questions to ask employer during interview

- What are the top three qualities an employee needs to be successful in this job?

If the interviewer says he values attention to detail, good writing skills, and the ability to juggle several tasks at once, you've learned a lot about his expectations. You'll also be able to assess if the job is a decent match with your skills.

- What would I do during a typical workday?

Ok, it's obvious why you would want to ask this. But watch out for a possible problem - if the interviewer says, "Well, every day is different," he may not know what he wants. There may be confusion about responsibilities. If you get that answer, say, "Tell me about the sorts of things I might do over a typical week or month."

- How will I be trained or introduced to the job?

Understand if you're on your own on day one or if there's a plan for getting you up and running successfully.

- What is a typical career path for this job?

This may not apply to some types of jobs.

- What are some of the goals and challenges your group is likely to face in the next year?

You're looking for two things here - information about what's likely to happen, and whether people are thinking about the future. A company is more likely to be successful if its staff is thinking ahead.

- How would my job performance be evaluated?

There should be a clear answer to this. If there isn't, you may be at the whim of an arbitrary boss. Most companies have a process for performance evaluations.

- What are some of the things that you like about working for this company?

If the interviewer can't come up with a couple of things he likes about the company, you may want to learn more before accepting a job offer.

- Who would I work with?

Find out about the people you might work with - is it a large group, or small? Are they your peers? Are there any people you can learn from?

- What hours do people typically work?

If most people work 7 AM to 3 PM, and you like to roll in at 10 AM, you may have a mismatch. You may also want to explore how much people work - is this strictly eight hours a day, or are you expected to work a lot of additional hours?

- What are the next steps?

You want to find out if there will be another round of interviews, if you'll hear back by a certain date, and what the hiring process will be.

The questions, as jotted down by Sameer and Priya, of course are very good and can provide great tool to the candidate to know about the organization and functions, duties & responsibilities likely to be entrusted to the interviewee (candidate).

BUT, I am afraid, if the candidate starts asking such a big lot of intriguing questions to the employer, the employer would definitely be annoyed and the candidate could be shown the way to exit even before his selection, howsoever intellectual and experienced he may be. In that case, the employer would be compelled to think as if the candidate is over-smart and over-indulgent and can cause a lot of problems if selected. The employer would think as if his authority is being encroached upon by the candidate by over-acting to be the interviewer of the employer instead of being interviewed.

SO, A CANDIDATE, who needs an employment, MUST BE RATIONAL IN HIS APPROACH AND CAN USE SUCH QUESTIONS AS A TOOL to help him the other way. He can take the cue from such a good questions and try to know privately from the HR, concerned Head of the Unit, or the related employees of the organization well before the date of interview to gather proper knowledge about the organization, its culture, obligations and also the functions he would be required to discharge. He may try to link his so collected knowledge to his advantage at the time of his interview y linking that with the nature of questions to be asked by the employer. He can raise a few related queries side by side his own replies to he interview questions. That way, annoyance of the employer can be avoided and the employer would definitely think that the candidate has legitimate queries to be asked relevant to the interview questions being asked to him. Being impressed, he would be more than happy to share the knowledge with the candidates.

1. How big is the team I'd be working with? 

2.Who would my co-workers be, and what are their functions? 

3.How many people would I be managing? 

4.What are the goals of this department

5.What makes this company different from its competitors?

6.What do you like about this company? What keeps you here?

7.Does your company encourage further education?

1. How often are performance reviews given?

2. Do you have plans for expansion?

3. How do you feel about creativity and individuality?

4. Stop asking questions if you sense it is bothering the interviewer.