Questions you'd like to ask at interview but don't dare

[cheminotte]

So I'm looking for a new job and its always good to have questions for the interviewer and to try and understand if you actually want to work there.
I'd really like to ask about the gender split within the team and especially at senior level, but I can't really can I?

I'd like to ask "how valued do the staff feel" or similar

I'd love to ask "Do your employees like you?"

I worked for a really unpleasant bully once and wonder how he would have answered that.

I'd like to ask "how do I get YOUR job"?

Yes I sometimes ask 'what's your management style?' - but no-one has ever admitted to being a micro-manager!

What's your maternity leave policy?
Have any members of your team requested reduced hours, and were their requests successful?
How many days a week would I be allowed to work from home?
Are employees expected to pay for their own Christmas party?
How many days of sickness are we allowed each year before HR get involved?

I think all these are fair questions, it's just how you ask them! Ie:

• do you have an agile working policy?
• can you tell me about career progression in the company? Eg I'd love to hear how you moved to your level
• what are the team dynamics like, how do you build teams and make sure they work well?

I think an interview is just as much about you seeing if this organisation is going to be a good match for you as you for them. I wouldn't be put off by a candidate wanting to explore any of those areas. And some of our most effective people use agile working.

And for the question in the OP, what is your organisation's approach to diversity. Any decent company will have an answer.

It's interesting, if someone asked about gender divides I probably wouldn't be fazed as an interviewer, and I might think you were ambitious and eyeing up a top job one day ... but then our entire team is accessible online so it's not exactly secret.

You could ask about the structure of the team and how you'd fit in, you might hear something incidentally about genders there? "Bob's our account manager, Sarah's our PA"?

I was on an interview panel not long ago. One candidate, the successful one, asked the best question and one I am totally going to use the next time I have an interview

"What do you like about working at ..."

What is agile working? Is it the same as flexible working?
Questions about team dynamics sound good but I'm always a bit sceptical of policies. HR may have written a great policy about equal opportunities but I want to know if I'm going to be the only woman on the team that's not admin.

Another one for a future male boss - does your wife work, if so as what? Men with sahm are less understanding of wohm pressures than if their wife also has a career in my experience.

Agile working is working in different locations/ offices occasionally
Flex working is the hours worked
Do if you work normal hours but worked from home one day it's agile
If you want to pick up kids and finish at 2pm its flexi

Wow trapper, those are the questions that would mean you definitely wouldn't get the job!!

I asked what the staff turnover was like,and whether I could adjust the hours asked for to suit my childcare needs.

So what's the office banter like?

I asked my interviewer to describe the culture of their department. She was really surprised to get asked this but actually gave a fairly accurate answer which was useful!

I work in recruitment.

cheminotte you can ask about the gender split. I don't see the problem with that at all.

SeahorseSid's way of wording it is perfect.

Trapper you would not get the job where I work, sounds very grabby!

You could ask about the team, staff turnover, typical career progression, possibly diversity if you must. In my field there are usually 70 applicants to every post, so the merest whiff of trouble and you would be on your way. I also would stay clear of asking personal questions, asking an interviewer what their wife does for a living would not be acceptable or appropriate.

Why is the position vacant?

I thought that was the point of Trappers post, in response to the thread title- they are qus you wouldn't dare ask?!

My question I always ask has been said. "Why do you work here" or sometimes its "what are the best and worse things about working here"

They usually go down well.

One question I wanted to ask once, but didn't have the guts even though I had decided by this point I didn't want the job was "why should I work for you?" I wanted to bring the interviewer down a peg or two as she was totally up herself and spoke to me like a piece of shit straight away. I left without asking anything.

I always ask what the interviewers are most excited about in the next three months. if they can't answer then it shows a lack of enthusiasm about their own job which is worrying if they'll be managing me

Ah I see your point happy girl re trappers post... Sorry trapper! Note to self: read post more thoroughly!

I actually asked one supply chain manager, who had seemed quite nice and relaxed up to that point, what did his staff thought about him. He wouldn't shut up about himself and how he was the boss, he'd earned him stripes (twice he did hand signals showing two imaginary stripes on shoulder) and got to tell people what to do, admitted to shouting at staff, and telling people when they weren't doing well enough.

He never mentioned one positive thing and was very proud of himself. When he eventually finished I said "Wow", and thanked him for being so honest, and politely told him the issues with that type of working environment, why i couldnt work in it, and how I now understood why he had previously told me he'd had quite a lot of recent staff turn over. I thanked him for interviewing me but it didn't look like we could work together.

He was pretty lost for words at that point, although he did thank me for being honest, and then he ended the interview rather awkwardly.

Asked the same question subsequently at other interviews and it always went down well.