Depending on your level of engagement, the following list of questions will give you great insight into the company.

1. What's the biggest change your company has gone through in the last year? Does your group feel like things are getting better in the economy and for your business?

2. If I get the job, how do I earn a "gold star" on my performance review? What are the key accomplishments you'd like to see in this role over the next year?

3. What's your leadership style?

4. About which competitor are you most worried?

5. How does sales / operations / technology / marketing / finance work around here? (I.e., groups other than the one you're interviewing for.)

6. What type of people are successful here? What type of people are not?

7. What's one thing that's key to (company name) success that somebody from outside the company wouldn't know about?

8. How did you get your start in this industry? Why do you stay?

9. What are your group's best and worst working relationships with other groups in the company? What are the pain points you have to deal with day-to-day?

10. What keeps you up at night? What's your biggest worry these days?

11. What's the timeline for making a decision on this position? When should I get back in touch with you?

12. The economy has been getting better, and there's a lot of hiring going on. Why did you decide to prioritize this position instead of the many others you could have hired for?

13. What is your reward system? Is it a star system / team-oriented / equity-based / bonus-based / "attaboy!"-based? Why is that your reward system? What do you guys hope to get out of it, and what actually happens when you put it into practice? What are the positives and the negatives of your reward system? If you could change any one thing, what would it be?

14. What information is shared with the employees (revenues, costs, operating metrics)? Is this an "open book" shop, or do you play it closer to the vest? How is information shared? How do I get access to the information I need to be successful in this job?

15. If we are going to have a very successful year in 2016-7, what will that look like? What will we have done over the next 10 months to make it successful? How does this position help achieve those goals? (This question helps show your ability to look beyond today's duties to the future more than a year away.)

16. How does the company do performance reviews? How do I make the most of the performance review process to ensure that I'm doing the best I can for the company?

17. What is the rhythm to the work around here? Is there a time of year that it's "all hands on deck" and we're pulling all-nighters, or is it pretty consistent throughout the year? How about during the week / month? Is it pretty evenly spread throughout the week / month, or are there crunch days?

18. What type of industry / functional / skills-based experience and background are you looking for in the person who will fill this position? What would the "perfect" candidate look like? How do you assess my experience in comparison? What gaps do you see?

19. What is your hiring philosophy? Is it "hire the attitude / teach the skills" or are you primarily looking to add people with domain expertise first and foremost?

20. In my career, I've primarily enjoyed working with big / small / growing / independent / private / public / family-run companies. If that's the case, how successful will I be at your firm?

21. Who are the heroes at your company? What characteristics do the people who are most celebrated have in common with each other? Conversely, what are the characteristics that are common to the promising people you hired, but who then flamed out and failed or left? As I'm considering whether or not I'd be successful here, how should I think about the experiences of the heroes and of the flame-outs?

Hope this helps. Bryce

Ok, if this is a first interview, which I assume it is, it is easy to have three questions ready to go by researching the company prior to the interview and writing down three questions about the company, and have them in front of you with your portfolio open and pen in hand. Questions that show you researched the company. DO NOT ask about the position specifically. Only about the company. Keep it high level. Review their mission statement, and any very current points they mention on their website. So, let's say they said on their website that they had branches in 13 states and growing! You can ask "I noticed on your website that your company has branches in 13 states and are growing - can you tell me more about that?" Open ended, positive questions about the company. Three. NO more. And if the interviewer looks tired and gave a long answer to the first, say, nope, no more questions for now. Then move on to thank them for their time.

Some good questions I use are

1. Does this position involve continuous training leading to advancement
2. Is this a NEW position or will I be REPLACING another person
3. Is training company paid
4. Any investing opportunities ie profit sharing ,stock purchase for employees
5. Why do you like working here Try these and I'll bet you will get some great feedback this also throws the heat on their skills as an interviewer

Thanks again

At the end I usually ask. How long have you been working with the company? Is there potential growth with this company?

I usually ask how long have you been with the company? How many people will I support?

Ask them more about the company. Ask them things like. How long have you been in business? What are some of the benefits working here? Ask them are there possible advancements in the company? Is there anything more about me that you would like to know? Talk to them about themselves and how they got their jobs.

I like to ask the strengths and weaknesses of their program to see if I really want to work in that environment.

If you ask really good questions you will stick out in their mind a lot better then just saying nothing at all. Asking questions means you were paying attention to every word they were saying. Your questions pertaining to the type of research you did before the interview. Think of something to catch them off guard..

Make sure your question is something direct and maybe something

The following are some really good questions to ask the interviewer:

1. Does the position offer training and if so what is the training schedule?
2. If the position available because of attrition or company expansion?
3. When will you be making your hiring decision? These are questions that I ask. Generally, when applying for a position, I already know what the salary is. Benefits are another area that I generally don't ask about, only because the positions I have applied for are contract to hire or don't offer benefits.