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Reverse Interviewing: Qs to ask Your Interviewer

Wendy-Lynn

Today, two separate emails (Danny Sheridan - of Amazon Fame and the editors at Reforge) both sent out the POVs on what to ask your interviewer in the last 5 minutes of your interview when they let you reverse things.

Over the years, I have always kept my advice pretty simple:

  • Ask them something where the interviewer can talk about themself.

    • What do you love most about your role?

    • What are your current challenges?

  • Ask what you can do to help them when you start?

    • How can the person in this role be most impactful in their first few months (30, 60 or 90 days)??

    • What is the most important thing I could do in my first week to have impact?

  • Ask a standard question you ask all interviewers so you can monitor discrepancies.

    • What are the best and worst parts of working for X company?

From the ex-Amazon crowd:

What Danny Sheridan advises: (Well, what he shared from Dave Anderson)

Questions to Ask at the End of an Interview

One of the most important signals you can send during an interview is the questions you ask at the end.

Here are five ideas:

  • What's your favorite thing about working on this team?

  • What's the most exciting project you've worked on recently?

  • What do you think slows our team down the most? What prevents us from hitting our goals?

  • Do you know what my first project might be if I was hired? I'd love to have an idea of the type of work I'd be doing if I was hired.

  • What is a common mistake people make while joining, and how would you recommend I avoid making that mistake?

Bonus: Questions not to ask:

  • How much is this position paid?

  • What does this team do?

  • Can I transfer teams once I join?

  • I don't have any questions left.

From Reforge: Tools rather than a fixed list

Crafting questions: More tool than list

Step 1: Identify your high points.

Step 2: Identify the commonalities.

Step 3: Create your non-negotiable list.

Step 4: Write questions for your non-negotiables.

Step 5: Reword the questions so you get truthful answers.

Other references:

  1. Top 50 List from The Muse

  2. 38 Questions from HBR

  3. Knowing if the company it truly Product-Led from Andrew Skotzko