What questions should you ask in a job interview?

Why you should ask questions in an interview, the best ones grouped by what each answer tells you, what to skip in a first interview, how many to ask, questions for graduate and internship interviews, and when to raise pay.

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Ask questions that help you decide whether you want the job: what you would work on, who you would work with, how success is measured, what training you would get and what happened to the people who joined before you. The Australian Government's Your Career website says asking questions shows your interest in the job and helps you find out whether it will be a good fit. Prepare more than you need, ask your best two or three, and leave pay until the employer raises it or an offer arrives.

Why should you ask questions in an interview?

An interview runs both ways. UNSW describes an interview as your chance to work out whether you want to work for the company too. UTS Careers says it lets you judge your fit with the organisation, so you can accept or decline an offer with all the facts.

Many students spend their preparation on answers and forget to assess the employer. The questions you ask, and how comfortable the interviewer is answering them, tell you more about an employer than its careers page.

Have at least one ready. A UTS Careers recruiter who spent years interviewing candidates counts hearing "No" to "Do you have any questions?" among the biggest letdowns.

What are the best questions to ask in a job interview?

The questions below are grouped by what you want to find out. Pick the ones that matter most to you and fit the wording to the job.

Questions about the role

  • Is this a new role, and how did the vacancy come about? You learn whether the team is growing or replacing someone.
  • What would I work on in my first three months? You learn whether they have a plan for a new starter.
  • What are some of the challenges I might face? You hear about the hard part of the job before you accept it.
  • Where does this role fit in the organisation, and which teams does it work with most? You learn who you would deal with and who sees your work.

Questions about the team and your manager

  • Who would I work with day to day, and how long have they been here? Long tenures suggest people stay. A team of recent arrivals is worth a follow-up question.
  • Can you tell me about a recent success or challenge for the team? You hear what the team is proud of and what keeps it busy.
  • Who would I report to, and how do they like to work? You learn how much guidance you would get. The Australian Public Service Commission says a selection panel often includes the job's supervisor, so in a public service interview you may be asking your future manager directly.
  • What do you enjoy most about working here? Notice how quickly the answer comes.
  • What do you wish you had known before you joined? You hear what the careers page leaves out.

Questions about how success is measured

  • What would success look like in this role after six months? You learn whether expectations are clear before you start.
  • What does it take to do well in this team? You learn which skills they value most.
  • How is performance reviewed, and how often? You learn when you would get feedback and from whom.

Questions about the graduate program and training

  • What happened to last year's graduates? Ask where they are now, whether they stayed, and whether they were given real work or busywork. The answer, and how comfortable they are giving it, shows you how the program treats people.
  • What training and mentoring would I get? ANU says employers are impressed by a commitment to self-development, and the answer shows you how the company treats staff development.
  • How are rotations decided? Treasury's graduate program, for example, runs three 8 month rotations over 2 years and lets graduates nominate areas of interest for their second and final ones. Ask how a program's rotations work in practice.
  • What kinds of projects would I be involved in? You learn whether graduates work on the team's main work.

Questions about culture and ways of working

  • How would you describe the culture here? Follow up with a request for an example, such as how the team handled its last busy period.
  • What changes are coming for the team or the organisation? You learn whether the role will look the same in a year.
  • How does the team split its time between the office and home? You learn what your week would look like.

Questions about next steps

  • What are the next steps, and when do you expect to make a decision? UTS Careers calls this a great wrap-up question, because the answer tells you the timeline and what the next stage involves.

Questions drawn from UNSW, ANU, the University of Sydney, Your Career and UTS Careers, and from the Capital W Bulletin for last year's graduates and what the interviewer wishes they had known. The rest are ours.

What questions should you avoid in a first interview?

  • Pay, leave and perks. UNSW advises against asking about salary in a first interview. The University of Sydney says your questions should not all be about benefits such as travel, leave and promotions. UTS Careers says opening with a question about holidays can give the impression you are more interested in time off.
  • Anything the website answers. ANU says to skip questions the organisation's website already answers and to ask a more probing question based on what you read there. UTS Careers says a question like that tells the interviewer you did not prepare. Treasury's graduate page, for example, lists the starting salary and the leave, so neither belongs in a Treasury interview.
  • Questions they have already answered. The University of Sydney says not to ask about information you have already been given. You can ask them to clarify it.

How many questions should you ask in an interview?

Two or three. UTS Careers says to always try to ask at least one or two, and warns that asking too many can make you seem like hard work. It suggests preparing 7 to 10, so you still have some left if the interview covers the rest.

Write them down. UTS Careers suggests bringing them in a notebook and saying you have written some questions down when the time comes. The Australian Public Service Commission says it is okay to bring notes to an interview. Put the question you most want answered first, in case time runs short.

Have them ready from the start. UTS Careers says some interviewers open by asking whether you have any questions.

What if they have already answered your questions?

Say so, and ask one more. UTS Careers suggests telling the interviewer they have answered most of your questions, then asking one last one. Two ways to find it:

  • Go deeper on something they said. If they mentioned a new project, ask what a graduate would do on it. The University of Sydney says asking for clarification is fine.
  • Keep one question an interview rarely covers, such as what the interviewer wishes they had known before joining, or what happened to last year's graduates.

What should you ask in a graduate or internship interview?

For a graduate program or an internship, these tell you the most about your first year:

  • What did last year's graduates or interns work on, and where are they now?
  • How do interns move into the graduate program?
  • Who would I report to day to day, and will I have a buddy or mentor? Treasury, for example, connects each graduate with a buddy who has finished the program.
  • How are rotations chosen, and how much say do graduates have?
  • What training happens in the first few months?
  • What would a strong first six months look like?
  • What are the next steps, and when will I hear back?

For the questions they will ask you, our guide to the STAR method has example answers. For how vacation programs lead to graduate offers, see what an internship is and how to get one.

When can you ask about pay in an interview?

Let the employer raise it. The University of Sydney's careers centre says an interview is not the ideal time to ask about salary, because your focus should be on showing you suit the job, and suggests waiting until the employer brings it up.

Be ready if they do. Your Career says an employer might ask about your salary expectations in the interview, so find out what similar jobs pay beforehand. UTS Careers says it might not come up often for internship and graduate roles. Some graduate programs publish the starting salary on their careers page, as Treasury's does, which gives you the figure before you walk in.

Negotiate once the offer arrives. When you compare offers, the University of Sydney suggests weighing the whole job, including the training, the support and your chances to progress. Our guide to negotiating a salary offer covers the steps.

What should you do after the interview?

Send a short thank-you email within a couple of days, as UNSW suggests, and say what appealed to you now that you know more about the job. For a public service job, the Australian Public Service Commission suggests calling the contact officer to ask about the timeframe if you have heard nothing in the weeks after the interview. If you miss out, ask for feedback, as Your Career, the University of Sydney and the Commission all suggest.

Sources

First ran in the Capital W Bulletin

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