Questions to ask during your interview
/Two of the things I’ve been asked a lot over my career when mentoring is, “What questions should I ask in an interview?” or “What questions do you ask in an interview?” Not only did these questions inspire me to write this blog post for people new to the interviewing process, but also wanted to help out the “seasoned interviewers” by having a list of questions on stand-by for when they are needed.
It’s important to remember that even though a hiring manager and company are interviewing you to see if you are a good fit for them, you are also interviewing their company, the manager, team, etc. to see if they are a good fit for you. Same applies even if you are interviewing for a new role within your current organization. Even though you are already familiar with the company, you should still do your best to determine if the new role, manager and team are a fit for your career aspirations.
Special note for those new to the interviewing process: It’s important to always ask questions during an interview, because a lot of people see the lack of asking questions as someone not truly being interested in the role, team or company.
When deciding which questions to ask, determine what information is most important to you. In case there is limited time to ask questions, try to ask your important questions first. When I go to an interview, I’m trying to determine several things such as:
What are the job duties and are they a good fit for me? Looking specifically to see if the job duties are something I would enjoy doing, do they help me achieve my long term career goals (improve my resume’), etc..
Is the manager someone I would like to work for?
Would I enjoy working with members of the team?
What are the main goals the position would need to accomplish?
Is the company stable? Do they have potential to grow or will I possibly be looking for a new role sooner than I would like due to the company not meeting sales/revenue numbers?
How is the culture of the company and team? Is it a culture I would be a good fit/enjoy working in?
The information you are most interested in learning during your interview may be different than what I try to determine and of course each role is different (i.e. SOC analyst vs security engineer vs compliance analyst), so mix and match the questions below as needed.
Determining the job duties/responsibilities of a role
Regardless if the job description is vague or very detailed, I’m trying to determine what members of the team and the hiring manager have in mind regarding the required duties of the role. You can take the questions below and combine them with the next section, “Determining what challenges the role may face”, to try and determine what the required job duties will be.
What would the ideal person for this role look like regarding experiences and skills?
What does a typical day/week in this role look like?
What is the key to success in this role?
Are there any additional duties required for this role that may not be listed in the job description?
Determining what challenges the role may face
These questions help uncover what type of challenges the role may face. This can help you determine how mature an organization or security program is and how they plan to utilize your experiences. Some questions are an extension of the questions above when determining the job duties/responsibilities of a role.
What are you hoping this person can resolve in this role?
What are the largest hurdles/biggest challenges the position would need to overcome/face this year?
How would I be able to help the organization overcome those challenges/hurdles?
What are the biggest projects to achieve this year for this role?
How many incidents does this position usually handle in a day/week/month? (good for SOC analyst/incident response role)
Is there a tier 1 element to the position (such as a service desk handling troubleshooting of security issues)? (can be helpful to determine how much a security engineering position may be required to handle basic troubleshooting)
What metrics is the team judged by (such as the amount of tickets closed, meeting a certain SLA [service level agreement], etc.)?
What constitutes success at this position and for the organization/company
Determining the culture of the company, team, etc.
What do you like most and least about working here?
What have you enjoyed the most about working here?
What is your favorite thing about the company?
What is your least favorite thing about the company?
How would you describe the general culture of the company and workplace?
How would you describe the culture of the company relating to security and compliance?
Could you give me some examples of the most and least desirable aspects of the company’s culture?
Determining future potential of the role
Do you anticipate the position changing or is there plans to expand the duties of the position?
What does the security organization look like?
Do you anticipate growing the team even further in the future? (If so, how soon?)
What do you envision for this role 2-5 years from now?
Would it be a lead/manager type role with direct reports?
Misc. questions depending on the role
What are the travel requirements? (If travel mentioned in the job description or during the interview)
What is the pay raise/pay cycle? (I don’t personally ask this one, but I know quite a few people who do)
Who would I report to and who does he/she report to? (same as above, I don’t usually ask this as it is often explained during the interview process)
Last minute questions
These can be helpful last minute questions to give you a chance to do your final “sales pitch” or learn something about the job duties, team, company, etc. you may have missed.
Is there something I didn’t ask you think I should know?
Now that we have talked about my experience, are there any questions or concerns I can answer or clarify about myself?
Management questions for manager or team lead roles
Who would report to me and could you tell me about them (their experience for example)?
Is the team already built or do I get to make the hiring decisions/build the team?
How many positions will I be able to hire and at what levels (junior, mid, senior)?
Are there plans to extend the team in the future?