15 Questions to Ask a Hiring Manager

Prepare eight to ten questions and plan to ask three to five. You need spares because a good interviewer will answer half of them unprompted.

Pick for the person in front of you. A hiring manager can tell you what the work actually involves, who you'd deal with and how they run their team. A recruiter or HR contact is the better route for process, benefits and pay bands. A potential peer will be honest about the day to day in a way nobody else will.

Write your questions down and bring them. Nobody marks you down for reading from a notebook, and it stops you blanking. Take short notes on the answers — you'll need them to compare offers, and referring back to something they said earlier makes the conversation feel like a conversation.

Ask when invited, usually near the end, but let one or two out mid-interview if they fit what's being discussed.

Start here. These questions test whether the job on the advert is the job that exists.

1. What would a great first six months in this job look like to you? — Tells you whether success has been defined at all, and what you'd actually be judged on rather than what the advert lists.
2. What's the main problem you're hoping this hire will take off your plate? — Reveals the real reason the role is open, which is often narrower and more urgent than the job description suggests.
3. Which parts of this job take up the most time in a typical week? — Lets you check the balance between the work you want and the work that just has to be done, before you accept it.
4. Who would I work with most outside my own team, and what do they need from this role? — Shows you how much of the job is influence, chasing and coordination, which is rarely written down anywhere.

You're interviewing your future manager as much as they're interviewing you. Ask about behaviour, not values.

1. How is the team structured today, and where would I sit in it? — Tells you your level in practice, who you'd be senior to, and whether the team is stretched or well covered.
2. How do you like to work with people who report to you — how often do we meet, and what do you want to hear about between meetings? — Gives you their management style in concrete terms instead of adjectives.
3. Is this a new role or a replacement, and what changed? — A polite way to ask about turnover; how freely they answer is as informative as the answer.
4. When something goes wrong in the team, what does the first conversation usually look like? — Shows whether mistakes get fixed or get blamed, which affects how much you'll enjoy the job.

If you meet more than one person, save questions 6 and 8 for the person you'd report to.

These questions work best with the hiring manager, who knows what has actually happened to people on their team.

1. What have people in this role gone on to do here? — Real examples mean a path exists; vague talk about opportunity usually means it doesn't.
2. How would I pick up the things I don't know yet in the first few months — shadowing, documentation, formal training? — Tells you whether onboarding is planned or improvised, which matters most when the role is a stretch.
3. How are performance and progression reviewed, and who is in the room when that happens? — Shows you how visible your work will be and how much your manager alone decides.

Two questions are enough here, and they should show you've already done the reading.

1. What's changed about the way this team works over the last year? — Surfaces reorganisations, new leadership or shifting priorities that you'd otherwise walk into blind.
2. What's the biggest pressure on this part of the business right now? — Tells you what the team will be measured on, and therefore what will land on your desk first.

Close the interview cleanly. These two take under a minute and are worth more than anything else on the list.

1. What are the remaining stages, who would I meet, and roughly when will you be in touch? — Gives you a timeline you can follow up against, and tells you how far along the process really is.
2. Is there anything in my background you'd like me to expand on before I go? — Your one chance to hear a doubt out loud and answer it, instead of being rejected for something you could have cleared up in thirty seconds.

None of these are forbidden forever. Most are either research you should have done, or offer-stage business you should raise with the recruiter.

Also avoid anything you could answer yourself in one search, and anything that invites gossip about a named colleague or a competitor. If you want to know about a difficult reputation the company has, ask about the behaviour rather than the rumour: "How does the team handle busy periods?" gets you further than "I've heard the hours are bad."