Do you have any questions?

One of the questions that i invariably ask to candidates at the end of the interview discussion is "do you have any questions?".  Having interviewed many candidates, I've come across different kinds of responses and I thought i would talk about them in this posting.  I hope this must help the job seekers (fresher and Jr. candidates) to understand what they should NOT be asking when this question is asked. I mean “Must No-Questions”.

Let us check out some of the interesting questions asked to me when I asked - "Do you have a question?"

Questions related to leaves

# What is your leave policy and will I Be eligible to avail leave?

# Do you work on Saturdays or all Saturdays are off Saturdays?

# Do you provide permission?

Look at these questions and tell me what kind of inference you would make about the candidate.  He has not even joined and he wants to know the leave policy and thinking of his leave plans.  Your chances of coming across as a serious candidate and getting selected is very less.

Questions related to Interview performance

# Do you think I performed well?

# How would you rate my performance on a 5 point rating scale?

# What do you think are my strengths and weaknesses?

# How is my communication skill?

The intention is good and it's appreciated.  However, it's the other way of asking the interviewer to hint if they would select you or not.  With all the questions asked and the responses given by you in the interview discussion, you should be able to self-introspect and see what you did well, what you messed up and what you need to improve.  It's for the interviewee or the interview candidate to do it and don’t expect the interviewer to give you feedback on this.  So these are also the questions that need to be avoided.

Questions related to the Organization

# Can you tell me about your company?

# May I know something about your company?

# What is your company doing ? what is the Business you are into?

Any prospective candidate is expected to some homework and get to know something about the Organization before showing up for interview. If it's not done, you are not serious enough.  I've seen both fresher and experienced candidates failing here.  In case you had already checked the website and you are raising doubts, it's fine. Otherwise, it’s not a good idea to ask the interviewer to give you a brief about the company. 

Questions related to study holidays / exams leaves.

# I am planning to do my Post-graduation / higher education. Will you give long leave for my studies and exam?

# Can I get a month leave for my exam preparation?

Different companies have different policies on higher education. However, when you take up a job, your first priority should be job and you can pursue higher education as long as you can strike a balance between your job priorities and higher education. You will not get holidays or long leaves for studies and exams that you would have got as a student. Limited no. of leaves are fine.  No organization would want to hire a candidate who looks at the job as a second priority or stop- gap arrangement.  Let us practicable.

Questions on selection

# Am I selected ?

# Will you select me?

#Am I  good enough to work in your Organization?

# I like to work in your company. Can you pls. select me?

If you are selected, you would get to hear.  It's as simple as that. It is fine to ask when you will announce the result or when I will get to know my interview status. But don’t press the panic button and ask any of the above questions.

Questions related to salary?

# When is my next salary increase?

# How much increase would I get?

# When will I get my salary?

No one does job for charity and end of the day, money matters.  However, these questions don’t show you in good light.  

Some of the good questions I’ve been asked

# How long have you been working here ? What has been your carreer growth?

# What will be my career growth?

# What kind of projects you do and in which project i would get to work?

This shows candidates' career orientation, achievement orientation, learning orientation and commitment to grow along with the company.  These are some of the good questions that you can think of asking.

If you don’t have anything to ask, it's better to leave rather than asking something for a sake of asking and losing your chances of getting the job. 

Remember, you may ask something wrong out of ignorance. But Ignorance is not accepted in life.

So do you have any questions?

diD yOU enJOY ReADinG ThIS ArTIcLE? 

                                  If yES, 

yOU maY sHAre it wiTH Your FriENds tOO