DePaul University Career Center's Blog

Do You Have Questions for the Interviewer? You Better

At the end of almost any interview, you will be asked, “Do you have any questions for me?” How you respond to this can make or break the interviewer’s overall impression of you—so make a plan to respond to this prompt wisely.

Here are a few do’s and don’ts to help you develop a strategy for asking questions after the interview:

Do aim to elicit valuable and relevant information from your interviewer that would help you decide if the opportunity would be a good fit, should you be offered the position.

Don’t feel limited to asking only about the specific position you are interviewing for. Aim to learn about the organization’s culture so that you can assess whether you would both feel comfortable and flourish there.

Do ask questions that demonstrate your knowledge of the field, organization, and position.

Don’t ask questions that could be easily answered through research via the organization’s website or other resources. Instead, use the information that you glean from such pre-interview research to demonstrate your knowledge, as advised in the preceding tip.

Do explore how the position at hand might fit into your larger career path. With that said, however, be careful not to suggest that you see this position as a simple stepping-stone. Instead, you might ask about where the last person in the position has moved on to or what skills you can expect to hone in the role.

Don’t inquire about salary, benefits, or perks—you haven’t yet been offered the position, so now is not the time to request this information.

Do come prepared with multiple possible questions and don’t ask those that have already been addressed throughout the course of the interview!

Looking for more guidance on formulating smart questions to ask an interviewer? Check out this article from Business Insider for inspiration.

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