A job interview is more than just proving you’re the right person for the job — it’s also your chance to assess whether this position and company are the right fit for you.
By the time you walk into the interview, you should have a solid understanding of the company, a clear sense of how the role aligns with your career goals and a few unique questions at the ready. Whether they’re about the company culture or growth potential, these questions not only show your genuine interest, but they can also set you apart from other candidates.
Unique Questions to Ask an Employer
- What separates top performers from other employees in this role?
- What is the biggest challenge or learning curve for employees stepping into this role?
- If I asked someone on the team to describe your management style, what would they say?
- How does the company support innovation?
- What most excites about the company’s future?
- What type of people excel in this company culture? What types of people don’t?
- What’s the average tenure on the team, and what makes people stay?
Why Asking Questions in an Interview Is Important
Asking questions during a job interview is an important part of the process — not just for gathering information, but for demonstrating your interest, curiosity and thought process. It can help you decide whether an opportunity aligns with your career ambitions, values and work style. It can also help you dive deeper into a topic that was mentioned earlier in the interview, or explore a new topic that hasn’t been addressed.
Recruiters and hiring managers will typically leave time at the end of an interview to allow you to ask these questions. If you don’t have any, it can be a red flag indicating a lack of preparation or genuine interest in the role, team or company.
On the other hand, asking smart, well-researched questions shows that you’ve done your homework and are taking the opportunity seriously. It allows you to flip the script and position yourself as more than just a job seeker, but as someone who is looking for a company that actually aligns with your goals and values. A unique, well-crafted question can also evoke a deeper, more thoughtful exchange, leaving a lasting impression on the interviewer.
20 Unique Interview Questions to Ask
These are some unique questions you can ask to determine if the role, the company, the culture, the management style and the team are the right fit for you.
Questions About the Role
1. What would you expect me to accomplish in the first six months?
This question can give you a better idea of what the job entails and what’s really expected of you. By asking this question, you show that you are ready to hit the ground running and focused on the value you can add to the organization. It also shows that you appreciate a mutual understanding of goals and expectations. If the hiring manager isn’t able to articulate a clear goal, it may indicate a lack of strategic planning or performance management systems.
2. What are the three most important skills someone needs to succeed in this role?
This question can provide an opening for the hiring manager to go beyond the job description and discuss the nuances of the work. Their answer can also offer insight into the skills they value, which may indicate how they’ll evaluate your performance. You can follow up their response by highlighting your proficiency in these skills, which will help the hiring manager see the value you can bring to the role.
3. What separates top performers from other employees in this role?
You’ve likely already touched on the expectations for the role, but you’re not interested in merely meeting expectations. You want to know what you can do to thrive in this role and potentially advance to a higher role in the company. A hiring manager will love this question, as it shows you set high standards for yourself and aspire to be a rock star employee.
4. What does a typical career path look like for someone in this position?
Career development is a top priority for job applicants, so it’s important to understand what your career progression could look like. If you’re interviewing for a customer support role, it might be helpful to know, for example, if the job could lead to a role in sales or product management. A hiring manager will be glad to see that you are thinking of long-term growth within the organization. If they can’t provide an answer, that may be a hint that there’s little room for advancement — which is important to know if you want to grow your career.
5. What does a typical day look like in this role? What does a typical week look like?
A job description might list 10 responsibilities, so it can be difficult to visualize how much time should be allocated to each component. This question may also reveal that the aspect of the job that excites you the most is not as central to the role as you hoped. The interviewer might respond by saying that every day is different — and that may be true. In that case, you might follow up by asking what an employee in that role has worked on during the past week.
6. What is the biggest challenge or learning curve for employees stepping into this role?
You may have a basic sense of what the job entails, but there’s still a lot you don’t know. As you visualize your first several months in the role, this question can help you identify what obstacles lie ahead. Maybe there’s a specific rhythm to juggling tasks, or a complicated organizational dynamic that takes time to get used to. Ideally, the hiring manager will be aware of the challenges you’re likely to encounter, what strategies you can use to overcome those challenges and how they might offer resources to support the transition.
Questions About the Company
7. What do you like best about working here?
This question allows you to learn about the company while also getting to know the interviewer on a more personal level — whether it be a hiring manager or a potential colleague. It may also help move the conversation past all the corporate jargon and elicit a more genuine response. If the interviewer lights up when talking about their ability to take on new projects, that’s a better sign than someone struggling to come up with a vague answer about corporate values.
8. What are the biggest challenges facing this industry, and what is this company doing to address that challenge?
This question will help you gauge whether the company is on top of market trends and poised for future innovation. If you’re already aware of the biggest challenge facing this industry, you could tailor your question to target that concern. But leaving the question open-ended could reveal another challenge you were not aware of. Their answer may also reflect the focus of their strategic vision.
9. What is the biggest challenge facing this company?
Industry dynamics aside, it’s also important to get a sense of what challenges the company itself is facing. They might talk about their struggle to integrate artificial intelligence, scale their company or respond to changing customer demands. Whatever the issue may be, it’s helpful to know how they are thinking about the challenge and what they are doing to address it.
10. What most excites you about the company’s future?
This question shows that you are interested in joining a growing company, and it gives the hiring manager an opportunity to sell you on the company’s promising future. This question may reveal growth plans that were not previously discussed, and it offers a glimpse into the motivations of the hiring manager. If you’re going to spend the majority of your working hours here, you want to be sure the company has a clear and realistic vision that aligns with your interests and values.
Questions About the Culture
11. How does the company support employees’ professional development and career growth?
Every employee is responsible for their own career growth, but there are plenty of things a company can do to foster development. They can offer career pathing, employee development plans, learning and development programming and mentorship programs, to name just a few examples. By asking this question, you’ll show the hiring manager that you are growth-oriented, and you’ll be able to see what resources are available to facilitate that growth.
12. What type of people excel in this company culture? What types of people don’t?
Every recruiter or hiring manager will tell you they have a great corporate culture, and they may elaborate with words like “positive,” “collaborative” or “inclusive.” If you want to get a better sense of what the corporate culture is really like, this question can help the interviewer go beyond high-level concepts and describe specific personality types. If a hiring manager says the team is “like a family” or the culture is “fast-paced,” job seekers should be able to pick up on those terms and assess their cultural compatibility accordingly.
13. How does the company support innovation?
Innovative companies are more likely to adapt to changing market conditions and remain successful over time. While nearly all companies think of themselves as innovative, this question will push the employer to speak more about the ways they foster psychological safety, encourage risks and embrace failure. By asking this question, the hiring manager will see that you aren’t someone who settles for the status quo.
14. How does the team live up to company values in stressful situations?
Companies often talk about their lofty core values, but they don’t always live up to them. To assess whether they practice what they preach, ask the hiring manager to provide an example of how the team lived up to those values when tested in a high-pressure situation. This question might be a bit of a hardball, but it shows you are committed to working in an ethical, values-driven environment.
Question About Management Style
15. If I asked someone on the team to describe your management style, what would they say?
Getting a sense of your supervisor’s management style can help you figure out whether it’s compatible with the way you work. While some managers may have the self-awareness to accurately describe the way they lead their team, this phrasing encourages them to focus less on how they see themselves and more on how their approach actually affects their employees.
16. How often do you give feedback to your direct reports, and how do you deliver it?
By asking about the hiring manager’s feedback style, you can get a sense for how they communicate and interact with their direct reports. If they give feedback on a regular basis at one-on-one meetings, you are more likely to be on the same page about your performance. But it’s a red flag if they only give feedback during performance reviews, without offering ongoing guidance, support or resources to help you grow and improve.
17. Can you describe a time you advocated for someone on your team?
Ideally, your manager would be more than someone who oversees your work. Over time, they might mentor you, give you feedback and encourage your professional growth. They might also defend you in a meeting or fight for the resources you need to do your job. This question can reveal whether the manager takes an active role in advocating for their employees, or if they take a more hands-off approach.
Questions About the Team
18. What’s a challenge the team has recently encountered, and what did you learn from it?
Nobody wants to work on a toxic or dysfunctional team. To better understand the level of communication, collaboration and productivity of the team, you can ask the manager to recount how the team functioned under a challenging situation. Their answer will tell you if the team leads with solutions or finger-pointing, and it will also show if the manager has reflected on how the team can grow from it.
19. How does the team celebrate wins?
When managers and teams celebrate their accomplishments and recognize each other, they are reaffirming the value of each other’s work, boosting team morale and building connections with each other. By asking this question, you can gauge whether employees are recognized for their contributions, how they are recognized and, more broadly, how the team interacts with each other.
20. What’s the average tenure on the team, and what makes people stay?
Employee tenure can tell you a lot about the organizational culture. If the average employee has been with the company for less than a year, it might suggest high turnover — possibly due to limited growth opportunities, poor work-life balance or a negative culture. While it may be a bit awkward to ask (indirectly) about turnover, this question also invites the hiring manager to talk about the company’s cultural strengths. It shows you’re thinking long-term and looking for a place where you can grow, not just a stepping stone.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do interviewers like it when you ask questions?
Yes. In fact, interviewers expect you to come prepared with questions. This shows that you have researched the company, envisioned yourself in the role and contemplated how it aligns with your interests, values and career goals.
How many questions should I ask at the end of my interview?
You should generally ask two to three questions at the end of an interview. You should probably prepare five to eight questions ahead of time, though, as many of them will likely be addressed throughout the interview.
