At the end of an Interview – “Have you got any Questions?”
Always remember that you will be asked at the end of every interview – “Have you got any questions?”
Wouldn’t it make sense that you would finish your interview / conversation (with your next potential employer!) with some well thought-out questions? After all, wouldn’t you like to leave the Interviewers with a favourable impression of you?
Unfortunately I estimate that, on average, over two-thirds of people attending interviews have a vague/’wooly’ question or, worse still, they say “No, I have no questions”!
All this shows is that you have not been bothered to do sufficient research to answer the one question you know is going to be asked at the end of every interview.
So, you ask, what are ‘good’ closing questions that you might consider? Well, it generally falls into three categories;
a) questions about the company/sector
b) questions about the position
c) questions about your own performance at interview
A. Questions about the company/sector
When you ask a question about the impact of a specific event on a company’s sector, then you are showing a commercial awareness that others may not have thought of; for example, if you were being interviewed for a position within a business that was supplying good/services to the Retail Sector, a credible question to ask might be “What do you estimate the impact of increased personal taxes will have on this year’s sales figures?“
B. Questions about the position
The one thing that 95% of all Job Descriptions fail to specify is what does success in the position look like. So it is in your own best-interests to clearly understand how you will be judged to be meeting/exceeding expectations in this position, should you be successful at interview; therefore you might consider asking the following question “What measurable results would you expect to see after 3 or 6 months from whomever takes-on this role“
C. Questions about your own performance at interview
Asking a question about your own performance is not for the faint-hearted and will depend entirely on your own personality and the general tone of the interview. However, if you are really interested in the role, it is your duty to inform the Interviewers of this and give them an opportunity to clarify any niggling doubt that they may have from the earlier conversation; so you might consider saying “I am really interested in this position and I wanted to ask if there was any point that I mentioned earlier that you would like me to clarify or expand upon before we finished?“
Now the above three questions can be tailored to suit your own style/personality, but they give you a template that you can consider using when deciding what questions you want to ask at the end of your next interview.
Always remember that the quality of the questions you ask at the end of an interview will have just as big an impact on the Interviewers as everything you have discussed during your interview.