candidates ask so many questions that our interviews are running over schedule

by Alison Green on August 22, 2024

A reader writes:

I am a manager in the process of expanding my team, so I have been interviewing many job seekers lately. We always give candidates a good 10 to 15 minutes at the end of the interview to ask us any questions they might have about the job, the organization, or the application process. I usually find the questions very interesting and hopefully our responses are helpful for the candidate to determine if this job is a good fit for them.

It used to be that candidates would ask three or four questions, but in this year’s recruitment processes I have found myself dreading the “Do you have any questions for us?” moment. Some candidates just go on and on, asking 10 or more questions and making us easily go over time. We try to go by these questions faster by providing straightforward answers when it’s appropriate or by having only one person in the panel answer to them (before we would each add to other’s responses). None of these strategies have been helpful and we always will have the candidate wanting his questions to be answered by each member of the panel (questions like “can each of you tell me what is your favorite aspect or the main challenge of your job?”).

I am a bit lost. It’s important for me that the person we are hiring feels as good about the job and the organization as we do about hiring them and, in the past, questions candidates asked us have given me great insight about their skills and goals, as well as things we should look into in our day-to-day jobs. Yet this avalanche of questions feels like too much.

Am I being too old-school about it? Should we put limits on the number of questions a candidate can ask us (I would hate to do that but might need to because of scheduling issues) or should I be more flexible and allocate more time for candidates to ask us as many questions as they want?

The further into the interview process you are, the more time you should allocate for candidates’ questions.

That’s not to say you shouldn’t allow many questions at the beginning too! Candidates need to know as early as possible whether it makes sense for them to invest time in a hiring process. But as you’re both considering each other increasingly seriously, it becomes even more important for candidates to have time to ask all their questions.

So while, say, five minutes might be enough time to allot for candidates’ questions in a short initial phone screen (if the call itself is 20 minutes or so), I wouldn’t assume ten minutes will be enough time for their’ questions once you’re deeper into the process. Fifteen minutes isn’t unreasonable, though, and if people are still going over that — and especially if it’s to ask fairly softball questions like wanting each person on a panel to name their favorite part of their job — try letting them know at the start of that part of the interview how much time remains. For example: “We have about 15 minutes left and want to know what we can answer for you.” You could even add (especially for candidates you’re very interested in), “If that ends up not being enough time, we’ll make sure there’s more time for questions as we move forward too.” That manages people’s expectations and tells them what you expect, and it allows them to prioritize their most important questions up-front.

And if you’re over time and need to wrap up, you can signal that with something like, “We’re reaching a hard stop, but any last questions before we conclude?”

Of course, you don’t want anyone feeling pressured to accept a job without having had a chance to get all their questions answered, so you should also be open to offering an additional conversation with your final pick if they have outstanding questions — but that’s for later in the process.

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  1. minty*

    Just want to add – if you’re starting to see patterns of the same question being asked my multiple candidates, consider addressing it elsewhere in the interview for all cnadidates. That’ll save the back-and-forth between asking and answering.

    1. Alton Brown's Evil Twin*

      Exactly.

      Especially if these are mechanical/administrative questions — benefits plans, pay cycles, core hours, technology suite, dress code. Get that stuff into a written FAQ.

      1. minty*

        Yep! I’ve found candidates are getting more choosy about tech suite, IMO these should be in the JD.

        And that choosiness makes sense to me, I have grown very fond and comfortable with certain programs.

        1. Beany*

          I can understand applicants being interested in knowing what software environments the company uses (especially if it goes beyond standard office software), but “choosiness” makes it sound like the applicant might actually turn down a job if the company is an all-Microsoft house, for instance. Do people care *that* much?

          1. MBK*

            I wouldn’t turn down a job based on Microsoft vs. Google, but I would strongly consider walking away if I had to use Windows regularly.

    2. Antilles*

      100%, this was going to be my response too.
      If it feels like you keep getting questions about specific topics, then that should be a sign that you’re not being clear. You might say “we value work-life balance and want our employees to have lives” and that feels clear enough to you. But on the other end of the desk, that could mean anything. So I’m naturally going to ask for more details and drill down what exactly that phrase means.
      If you’d instead told me “we value work-life balance, for example, I’m out of here at 5:30 pm every day and don’t even know what the building looks like on a weekend”, then that little bit of extra detail would head off a lot of my questions.

    3. Ask a Manager* Post author

      Absolutely, but the OP says they’re asking things like “can each of you tell me what is your favorite aspect or the main challenge of your job?” which makes me think candidates are asking questions they’ve been told they should ask but aren’t especially pressing and/or missing cues. (Not to say they shouldn’t ask that question; I know some people find it helpful! But it’s in a different category than stuff you could head off by addressing it elsewhere.)

      1. Consonance*

        This is a variation of a question that I really like to ask: What brought you to your role here, and what keeps you coming back each day?

        It’s not a question that I’m asking in order to suss out the specifics of this job, but it’s incredibly helpful for getting a sense of the culture of the place. Are they driven by the work itself? Do they enjoy the culture? Do they care enough to say things positively, or are they so burned out they can’t be bothered? Etc.

        So yes, it may be a question that’s worth asking, but not something they can head-on address as part of a standard interview process. I think this is mostly an issue of time-management by the search committee, rather than an actual issue of the questions or candidates. It’s pretty simple to say “We have about two minutes left. Is there anything else we can answer for you?” and then close with “If there’s anything else that comes up that you need to know, please feel free to reach out by email” or similar.

        1. Sloanicota*

          It would also seem a bit rude on a panel interview to only ask one or two people that question, but in reality you may only want to hear two or three people’s stories – not all six people’s.

          1. Consonance*

            For sure. And if someone tells me “We have five minutes – what questions do you have?” I may or may not roll that one out. If it’s clear that “the time allotted for this interview is one hour” and not “we keep going until we’ve exhausted all questions,” then I can easily prioritize and may stick to a more fact-based question.

            In fact, when running interviews, I do start them with something along the lines of “We an hour allotted for this interview, and anticipate that our ten questions will take about forty five minutes. Then we’ll open it up for your questions.” That really helps set the tone and take away ambiguity about how we anticipate the interview will go. I also wonder if this is happening to the letter writer because candidates think that they *should* continue asking questions until cut off to demonstrate engagement/preparation/etc. They may be relieved to be cut off.

            1. Sloanicota*

              Yeess although I do see the hierarchy issue where you will get all the time you need to make your decision and if it runs over, that’s *their* time getting lost. IMO, you will need to pair this with a) actually managing time if you’re not getting through your questions in a timely fashion, possibly even stopping yourself at the 45 minute mark regardless, or creating an additional opportunity if the candidate didn’t get adequate time to get answers.

              1. Consonance*

                For sure. I’m in academia, so there’s usually a 1-hour Zoom interview, followed by a full day on campus, which includes a fair amount of casual conversation time in which I encourage them to ask anything that’s on their mind. And when I make an offer, I always include the opportunity to talk/learn/ask more before they make a decision.

          2. MBK*

            “I was wondering if one or two of you could share…” etc. Ask the whole group, but make it clear you don’t need answers from *everyone*.

      2. Not A Girl Boss*

        In my role I have increasingly seen candidates coming in with longgggg printed lists of questions they have prepared, that are kind of vague and unhelpful variations of each other, and remind me of when I was forced to ask weird predetermined question sets at an old company. They don’t even seem to care much about the answer?

        I’ve come to the conclusion that someone told them they NEED to come with a list of ‘smart’ question to ask to seem ‘invested’ and ‘prepared’. My colleague handles this brilliantly, I think, by stopping every ~10 minutes or so and saying “do you have a question you’d like to ask us?” – It helps to limit time, break up the interview, and sometimes catches them off-guard enough that they blurt out what they really want to know, or play off the topic of discussion from a minute ago.

      3. samwise*

        Although the candidate may ask for each member of the panel to answer these sorts of questions, that doesn’t mean you have to do so.

        Say candidate gets answer from two of five panelists, and asks for the next one to answer the same question. It’s the job of the search committee chair to manage that — Before we go on, [name of candidate], we have just 10 minutes now for questions. Would you like to ask a different question?

        If they don’t, well, that’s on them, and the chair can repeat until you’re out of time. Frankly, a candidate who ignored a clear statement that time was short and who wouldn’t move on, tells me that they aren’t good at prioritizing and/or managing time. Which are important skills in our office.

        Sure, it may also mean the candidate is inexperienced or bad at interviews or anxious or…but at some point, you have to work with the info you’re getting.

        I’ll add too that running over time is disrepectful of your committee members’ time, and of any other candidates who may be waiting their turn while the current candidate gasses on.

    4. Beth*

      I think the kind of questions being asked matters. If these are mostly softball questions like the “What’s your favorite thing about working here?” example, then I’m guessing that this is driven by people trying to show interest and engagement by asking questions, rather than a lack of information on your team’s part. I’ve seen that floating recently as an interview tip for job hunters, so it makes sense to me that OP could be seeing an uptick in it. If that’s what OP is seeing, I think giving 15 minutes and then calling a hard stop and offering more time for questions in the next round is reasonable.

      (I’m not saying questions like this are never useful, for the record! A candidate asking one or two softball questions like this is probably trying to get a read on team culture. But 15+ minutes of it? That feels like something else to me.)

      On the other hand, if it’s mostly substantive questions–about the kind of work, the salary/benefits, the tech stack, company policies, etc–then either you need to share more information up-front, or your candidate pool is showing you that they care about the details and you need to leave time for them to ask those questions.

      2. Sloanicota*

        I have definitely had no specific questions at that stage of an interview and felt like I had to say something that shows engagement and enthusiasm. So I feel ya. Often I do have questions that are important to me but I recognize not relevant unless they decide to move me forward, and I’d rather not cram them in at the end of the interview.

    5. TheBunny*

      I was just coming here to say this. Questions that keep. coming up don’t usually indicate a candidate issue with either the job ad or earlier steps in the process.

    6. Meow*

      Ley me guess, in their 30s? I listen to coworkers around that age ask dozens of questions every day. Counted 39 questions about dropping off a car for warranty work, at a dealership where said coworker had dropped off her mom’s car for the same warranty work the week prior. Laying it out in the job description may or may not help. I’d probably follow Alison’s advice.

        1. Meow*

          IME it does. I have a client ask me 28 questions this morning, basically a variation on the same question. It’s very noticable and very common compared to other demographics. Handouts don’t help.

  2. I have opinions...*

    Budget time and make it clear. “We have our questions, and we’d like to leave 15 minutes at the end for any questions you may have.” If the candidate goes on for 30 minutes after that, they aren’t they right candidate.

    And yes, as another mentioned above, if there is a common theme, consider how to answer preemptively.

    1. goofBall*

      That reminds me of the first salaried job I ever landed. Someone who would be my peer was interviewing me and her boss kept sticking his head into the conference room to tell us to wrap it up soon. I was trying to do just that, but my interviewer kept asking me questions, including asking about my weekend plans!

      But what was I going to do? Boot someone out of their own conference room? Finally, after the third time the boss came in, we wrapped it up. I was sure this was going to blow my chances.

      I got the job. Partly because that interviewer told her boss that she could really see me as someone who would get along with their work culture. The interviewer and I ended up becoming friends outside of work and I was a bridesmaid in her wedding last year :)

      She ended up telling me one of the reasons why she was ignoring our (now shared) boss was because it was a Friday and she was trying to waste time before the end of the day. lol!

    2. FormerLibrarian*

      we’d like to leave 15 minutes at the end for any questions you may have.” *If the candidate goes on for 30 minutes after that, they aren’t they right candidate.*

      That’s …a very narrow viewpoint.

      1. Fluffy Fish*

        Agree. If you give them 15 minutes and you as the people with the actual power in the situation do not wrap it up in 15 minutes, but instead assign some kind of blame to the candidate for asking too many questions…you probably shouldn’t be on the hiring panel.

        1. amoeba*

          Eh, I mean, I agree they should signal the end pretty clearly, like “OK, so we have time for one last (quick) question”. But OTOH, as a candidate I’d never keep asking that kind of non-urgent softball questions when I see we’re already over time! It shows *some* lack of judgement/consideration for their time, at least.

          1. Fluffy Fish*

            If the prospective employer is allowing it, there would be many many candidates that assume the 15 minutes wasn’t a hard stop or even that the employer likes them so much as a candidate they are making an expectation. Is there even a clock in the room?

            Game playing and unwritten “rules” are never part of a good hiring process.

            1. amoeba*

              I was thinking of a virtual interview, in which case you do generally see the time. If it’s in person and there’s no clock, then for sure, it’s upon the interviewer to keep an eye on the time!

      2. anonymous anteater*

        I think it’s the balance between signaling ‘we have planned this interview for an hour and we respect everyone’s time by not going over’ but also that there will be an opportunity to ask more questions further down the line, and you aren’t trying to hide anything by limiting time for questions.

        1. Sloanicota*

          To be fair, if you have a one-hour interview scheduled at you have 15 minutes left for their questions and they ask everyone to name all their favorite things, that’s how they chose to you use their time (and does tell you something about how they might approach meetings or something) – then fine. They get to use that time how they want, but they don’t necessarily get to take the meeting past the end of their scheduled time. They may have to follow up with email.

      3. Not A Raccoon Keeper*

        Yes! In what world is it the responsibility of the interviewee to manage the time of the interviewers, at the interviewer’s workplace?

        This whole question just seems like an issue of poor time management on the hiring side. If we reach the end of the time allotted, I would invite the interviewee to email their questions to me, and send them out the door. If at a later stage in the process, maybe invite a phone call instead.

      4. Susan*

        I think of this from the point of view as if I was being interviewed. A prospective employer that cuts me off without addressing all of my questions isn’t a good fit for me.

        1. Late*

          Those short runovers add up though.

          Go over by 15 minutes per interview all day, and the last candidate is rightly going to complain about the panel running hours late.

        2. amoeba*

          I mean, sure, but if you just keep coming up with more and more questions just for the sake of asking many questions, that’s not really the same situation, is it?

      5. Reebee*

        Yep. If answers are otherwise very well handled, I consider rambling as nervousness, i.e. perhaps an inexperienced candidate, and would manage the time better on my end, rather than expecting Candidate to do so.

        Interviewing as a candidate sucks.

    3. SALC*

      You also don’t have to let them keep asking questions for 30 minutes—I am very judicious about what meetings I allow to run over and actually stick around for. Interviews I usually do not, unless we had technical difficulties getting connected and started late. Often I either face another person to interview after or they have another person interviewing them, so running over time screws up the whole schedule. When I did interviews in person I would often ask ‘we have about 5 minutes left, do you have a last question I can answer or do you want a few minutes to grab more coffee or use the restroom.”

      You are in charge, just end the meeting!

  3. Art3mis*

    Are you sure you’re giving 15 minutes? I’ve had more than one interview where they’ve given me five minutes or less for my questions and then still had a hard stop.

      1. Abigail*

        It isn’t that the LW is intentionally lying or misleading by saying they are giving 15 minutes when they are not.

        It is that people are often terrible at estimating time. What feels like 15 minutes for questions might be a lot less than that, in particular if you are rushed.

        There is a difference between saying “you are lying, that never happened” and “you made a mistake” or “you are misgauging this situation.”

        2. Myrin*

          We don’t know if OP is just estimating the time, though – she might very well have an eye on the clock and be able to tell exactly how much time they’re giving the candidates.

      2. amoeba*

        I mean, they also say that previously, candidates generally had 3-4 well thought-out, relevant questions that worked well within the time frame – if multiple people from the committee were answering each of those, I’d say 10-15 mins seems realistic! That kind of (normal) Q&A wouldn’t really fit into 5.

        And yeah, by the time they say “so we have around 15 mins”, I’m pretty sure they, you know, check the clock.

    3. Reebee*

      Makes me wonder if candidates are given interview schedules ahead of time so that they know they’ll have ‘x’ number of minutes to ask their own questions. Would go a long way for helping candidates prep. for the interview.

    4. Samwise*

      Agreed. Person running the interview needs to keep a sharp eye on the clock.

      And also, be sure that you have a reasonable number of questions to ask and keep your panel on track. I really hate when I’m left with five minutes to ask questions. That’s not an INTERview.

    5. umami*

      Often there is a set interview window, and you have to stay within that time, especially if you are doing back to back interviews. I always lay out the game plan (we will be asking x number of questions, and you have x minutes to introduce yourself before the first question, and we will have time at the end to answer questions, etc.) If they are not managing their time well and spend too much time on their introduction or on a particular question, I will let them know how much time is left and how many questions remain. But there might not still be enough time for all the questions they have prepared. I let them know they can email any additional questions if we don’t get to them, but I can’t really see how (or why) anyone would just give a candidate more time if you have a hard stop. If you know there’s a hard stop coming, then the next question should probably be who to reach out to if you have additional questions.

  4. Caramel & Cheddar*

    I’d be curious if you were seeing way more questions these days because of the proliferation of job seeking advice on Instagram/Tiktok that gives lots of examples of kinds of questions you can ask, e.g. “five questions to find out the culture of a company.” My strategy would be to use one or two of the sample questions, but I’m willing to bet there are people who would use all five, before moving on to all five of another set of examples, etc.

    Most importantly, though, you’re the one running the interview and you can keep it on task like any other meeting you might be running. The advice to say how much time you have left for questions is good, but there will need to be a point where you have to gracefully wrap it up. You don’t have to keep going just because they want to keep talking; you need to balance being open to the questions with respecting the time of other candidates who may be waiting or your colleagues who may have other meetings to get to.

    1. linger*

      What stands out to me is that if the candidate wants to find out about where the role fits within the org culture, it is ridiculously inefficient to approach that by requiring an individual response from each interviewer in turn, and it is perhaps justifiable that the LW as interviewer is slightly peeved by such questions.
      Candidates who do this may well simply be following some popular suggestion, but it’s not great advice for the candidate, let alone wasting interview time. For the purpose of establishing workplace culture, it would be better instead to ask if the candidate can talk to (some of) the position’s peers outside of the interview time. So LW, can you proactively offer that opportunity to candidates instead? (“That sounds like a question that could be better answered by the position’s immediate coworkers; would you like to talk to some of them afterwards?”)

  5. Sunshine Gal*

    When I was on hiring panels, we always explained that our questions would take around 90 minutes and that left 15 minutes for any questions they had at the end. We also booked the room in 2 hour installments to give another 15 minute buffer if our or their questions went long. One caveat, is that we always had a clock visible for the candidate (i.e. on the wall in the boardroom/above the door thing). This way they could keep an eye on the time without relying on their watch/phone throughout the interview. It worked well for us.

    1. Bast*

      This. If there’s no clock visible, I’d feel very awkward and rude taking out my phone in the middle of an interview, but especially if an interview is going well, I sometimes have no idea how much time has passed. There have been some excruciating interviews where I have felt every second, and others where the interviewers were genuinely nice and it felt like a real conversation. For my most recent job (great people, no clock in the room) I was in there about 45 minutes. If you had me guess how long it lasted, I would have guessed significantly less.

    2. jasmine*

      it may just be me, but 15 minutes doesn’t seem long for a 90 minute interview. I’m assuming that the interview process doesn’t have too many touch points given that one of the interviews is so long

    3. Pandas*

      Missed that someone had already posted about the clock, that was my comment down below too. People can be bad at estimating time, especially in high stress situations like interviews where time can dilate.

  6. Ida*

    One organization I’ve interviewed with stated up front that if you were offered the job after the 2 interviews (which each allowed a few minutes for questions), then you would be connected with a current employee at a similar level to your role for open Q&A. And that was in addition to providing detailed written FAQs. That made me feel like I could reserve most of my remaining questions on culture, work-life balance, etc. for later if it came to it. (It also showed a lot of trust in current employees and in their culture!)

    They also gave a survey to all applicants, offered the job or rejected, who had made at least the first round. They asked what we wished we’d known. And they clearly are building their FAQ from these survey responses, because that FAQ was thorough!

  7. Miss Muffet*

    I would posit that, provided you are giving the candidates the time budget (either at the top of the interview or when you reach that point), you are learning something about how the person prioritizes what’s important for them to get, and how they value the time of others on the team (especially superiors) by what they ask and how they ask it. For instance, they may spend a moment looking over their list to say, let me see what we haven’t covered yet to hone in on key questions. Or they may say, I’m interested in the aspects of the work you all value the most, but in the interest of time, maybe just one of you can answer?

    1. Trout 'Waver*

      That level of mastery of a team environment from a position as an outsider is a rare skill. I wouldn’t expect that for every job.

      1. DrSalty*

        It definitely depends on what role you’re hiring for. For senior level roles this kind of prioritization and thoughtfulness would be a huge plus in a candidate.

  8. Trout 'Waver*

    This is one of the reasons I dislike panel interviews. Asking the entire panel to go around the room answering the same question seems awfully naive to me. I much prefer a series of shorter 1-on-1 interviews whether I’m the interviewer or the candidate.

    1. Bast*

      I’ve been in a few where they will default to the person who is likely to provide the best answer. In talking about what a typical day looks like in a position, for example, hearing about the HR Director’s typical day makes no sense, so they’ll usually direct the question to either the director supervisor or, on one occasion, the person who was leaving and whose position was up for grabs. This might be something that could help in panel situations, as you’re right, it’s naive and makes no sense for the whole group to answer every single question.

      1. amoeba*

        Yup, we do panel interviews all the time and it’s almost always like that. Somebody answers, sometimes a second person expands on that, sometimes somebody says “Oh, I think XY is best positioned to answer that”. But I don’t think I’ve ever seen everybody answer the same question in turn.

    2. Hastily Blessed Fritos*

      But the sorts of questions you ask everyone to answer are the ones where they don’t give the same answer! Nobody is going to ask everyone “what’s the work/life balance” or “how frequent are re-orgs”, they’ll ask what people like most and least about the position, which may well differ from person to person.

      I’d be very hesitant to accept an offer based on interviewing with a single individual. That’s just too limited of a perspective.

      1. Trout 'Waver*

        You’re the second person who misunderstood what I wrote. Is there something about “series of shorter 1-on-1 interviews” that suggests there would be only interviews with one person and not a series of interviews with multiple people?

    3. samwise*

      Having more than one interviewer helps decrease the chance that someone is moved on to the next stage due to interviewer biasses and blindspots.

      You don’t need a lot of other folks, though. Three or four total, if they are thoughtfully chosen, is a good number to get different perspectives.

      If we had only one person / the hiring officer interviewing, our office would not now have one of our best employees, because the candidate had had a disastrous phone interview on a previous job opening and the hiring officer didn’t think the candidate was at all appropriate. Which I was told, as the search chair. I insisted, since the person had met the committee’s benchmarks to move onto the next round. (Hiring committee told me later, You were right)

      1. Trout 'Waver*

        I think you misunderstood. I’m not saying only one person should interview a candidate.

    4. COHikerGirl*

      I get what you’re saying! I’ve rarely had panel interviews…most have been a series of 1:1s. A 1:1 with the HR team/recruiter, a 1:1 with the hiring manager. A 1:1 with the person above them. Sometimes a 1:1 or a 2:1 with the people who would be my coworkers.

      It is interesting multiple people have thought that what you said meant multiple interviews with just the same person.

    5. Allonge*

      But then an interview that could be over in 90 minutes takes a day for the candidate and becomes a logistics issue on the side of the interviewers too. Nobody has that much time.

  9. RCB*

    I’m interviewing for jobs right now and one of them when they contacted me for the initial interview also told me the entire interview process up front, so I knew that there are 3 interviews (if I make it past the first interview), who I’d meet with at each interview, and what the topic of each interview would be, and I can’t tell you how refreshing that was!! I do have a few questions on one part of the job but it is specific to the second interview topic so I know to wait until then and I didn’t waste time during the first interview. So, if possible, maybe you can give candidates an outline of the entire interview process before they start interviewing so they can prepare accordingly.

  10. Alex*

    Here’s a revised version of your statement:

    —

    I don’t believe that 15 minutes is enough time to ask the necessary questions about a role. I’m making a decision that could involve committing years of my life to this organization, and it’s crucial that I fully understand what I’m stepping into. Often, the information provided about the job, team, and expectations is limited, and it’s up to me to clarify everything before leaving my current job. This is especially important because I have a family to support, with rent and bills to pay.

    In my experience with technical roles, recruiters sometimes provide inaccurate or incomplete information, particularly regarding the specifics of the job, the extent of travel required, and other key details. Employers need to offer a more comprehensive picture of the role, including company and team culture, travel schedules, and the actual expectations. I’ve even seen job descriptions so demanding that it seems like they’re looking for multiple people in one. My question is: What exactly are you looking for, cause I can’t be process, electrical and safety engineer in one.

    2. Sloanicota*

      To be fair, there should be the opportunity for a real significant conversation at the time an offer is made. It’s okay to leave 5-10 minutes on the call screen, 15-20 minutes on a panel interview. And if you don’t get a real conversation opportunity before getting an offer, you should make one before accepting.

    3. Pluz*

      Anyone reading this, do not say “ This is especially important because I have a family to support, with rent and bills to pay.”

      We ALL have those things, and it will read emotional.

  11. Educator*

    Two thoughts:

    1) When a candidate asks one of those “could each of you tell me…” questions, could you jump in and do a little facilitation to help them get the answers they are probably most interested in? Like, “Let’s have Jane and John answer that, since their job duties are most similar to this role. Jane, what would you say?” You are not just at the mercy of their questions; you are running the interview.

    2) Depending on the role, sometimes I let candidates ask a few questions to start the interview, right after we say hello and I give some context for the role. It seems to make people feel comfortable and gets more of a dialogue going. Then, when it is time to transition, I say something like “ok, let me dive into some of the things I wanted to ask you about, then we can come back to any additional questions you have if there is time at the end.” When hiring for senior roles, I usually feel like a dialogue happens pretty naturally, but entry level hires may need to overcome some nerves and feel like they need to ask questions to do the interview “right.” Letting them go first set a nice tone.

    1. Butterfly Counter*

      Yes, in regards to your first point.

      Have an agreement with the panel beforehand to to just have one person answer each question. “In the interests of time, I think Jane here would be the best person to relate her experience. However, if you’re still curious after the interview, we can put you in touch with other people about their experiences as well.”

    2. HonorBox*

      1) LOVE THIS!
      2) ALSO LOVE THIS. When we’ve conducted interviews in my organization, I’ll tell everyone in the room – candidate and hiring panel – that we want this to be more of a conversation, so we’re open to the candidate asking questions throughout as opportunity presents itself. And starting with “do you have any questions for us before we begin with ours” is a great opportunity to get the ball rolling and to figure out if there are things we don’t need to ask about later.

  12. bamcheeks*

    It is completely reasonable to let people know upfront that the interview needs to end at 3.30, but that if they still have questions after that, you can schedule another call with the hiring manager or HR, depending on whether these are questions about the job itself or about benefits. You could even suggest that they prioritise the questions that they want to ask the panel, such as culture and insight ones, rather than ones that are more about the job and firmly in the hiring manager’s or HR’s territory.

    IMO, candidates should prioritise the questions which are genuinely important to them and will make a material difference to their decision about the job, not ones which are the latest “Wow your hiring panel with this one amazing question!!!!” You can definitely direct people to prioritise their questions in ways that use your time more effectively.

      1. Michelle Smith*

        I don’t know that it’s a good idea to encourage this. Emailing back and forth responses to a bunch of candidates might take even more of the HM’s time.

        1. DramaQ*

          IDK in my latest round of interviews I have been told feel free to reach out to HR with any other questions I may think of after the interview. I am socially adept enough to know that doesn’t mean constantly email them to death but I do like they leave that opening. Cause I know sometimes I end up thinking of a really good question or realize I want clarification on something on the drive home as I start to get out of interview mode. I do appreciate that they recognize that interviews are usually quick and you are processing a million pieces of information at once and might want additional clarification on something later. Better than hiring and finding out neither of you are a good fit for each other. I doubt most candidates even bother emailing and I don’t unless it’s something I REALLY want an answer too. It’s just nice to have my side of the interview considered for a change.

          1. sparkle emoji*

            Yeah, a list of questions sent via email seems fine. If a candidate keeps sending email after email to a point where it becomes to much, then that’s useful info about how they read cues.

    2. Kes*

      Yeah, this is where I land. And it’s good to let them know the timing upfront, or at the start of the time for questions how much time you have allotted, but I also think it’s fair to say when you get to that time “that’s all the time we have for today, but feel free to reach out by email with any additional questions”. I would especially do this over “any last questions” for candidates who have shown themself to be particularly timeblind/long-winded; I wouldn’t give them the chance to keep going.

  13. I should really pick a name*

    can each of you tell me what is your favorite aspect or the main challenge of your job?

    I’m curious what they hope to get from this.

    While it’s certainly a good question to ask specific people, I don’t see the point of asking the entire panel unless they’re all in similar roles to the one you want.

    1. Hastily Blessed Fritos*

      That’s been the case in every panel interview I’ve ever participated in from either side of the table.

    2. mm*

      This is a standard question that most job seeking advice will tell candidates to ask. It’s flipping a behavioral question back to the candidates. I would ask the question of people outside of the role I’m pursuing because: I want to hear how people talk about the company overall; I am looking for discrepancies between the different experiences (it’s a data point if Bob gets lots of mentorship but Alice mentions having to self-intiate); I’m trying to get an overall sense of the culture across different functions (for ex sales has a lot of happy hour hangouts but accounting never does anything).

      I guess to take your question: why even have a panel interview if everyone on the panel doesn’t work within your role?

      1. samwise*

        Because it’s revealing about the culture of the workplace, and tells you something about your future coworkers.

        When I’ve asked this question as a candidate, I’m just as interested in what it tells me about personalities, as the actual answer.

    3. Nice cup of tea*

      It can be very interesting to see how people field that kind of question. For me its about the feel of the place as much as the details of the answer. Open questions can give interesting body language.

    4. Roland*

      I always ask this question of literally anyone I interview with, unless I have a more urgent question and we’re out of time for that slot. And have been asked this by many candidates I’ve interviewed. What we hope to get from this is… some of the pros and cons of the jobs. Sure I have specific areas I have questions about, but you don’t know what you don’t know and this question often has very interesting answers.

      1. Roland*

        And as a software engineer I often am interviewed by other engineers but also managers, PMs, designers. It’s not a problem to ask this of someone in a different role, if I ask a designer they’re probably not gonna talk about figma vs indesign or smth. Anyone who works in the same org has relevant insights to share. Ie priorities shift too quickly, or there’s a true culture of WLB, or they love/hate the frequent lunch and learns… Many pros and cons are not only applicable to an individual job function.

    5. Heidi*

      The OP also mentioned that some candidates have as many as 10 questions. 10 “personal essay” questions like this would take up so much time.

    6. DramaQ*

      Because it is interesting to see how people handle the question and can tell you a lot about the culture. Do they answer honestly? Do they give me a non-answer? Do they make awkward eye contact with each other before answering like they are seeking approval from whoever is the most powerful in the room?

      Another interesting one I had lobbed at me when I got roped into being on the panel hiring to replace one of the techs that left my previous company was “Why are you hiring for this position?”. We all become uncomfortable because we knew the real reason why the previous person left and were trying to come up with a non-answer. He did end up accepting but he told us he could tell on screen we were uncomfortable from our body language. I wish I had asked that back in 2018 when I ended up in a really toxic job situation. Now I know it was a revolving door situation and I think putting them on the spot would have given me some insight into that before I accepted.

  14. Inigo Montoya*

    Job Seekers (especially since the pandemic) have an increased sense of the need to get the right job fit. In anything after an HR screen, 15 minutes is not sufficient for them to decide if the job is right for them. If you are taking 60 minutes (just an example) to decide if they are right for you, why do you think 15 is enough for them to decide if you are right for them?
    I actually had a recent interview where nearly the whole interview time was allotted for me to ask questions. I am sure they were evaluating me based on the quality of my questions, but I felt better about the organization because of it.

  15. Pandas*

    If you don’t have a clock in the room that interviewees can see, getting one would probably help. A lot of people don’t have a good sense of what 15 minutes of questions and answers feel like, they might not realize when they’ve gone way over time.

  16. Dawn*

    You might also consider just narrowing down how many candidates you’re actually giving panel interviews to; you should already be on a fairly short list by the time that you’re pulling in that many people for a job interview, so you should also be able to allot more time for each candidate.

  17. CubeFarmer*

    Maybe you’re not covering enough material during the non-question portions of the interview?

  18. HonorBox*

    OP, I’d offer a couple of suggestions to help you along.

    1) Give yourself more time than you think you’ll need. If you’re hoping for 45 minutes, give yourself 60 minutes in the schedule. If you don’t use all that time, good. But if you’re looking at 45 minutes and need a hard stop because you have another candidate coming in or have to run out for a meeting, you’re more likely to be frustrated if something runs long. While a candidate should have a sense of timing, it isn’t odd at all that they might think of a few additional questions based on your answers. It also sets a good tone if you’re not antsy to get finished up if someone is asking a couple extra questions.

    2) As noted above, you’re driving the interview, not the candidate. So if you have candidates asking for everyone to answer a question, you could direct those to one or two people, versus having everyone answer. Or you could note the question and offer to answer via an email or phone call later.

    3) Set clear expectations from the outset. Perhaps that’s telling someone when you set up the interview that you’ll give them 15 minutes for questions. But maybe adding to that something like, “typically that has been enough time for 4 or 5 questions but as time allows we can certainly answer more” gives some additional information. And by all means, set up a clock that a candidate can see so they’re not guessing about time or trying to discreetly check their watch.

    4) We’ve had great success recently by telling a candidate from the outset of the interview that while we have questions for them, of course, we also want it to be more conversational. And then we encourage them to ask questions throughout. That’s been helpful both in moving things along and in shaping the interview. If there are things they’re asking about, we have been able to dive deeper and have a sense of which questions of ours could go a bit further too.

    1. Sloanicota*

      Great point about the scheduling. Never schedule interviews back-to-back, it just creates a more stressful situation for everybody.

      1. HonorBox*

        Nothing worse as someone conducting interviews than doing a little dance because you didn’t have the chance to hit the restroom… I speak from experience, unfortunately.

  19. MuseAnne*

    More than once, as the interviewee, when I saw we were getting within a couple minutes of time, have acknowledged that and wrapped it up myself. Something like “I do have a few more questions on my list, but I know we’re getting close to time, so I’ll save them for the next time we have a chance to talk.” But it’s always felt awkward to me, as if I were seizing control of the interview, and I have sometimes wondered if it worked against me.

    1. HonorBox*

      I think that you’re being polite, acknowledging that there’s more you’d like to talk about, and a kind presumption that there WILL be a next time. And you’re also giving those interviewing you the opportunity to invite you to ask those questions.

    2. Not A Girl Boss*

      Personally I’d love that since ability to take control of a meeting thats running away time-wise is a key skill in my field and can be hard to find….

      1. Not A Girl Boss*

        I suppose, as a tweak, an alternative I’ve used in the past is “I see that we are getting close to time and want to respect that, but I do have a few more questions, would you like me to save them for a future conversation?”

  20. The Perpetual Temp*

    I’m embarrassed to admit this, since I’m not new to the workforce, but I’m one of those candidates who always asks a lot of questions — because I thought it’s what interviewers *wanted* to hear! I figured it would convey interest and enthusiasm, and make me more likely to get an offer. As someone who’s still struggling to break out of temp work, I’m not in a position where I can afford to be choosy about jobs (I’m in a niche industry where permanent openings are hard to come by), so if I’m being honest, any questions I ask are more so an attempt to impress the interviewer rather than a means of assessing fit. I will keep this in mind for the future.

    1. Dawn*

      I’d probably say that in this case you want to go for quality, rather than quantity. Pick 3-5 of the best ones and stick to those; it’s unlikely you’re having the impact you want to if you’re asking too many.

    2. Not A Girl Boss*

      Authenticity is one thing that always shines through in an interview. Its pretty easy to tell when someone is asking questions because they think they should, vs when they genuinely care about the answer. That said, it is a little off-putting when an interviewee has ZERO questions for me.

      Perhaps you can try rephrasing this mentally. You’re thinking, “Honestly, I’d work in a literal dumpster fire so I don’t need to ask questions to decide if I’ll work here.” But instead what if you thought, “Even if I don’t get chosen to work here, I’m in the presence of some smart cool people in my field – what’s something I’d want to know about them, their company, or their product – just purely as a fun fact?”

      As an example, we are hiring for a really technical role right now making a product that 98% of people have never seen. Its essential that the employee has curiosity and interest in the process, so its an immediate no for us if the interviewee doesn’t ask at least one question along the lines of “this product seems really cool… erm… what is it? How do you make it? What’s hard about that? You mentioned the ergablerga process, what the heck is that and is it related to this thing I did before? How did you end up here making this thing? How the heck would I learn to make this thing? OK obviously I’m utterly unqualified so what made you decide to interview me, or what are you looking for in someone who you’d have to train from scratch?”

    3. Having a Scrummy Week*

      I am a question-asker, too! I’ve been on hiring committees as well and we DO want some questions from the candidate – as long as they are curious and/or genuine.

      When I am a candidate myself, I just try to make sure that my questions are thoughtful and things I really want to know. I come in with a list of 10 questions, most of which get answered naturally in the course of the conversation. I end up with 3-4 questions, tops.

      I like when the interviewer says, “we have about 5 minutes left for questions. If there is anything we didn’t get to, please feel free to send me an email.” I try to select my best two questions.

      If the interviewer simply asks if I have questions without setting a time expectation, I say “I do have a few, do we have time for two?” That gives them the opportunity to share whether they have a hard stop or have a few minutes to spare.

  21. merida*

    Can you offer an email address for the extra questions that you don’t have time for? That has been a help for me as a candidate before.

    I think the pressure candidates feel when they’re asking a lot of questions comes from 1. lack of necessary information (even the best job descriptions and interviews can feel vague) which leads to question overwhelm and panic, and I think it’s harder for interviewees to prioritize their questions if they’re panicked and thinking “think think think I have 2 minutes to ask everything I need to know and if I don’t ask now I’ll miss my chance because I have no way of contacting them after.” So, contact info! And 2. it’s often drilled into candidates’ minds that if they don’t have questions they will appear less interested.

    That said, as an interviewee I think the ability to prioritize my questions based on the stage of the process just comes with experience. I had an interview this week, just a 10 minute phone screen. She asked at minute 9 if I had any questions (of course I had tons, I only have 9 minutes worth of info so far) but I only asked her to clarify one thing she’d said and then said I didn’t have any other pressing questions for now, since I understood the “do you have questions” was mostly a formality and not an offer to spill out every question I have about the job (and I know that if I proceed in the process, I’ll get to ask my questions at a future interview). When I was 22, I’m sure I wouldn’t have understood that.

  22. Just Thinkin' Here*

    OP, you don’t say the size of your company. I’m going to assume it’s a mid-to-large size company that has a structured HR. Your HR folks either improve the job description or improve their discussion with the applicants before they show up for interviews. Applicants shouldn’t be asking basic questions – if they are, then chances are your HR isn’t covering the basics.

    That said, 10 minutes for an interviewee to ask questions after you’ve (interviewer) spent an hour asking questions is extremely one-sided. Experienced professionals are going to ask at least 20-30 minutes worth of good quality questions if they are worth their salt and know what they are doing. Interns or recent college grads are going to ask the softball questions they’ve been trained to ask by their schools. Others fall someplace in the middle. If I was cut off from asking questions, I would judge your company and team to be poorly managed and disorganized.

  23. Pinta Bean*

    I was recently part of a panel where the facilitator would immediately reframe any ” can each of you tell me” question so that it limited the number of people actually answering, and I was astonished at how brilliant that was, and how it really helped manage time.

    So for example, if a person asked “can each of you tell me what is your favorite aspect or the main challenge of your job?” the facilitator then said “we won’t have time for everyone to answer, but let’s have Dave, who is client-facing, and Sanjana, who oversees internal operations, take this question.” The facilitator was making very intentional choices to provide two different perspectives, such as a staff member who worked in the central office and a staff member who worked at an off-site location, or a longer term employee and a newer term employee.

    The facilitator did prep us panelists ahead of time about that strategy.

  24. Hiring in Canada*

    It’s always so interesting to read about the “general” hiring out there – I work in hiring in a provincial government in Canada, and things are so different! Maybe some of it is that we have a lot of information about our organization, hiring process, pay scale, the job accountabilities, etc available up front. It may also be that it’s because our organization tends to be a little flatter than a lot of big private companies. I don’t know if it’s a government thing, or a Canadian thing?

    1. Dawn*

      Canadian thing, mostly, although a few state governments (looking at you, California,) have largely followed suit.

      1. Non non non all the way home*

        I was going to say government thing as I’m a Canadian and YMMV depending on the company!

  25. Questions*

    As a job seeker I’ve almost never been told how much time I have to ask questions. I tend to ask questions interactively so I have time to ask them as so many interviewers don’t leave time for it otherwise. I’ve been on literally hundreds of interviews and I don’t think I’ve ever been told anything like “we’ve allotted 10 min at the end for you to ask questions”. Further, I’ve rarely been on a. interview that was scheduled so tightly that the interview as a whole had to be X minutes on the dot – maybe one of the people had a hard stop but not the interview as a whole so as a candidate I would not expect hard stops unless I was told ahead of time for a particular segment. If interviewing onsite I will ask the last person for a tour of the office and I will be upset if I don’t get it (I will usually mention it to the first person in the sequence and sometimes someone other than my last interviewer shows up at the end fof the tour). Finally, I ask most people I interview with what their favorite and least favorite part of working at company X. The exception is if I end up in a panel interview (I have asked if interviewed by pairs of people). So the OP’s expectations seem wildly off to me in many, many ways.

    The candidate is interviewing the company just as much as the company is interviewing the candidate. Both sides get a say.

    1. Dawn*

      “I will be wildly upset if I don’t get a tour of the office”

      “The OP’s expectations seem wildly off to me”

      I think maybe your expectations are also a little off-centre in this case. Unless you happen to be extremely in demand, I don’t believe that an office tour following every interview is typical, or to be expected to the point of getting upset if you don’t get one.

      1. amoeba*

        Yup. Also the thing about hard stops. Like, sure, I don’t generally expect that the interview has to end at, like, exactly 13.00.00 h. Two or three minutes, or even five, are usually fine. Any more than that – well, if it happens organically and they specifically say “oh, I still have time, no worries, keep going” – sure. But just… expecting them to have an extra 15 minutes for every 60 mins interview? Like, sure, interviews are important, but you should still at least try and stick to the schedule, as people also have other things to do and it’s pretty inconsiderate of their time to just expect them to move everything around because you’re not satisfied yet?

        Same for unscheduled office tours… That takes quite a lot of time, and adding one for every candidate if it wasn’t planned in… wow.

        1. Questions*

          they don’t stick to the schedule as a general rule so it doesn’t feel like a rigid schedule – a company sticking to a rigid schedule would be well outside the norm in my experience. In all of the interviews I’ve had, all of three companies indicated reluctance to give a tour and only one said no (and that was because they had a special event going on in the other half of the office). It would be oddly rigid to have every segment of an interview run on a rigid to the minute schedule. People need to use the restroom. People ask for water. Interviewers run late. If a company is investing half a day in me, it would some kind of weird nickel and diming to say no to an extra 10 minutes to give me a tour.

          If someone does have a hard stop or the interview as a whole does, I’d expect to be told ahead of time so I can prioritize my actions accordingly. Otherwise I’ll expect I’m on a normal interview that isn’t so rigid.

  26. Letter Writter*

    OP here. First, thank you so much to Allison and to so many of you for being so kind and helping out a manager in need. Wish I had the time to reply to all or at least some of you but work is crazy right now. I took notes of your tips and recommendations and I hope to report back soon. I cannot provide a lot of context, but I figure some might be helpful:
    1) As one commenter guessed, yes, I work for a large firm. The interviews I am talking about are second round, 4 person panel. A typical candidate will undergo at least 2 additional rounds before an offer is made. 4 interviews is too much! I know… but regrettably I don’t control this process
    2) We usually have 2-3 people competing for each role. Since we need to fill several positions, this adds up to a lot of interviews
    3) Interviews are scheduled for 45 min with a 15 minute break between candidates. Even by skipping the break we have gone overtime several times.
    4) On the questions, we have been asked in the same interview: what we liked most and less about our jobs, why did you choose to work at XYZ, what do you find most interesting about the work you do, what are you most passionate about your work. I like my job but it is a job, not a life changing experience. We do not build rockets nor take care of cute animals. What I like about my job is probably the same to what I find interesting, if that makes sense. A selection of these questions is ok, but I hope I am not misjudging candidates when they cover all of them.

    1. HonorBox*

      Thanks for the update and additional info OP!

      It sounds like your hands are a bit tied as it relates to points 1 & 2. That’s unfortunate to be sure, but not much you can do to change the process or number of interviews, I guess.

      Regarding point 3 – I think as you’re keeping an eye on the clock, it wouldn’t be rude at all to wind things down at 50 or 55 minutes if things are going long. Your panel needs a minute to hit the restroom, grab more coffee, etc. And stopping a candidate under the auspices of “fair to all” isn’t going to be rude. You should try to keep things as equal as possible for everyone, and you need to consider fairness to your panel. If you just said something like, “In order to keep the process fair to everyone, we need to wrap up our time, and while you may have additional questions, we’re happy to either answer those further in the process, or you’re welcome to email them.”

      And for point 4 – Perhaps there’s a way to put your heads together with the panel and figure out how to answer ALL of those questions as one. Like if they ask what you most like and least like, you could all answer that, plus aspects of what you find interesting and what you’re passionate about. Then if they ask a question that you’ve already answered, you can indicate that you have answered it, and use that as a way to see active a listener they are.

    2. Dawn*

      It does sound like scheduling 45 minutes for these interviews is doing you and your candidates a disservice. I realize that you’re doing multiple interviews, but that’s really pushing the clock even so. If they’re a good, thoughtful candidate, both you and they should have plenty of questions to ask and I’d really recommend scheduling more time for them. And if they’re not strong, thoughtful candidates, maybe look at why so many poor candidates are making it to that stage.

      Also, why are you constantly filling so many positions? Things like constant turnover – for example – are another thing that should provoke more questions in good candidates, and being rushed out the door at the point that they start asking about it isn’t going to fill them with confidence in your organization.

    3. SetExpectations*

      Do candidates know that you’re scheduling interviews back to back like that? That’s very rare in my experience. It would also be rare to have such a short onsite interview, although not as rare as the back-to-back. In addition to interviewing as a candidate, I’ve been an interviewer at most places I’ve worked and I don’t think I’ve ever had more than two interviews in the same day and even two was rare. Even if we wanted to schedule back-to-back-to-back it would be unusual to have all of the candidates we liked available on the same day.

      So maybe clearly outline your expectations so candidates understand what you need. Tell them the process so they know more rounds are coming. Most candidates will respect the parameters if they know them. And make sure they can see a clockmduring the interview, or give them time checks.

      That said, if it’s one 45 minute session and there will be future onsite rounds, have you considered holding this round virtually? It’s a lot to ask of a candidate, especially with your set schedule that doesn’t allow any give. Just a thought.

  27. Petra*

    I’ve had hiring managers say that if I had any questions we didn’t get to, I could email them after the fact. May be a good middle ground here.

  28. Ms. Eleanous*

    Ugh! Spotify.
    I no longer patronize businesses with Spotify.. it can be truly bad.
    I was sort of relieved to hear that Spotify was being investigated for payola — I thought, well, at least no one’s taste is really that bad.

  29. Frosty*

    This made me chuckle ruefully. I recently had a timed interview that was exactly 60 minutes. The organization is subject to grievances if the interview process is deemed unfair but it felt quite insane how rigid they were. There were about 12 questions and each member of the panel would read the question outloud, as well as have it placed on the screen.

    It was a zoom interview, and at one point an interviewer froze and then when he came back, he repeated the lengthy question – all of this taking up several minutes that I didn’t get “given back”.

    Then at the end, they said “you have 90 seconds left in the 60 minutes to ask us any questions you have”. I said that I’d get back to them if I had any. Sheesh!

    I was successful with this interview, but it still seemed crazy.

  30. Octavius*

    I wonder if it’s a matter of “I was told I had to ask intelligent questions to impress the interviewers, but I don’t really care about the answers.”

    I’ve been there. I would have been relieved to hear, “I have time for one or two questions”, but the problem is that some people have legitimate questions related to the job and you don’t want to stifle those questions.

Comments are closed.