.

• Confusing questions. Remember how we advised you to come up with a long list of potential questions? Well, that’s just for preparation purposes; don’t rapidly fire out ten questions, or your interviewer will be peeved and unable to answer all of them. Keep it conversational and allow for a natural back-and-forth.

• Asking what the company does. This is a red flag to an interviewer. It shows that you didn’t do any research and it will most likely get your application tossed out.

Final Thoughts

And that’s it! Keep an eye out for our other articles on how to ace your job interview, such as how to tell your hiring manager about your weaknesses or reasons you can give for why you left your last job. The most common interview questions and answers are all here on Zippia.

Best of luck!

Author

Ryan Morris

Ryan Morris was a writer for the Zippia Advice blog who tried to make the job process a little more entertaining for all those involved. He obtained his BA and Masters from Appalachian State University.