20 Interview Questions To Ask Your Next Boss

Dear Liz,

I always prepare eight or 10 questions to ask my future boss at a job interview, but sometimes they answer my questions before I have a chance to ask them.

I hate it when the manager asks me "Do you have any more questions for me?" and I have to say "No."

I feel like an idiot then! I need more questions. Can you help me?

Thanks!

Yours,

Lydia

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Dear Lydia,

Rather than worrying that your hiring manager is going to answer your scripted questions before you've had a chance to ask them, your goal is to turn your interview into an organic conversation about the job.

Let's compare a job-seeker who's got a set of scripted questions in hand to a second job-seeker who asks questions that spring from her curiosity about the job and the conversation she's in.

Interview Script One: Job-Seeker with Scripted Questions

Manager: So, do you have any questions for me?

Job-Seeker: Well, you've answered many of my questions -- let me check my list....oh, here's one! What is your management style?

Manager: I like to hire smart people and give them as little direction as possible -- as much as they need, and no more.

Job-Seeker: Okay, great. I don't have any more questions.

"What's your management style?" is a lousy question to ask your future boss, because nobody can see their own management style from the outside in, and anyway our management styles shift and vacillate all over the place just as all human traits do.

Nobody can give you a good answer to the question "What's your management style?"

If you want to know more about a manager's style or personality, you have to ask them to tell you stories -- stories that show them in action doing their management thing!

Here's a second job-seeker who will never run out of questions for her future boss, because her questions spring right out of the conversation:

Interview Two: Job-Seeker without Scripted Questions

Manager: So, do you have any questions for me?

Job-Seeker: Yes! You talked a little bit about the part of this role that takes care of your national accounts. How does that work? How many national accounts are there, and who are the representatives that I'll be  working with?

Manager: Yes, let's talk about that. We are just getting started with our national accounts program. We have one full-time sales person who works with our national accounts and they have a dedicated customer support person, too. We have seven national accounts that do at least $10 million dollars in business with us each year. You would only spend a small amount of time working with our national accounts, but of course these accounts are very important to us at the same time. You'd be dealing with their Accounts Payable people for the most part.

Job-Seeker: Great! Would I be talking with them about billing issues, reporting, or something else?

Manager: All of the above. If it has to do with invoicing, payments received, credits, and so on, then customer support will transfer a call or forward an email message over to you if you're doing this job.

Job-Seeker: And then I'm researching the issue, looking at what may have broken down or where there could be confusion...?

Manager: That's right. Our goal is 24-hour turnaround for national account queries except on the weekend. It's not hard to do because we only have seven national accounts at the moment, but the program is growing.

Job-Seeker: So handling national accounts is an important part of the role, but not one of the most significant aspects of the job in terms of time invested -- is that right?

Manager: That's right.

Job-Seeker: Could you give me a feel for the biggest priorities of the job apart from managing national accounts billing  and payments?

Manager: Sure! Let me think for a second before I answer...

This job-seeker is not going to reach a point where she has no more questions to ask. Whatever time frame is allotted for her interview is going to run out before she runs out of conversational fodder.

However, cultivating the conversational skills to manage an interview like a human conversation is a project that takes time.

You won't learn to play the clarinet over a weekend, no matter how hard you try. You have to practice often, and get a little better every time you pick up the instrument. You can't rush the learning curve.

It's the same way with job interviewing. Every time you do it, your muscles will grow a little bit more.

While you are learning how to navigate a pain-based, human-voiced job interview, here are 20 questions  you can ask any hiring manager:

20 Interview Questions To Ask Your Next Boss

1. I'd love to hear your story -- how you got from the start of your career to the role you're in right now.

2. What are the biggest priorities for your department over the coming year? How will your new hire support your ability to reach those goals?

3. Is this a newly-created position, or would I be replacing someone in this role? If so, has that person moved on inside the company, or what took place exactly to create this vacancy?

4. What are the roles of the other folks in the department, and how large a group is it? What would my interaction with my teammates be like?

5. Who are the internal and external clients for this role, and what does each of them require from the person in this position?

6. What is the typical career path for a person in this role, and what is the time frame associated with that career path?

7. What do you see as the highest priorities for your new hire over the next 12 months?

8. What is the set of things that this new hire will take care of and resolve completely in the next 90 days such that you will say "Thank goodness I hired this person!"

9. What do you see as the thorniest or most daunting challenge for your new hire as they begin the job?

10. How do you communicate with your team members? Do you schedule one-on-one sit-down meetings, do  you hold staff meetings, do you prefer to communicate via email, or what exactly?

11. How will I be evaluated in this role? What are the principal metrics?

12. What constitutes a workday here? What are the working hours, and what are your expectations around taking work  home, staying late or being 'reachable' after hours?

13. How much travel is built into this role, if any?

14. How will your new hire be trained or learn the ropes in their new position?

15. Can you please tell me a story that illustrates your management style?

16. Can you please tell me a story that speaks to your corporate culture?

17. How does your bonus plan work?

18. I would love to see a copy of your employee handbook. Could you help me get a copy to read at home?

19. Some of your team members seem to wear traditional business attire and others wear "business casual." What are your thoughts about the dress code for your team?

20. How will the arrival of your new hire make your job easier?