Questions to ask at the end of a graduate interview
Every graduate interview ends the same way. The interviewer closes their notes, looks up, and asks whether you have any questions for them.
This is the last thing they hear from you, it shapes what they remember, and most candidates throw it away with a question they googled in the waiting room. A good question does two jobs at once: it gets you information you genuinely need, and it shows the interviewer how you think.
The principle behind a good question
Ask about things you cannot find on the website, and prefer questions about their experience and the actual day-to-day work. People enjoy talking about themselves, their answers give you real information about whether you want this job, and the question itself signals that you are choosing an employer rather than begging for any offer.
Six that work, and why
- What does a typical week look like for a first-year in this team, beyond the brochure version? You will hear what the job actually is, which you need to know anyway.
- What separates the grads who do really well here from the ones who do fine? You are asking for the scorecard. Interviewers often answer this honestly and specifically.
- What is the team working on at the moment that a grad would actually get to touch? Shows you care about the work, and tests whether grads get real work.
- How did you end up in this team? People light up at this one, and their path tells you what paths exist.
- What do new grads usually find hardest in the first six months? Realistic, self-aware, and the answer is genuinely useful preparation.
- For a partner or director: what has changed most about this team in the last few years? A senior person gets a senior question, and the answer often tells you where the firm is heading.
Two or three prepared questions is right, and expect to ask two. If the interview already answered one of yours, say so and ask what else you have. Do not ask a question whose answer they gave you twenty minutes ago.
The ones that quietly hurt you
- Anything answered on the careers page. Asking what the rotation structure is tells them you never opened it.
- Salary, leave and hours at a first interview. Real considerations, wrong moment. Ask once there is an offer to negotiate.
- Do you like working here? It forces a polite yes and produces nothing.
- So what does this company actually do? It has been asked. Careers do not recover from it.
- No questions at all. Reads as no curiosity, which reads as no interest.
What to do with the answers
Write the answers down as soon as you are out of the room, with the interviewer's name. Something specific they told you is the perfect line for your thank-you note, it is exactly the personal detail that makes a follow-up message sound human, and if there is a later round, quoting back something a real employee told you is the strongest why-this-firm evidence there is.
The question moment is also your data. If the honest answer to what a first year does all week sounds miserable to you, that is worth knowing before you sign anything.
Prepped's firm workspaces include researched, firm-specific questions to ask, drawn from each firm's actual streams and process, plus a contact log so the answers end up in your next cover letter.
See your firm's smart questions freeGeneral information, not personal career advice. Program details and dates change, so always confirm specifics on the employer’s official page.