What questions should a candidate ask at a job interview

What questions should a candidate ask at a job interviewWhat questions should a candidate ask at a job interviewWhat questions I can answer for you?You know its coming at the end of the job interview yur chance to turn the tables and ask the interviewer your questions. The very best piece of advice for navigating this parte of the interview successfully?Realize that this is still part of the interview.Tzu siches a common misconception that the purpose of asking questions here is to gather information for yourself. Thats not true.Until you have a job offer, your job is to make yourself a no-brainer hire even when youre the one asking the questions.The right questions, then, are not about how big the company is, its history, or anything else you can find online (which you have responsibly and diligently done already). Rather,you should be asking questions that demonstrate your ability to contribute to the company, to learn fast, and to be a great team member.Your questions should also set you up to send a customized, value-added follow-up. They should give you some insight into the company that allows you to dig even deeper when you leave the room, and deliver additional thoughts or insights later especially those that will set you apart from other candidates.So, given that you goal is to lean on behauptung questions to make yourself a no-brainer byDemonstrating your ability to contribute to the organizationDemonstrating your ability to learn fastDemonstrating your potential to be a great team memberSetting yourself up to send a standout follow-up that adds value the best questions are open-ended and ask about big topics, like strategic concerns, company culture priorities, or what it would take to be successful in this job.A few examplesWhat keeps you up at night?What is the biggest business problem youre currently trying to solve?What are the most exciting initiatives at your company right now?What are you particularly excited to be working on at the moment?H ave you done anything at your company that you dont think you could have done anywhere else?When an employee really demonstrates the companys values, what does that look like? Can you think of any examples of great colleagues whove done that?What does this role do to change the game for your company? What can this company do with this role that we cant do without it?What has a successful candidate in this role done in 60 days on the job? In six months?Since youve asked questions that give you a better understanding of how you can add value to this company, your next task is to use the information that youve received as ammunition to deliver something of value to the employer, something that distinguishes you as a candidate. Send your ideas for how to solve the problems actually start building some of the solutions. While 99% of candidates will be sending a generic thank you email, youll actually be showing the kind of employee youll be if you get the job.Putting in that bit of extra effort when others might lean back and wait to see what happens makes all the differenceas a candidate. Weve seen this time and again in stories from our alumni atFlatiron School, as they went out for software engineering jobs often competing against candidates who had more relevant experience, more extensive education in computer science, or both. Consider a few of their storiesKavan B., who watched computer vision tutorials online and created a basic facial recognition app using the same technology used by his future employer.Lucas M., who found his future employers GitHub repository, rewrote a test left on their to-do list, and submitted a pull request. They created a role just for him because he so embodied their value of boldness.Kristin D., who learned in her final interview that the employer wasnt sure if shed be happy relocating to a new city for the role. She immediately wrote a non-technical blog post about what she was looking forward to doing in that city and sent it to the hiring manager who sent her an offer a couple hours later.(You can read more of these stories and job search best practices in our eBookHow to Be a No-Brainer Tech Hire.)The opportunity to ask questions is your chance to demonstrate what a great employee youll be, and to gather the information you need to really make yourself stand out in the next step. I once received a follow-up from a candidate who detailed all the ways she had already implemented our approach to career coaching and student developmentin her other job. (She got an offer.)Sure, you could ask how many employees the company has hired this year. But who would you rather hire Someone whos demonstrated that theyre already doing the job, or the guy who could have Googled it?Rebekah Rombom is vice president ofCareer Services Business Development at Flatiron School. This article first appeared at Quora.