Seven: A Complete List of Questions you want to Ask

During the course of an interview, your dialogue with the other person will spawn a number of questions spontaneously. However, there may be important issues to discuss which will never come up unless you take the initiative. For that reason, you should bring a list of questions with you that will address these issues, so that you don’t leave the interview uninformed.

Premeditated questions can be grouped into four different categories:

1. Company questions deal with the organization, direction, policies, stability, growth, market share, and new products or services of the prospective company or department;
2. Industry questions deal with the health, growth, change, technological advancement, and personnel of the industry as a whole;
3. Position questions deal with the scope, responsibilities, travel, compensation policies, and reporting structure of the position you’re interviewing for; and
4. Opportunity questions deal with your own potential for growth or advancement within the company or its divisions, and the likely timetable for promotion.

You may have specific interests or concerns surrounding topics in each category. For example, if you’re interviewing with a computer manufacturer, you may want to ask about the future growth of the industry. Or, let’s say you’re interviewing for a position with a company that’s known for its high rate of personnel turnover. You might want to prepare a carefully worded question that deals with that issue.