Best Questions to Ask During a Phone Interview
For the candidate who has three processes running and needs to know which ones to drop. These twenty are aimed at the employer rather than at impressing them: why the seat is empty, how many people have held it, what a bad week does to the team, where you would sit in the pay range, and what people say on the way out. Ask them on the first call, because the answers decide whether you spend another six hours on this. If you want questions that make you look interested, ask about the work instead.
The questions
Open any question for the note
How did this role come to be open?
Why ask it
A new headcount, a promotion, and a resignation lead to very different jobs. If the last person left, the reason usually comes out in how carefully this is answered.
What is it about this job that makes people turn it down?
Why ask it
Recruiters and managers both have an answer to this and are usually candid, because they have heard it several times. Whatever they name is the thing you will be living with.
Which parts of the job description matter most, and which are nice to have?
Why ask it
Almost no posting is a literal requirements list. Getting the split lets you spend the rest of the call on the parts that actually decide the hire.
Who would I report to, and how many people are on the team?
Why ask it
A team of three and a team of thirty are different jobs with the same title. A recruiter who cannot answer this has not spoken to the hiring manager recently.
What would you want this person to have done by the end of three months?
Why ask it
Concrete answers mean somebody has thought about the role. Answers about getting up to speed and learning the systems mean the plan does not exist yet.
Where does the work come from: a queue, a manager, or the person themselves?
Why ask it
This is the difference between executing a list and setting your own agenda. Candidates who assume the wrong one are the ones who leave in six months.
How many people have held this job in the last three years?
Why ask it
A number rather than a story, and it is hard to soften. Three names in three years tells you something no description of the role will.
What happens on this team during a bad week?
Why ask it
Everyone can describe a good week. Bad-week answers reveal escalation habits, overtime norms, and whether blame is assigned or problems are shared.
How much of a normal day goes to meetings?
Why ask it
The answer sets expectations about focus time, and a long pause before it usually means more meetings than anyone wants to say out loud.
Has anything changed about the company's targets or funding in the last six months?
Why ask it
Cheap to ask and occasionally saves you from joining two months before a freeze. A pause before the answer is worth as much as the answer.
Where in the range would someone at my level land, and what moves someone up it?
Why ask it
More useful than the range itself, which is usually wide enough to be meaningless. If nobody can say what moves a person up it, assume nothing does.
How would my performance be reviewed, and by whom?
Why ask it
Look for a named cadence and a named reviewer. Where feedback happens only when something goes wrong, raises and promotions tend to work the same way.
Who has held this job before, and where did they go next?
Why ask it
Internal moves suggest the role leads somewhere. A pattern of people leaving the company from this seat is worth asking a follow-up about.
Is anyone on this team currently doing two jobs?
Why ask it
Vacancies get absorbed by whoever is left, and that arrangement often outlives the hire. If the answer is yes, ask what they stop doing on your first day.
What do people find frustrating about working here?
Why ask it
Interviewers who name something real, such as slow procurement or too many approvals, are more trustworthy than ones who say nothing comes to mind.
Has the team been growing, and is more hiring planned this year?
Why ask it
Headcount direction tells you about budget health, and a team that shrank recently affects workload more than any answer about culture.
What would make you decide someone is not right for this role?
Why ask it
Interviewers rarely refuse this, and the answer is a checklist you can address directly before the call ends.
Would you take this job if you were me, and what would make you hesitate?
Why ask it
Direct, and most people answer it more honestly than they intend to. The hesitation half is the part to listen for.
What do people say on the way out of this team?
Why ask it
Exit conversations are the one place employers hear the truth, and interviewers remember them. A claim that nobody leaves is itself an answer.
If I take this job and it goes badly, what will have gone wrong?
Why ask it
It asks for the failure mode rather than the pitch, and it is a fair question to put to anyone hiring. Vague answers here usually mean nobody has thought about it.
Phone Interview Practicalities
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Setting Up the Call
Keep the list where you can see it
Nobody can see your notes on a phone call, which is the one advantage over meeting in person. Print the questions or keep them open in front of you.
Say the number of questions you have
Something like 'I have three things I would like to ask' lets the interviewer manage the clock and keeps you from being cut off at the last one.
Write down the answers as you go
Salary range, stage count, reporting line, start date. In three days you will not remember which company said which, and you will need it for comparisons.
When to Ask What
Reading the call
- 1Ask why the role is open early, because the answer changes which of your other questions matter.
- 2Save salary range and logistics for the recruiter, not the hiring manager, if you are speaking to both.
- 3Ask about the first three months before you ask about long-term progression, which lands better in a screen.
- 4Leave the process and timeline questions for the final minutes, where they read as interest rather than impatience.
- 5Close by inviting them to raise concerns, which is the only chance you get to answer an objection before it is written down.
Common Pitfalls
Asking questions the posting answers
On a short call this reads as not having read it. Ask about the weighting or the reason behind a requirement instead of its existence.
Filling silence with more question
Phone lines have a delay. Ask, stop, and let them answer. Restating the question mid-pause usually produces a shorter reply.
Not noticing what they will not answer
A skipped question about turnover, salary, or why the last person left is data. Note it and put the same question to the next interviewer.