By Editorial Staff
BioSpace, January 21, 2019 —
Asking great questions to your interviewer is one of the most important parts of the job interview process. Not only do you learn valuable information about the role and the organization when you ask questions, but interviewers are also assessing here your knowledge, research done, and level of interest in their company.
As such, asking poor questions (or even worse, no questions at all) can indicate to the hiring managers that you either didn’t prepare well for the interview or just aren’t that interested in the position – neither of which do you any favors when it comes to securing a final job offer.
But, the reality is, you may not have days or weeks to prepare for every single job interview you’re called into. Whether you’re asked to come in at the last minute or your current workload just doesn’t permit you taking the time for due diligence ahead of the meeting, you may end up at a loss when it comes to the kinds of questions you should ask.
One of the best solutions to this dilemma is to always, no matter what the circumstance or job, have a few impressive, intelligent – yet general – questions memorized and ready in your back pocket before any job interview (these questions also work great at networking events or other professional gatherings where discussions around employment opportunities may come up on the spot).
Here are examples of some of the best generic interview questions you can ask in virtually any type of job interview, for any type of organization. If you’re headed to the job market in 2019, do yourself a quick favour and commit a few of these to memory so you’ll never run the risk of coming across as unprepared or disinterested in a job.
Questions about goals
- What are the most important goals the person in this role should accomplish right away in the first few weeks or months on the job?
- What are the most important long-term goals for this position?
- What are the top goals in the company this year?
Questions about challenges
- What are the biggest challenges the person in this role will face?
- What are the biggest challenges facing the company/organization right now?
- How have these challenges been previously dealt with?
Questions about the position’s history
- Is this a new role? If not, what is the history of the role in the company?
- Historically, what are the strategies or approaches in this role that have not worked well for the organization?
- (If it’s a new role with no previous history at the company) Why was it created?
Questions about growth
- How does the company or organization encourage and support growth?
- What types of professional development programs or activities does the organization support?
Questions about company culture
- Who does this role work most closely with?
- How would you describe the company culture or office environment?
- What type of person do you think will fit in best with the rest of the team?
