If You Have Any Questions, Feel Free to Ask
Somebody has just closed an email, an interview, a handover or an appointment with this line, and the reflex answer is no thanks. Twenty questions worth taking them up on instead, grouped by where the offer came from, plus a section for when you are the one writing the line and getting no replies.
20 questions, each with the reason to ask it · includes a conversation guide
The questions
Open any question to see why it works.
- 1
Actually, yes: what do people usually get wrong about this?
Works after almost any version of the offer, because it asks for the mistake rather than the information. The answer comes from their experience instead of from the document they already sent you.
- 2
What should I have asked that I did not?
The most efficient single question when nothing specific comes to mind. It moves the work to the person who knows the subject, and most have an answer ready because they have watched other people miss it.
- 3
What happens next, and roughly by when?
Open offers of help usually come with no timeline at all. A date, even an approximate one, is what tells you when following up counts as diligent rather than impatient.
- 4
Who else should I be speaking to about this?
Cheap to ask and it lands more often than you expect. If they give you a name, ask whether you can say they sent you, which turns a name into an introduction.
- 5
If you were in my position, would you do any of this differently?
It asks for an opinion rather than a policy. People who have to be careful in writing will frequently say considerably more when asked what they would personally do.
- 6
What is the most common reason this goes wrong?
Failure modes are more useful than instructions and are almost never written down. Expect the answer to be a step everyone skips rather than a dramatic disaster.
- 7
How should I get in touch: reply here, or is there a faster way?
The offer to answer questions rarely says through which channel. Asking saves you from a message sitting in a queue for a week when they would have preferred you called.
- 8
What would make this easier on your end?
Turning the offer around buys goodwill and usually produces something concrete. The answer is often a small piece of information you would never have thought to send unprompted.
- 9
What does someone need to do in the first ninety days for you to feel this hire went well?
For the end of an interview. It asks for their definition of success rather than a restatement of the job description, and visible hesitation usually means the role has not been fully thought through.
- 10
Is there anything about my background that gives you pause?
This is the only chance you get to answer an objection before you are discussed in a room you are not in. Take whatever they say plainly and briefly rather than arguing with it.
- 11
What is the hardest part of this job that is not in the posting?
Interviewers usually answer this honestly because a candidate who is surprised later becomes their problem. If they insist there is no hard part, treat that as information too.
- 12
What are the next steps, and when should I expect to hear?
This is the question the closing offer exists for, and skipping it means waiting without knowing when silence has become the answer. Write the date down and follow up the day after it passes.
- 13
Could you write down the name of what you think this is?
For a clinical appointment. Names get lost between the room and the car park, and written down it becomes the thing you can spell correctly on a form and repeat to somebody else.
- 14
What would be a reason to contact you before the next appointment?
It converts an open offer into a specific threshold. Many people leave without knowing which changes count as a reason to get back in touch rather than wait.
- 15
Which part of this should I read first if I only have ten minutes?
For a long attachment or a policy document. The section they name is the one they care about, and it is rarely the longest or the one at the front.
- 16
Is this the current version?
Documents circulate for years past their last update. The question is unremarkable to the sender and it saves you from acting on something that was superseded two revisions ago.
- 17
Who covers this when you are away?
Single points of contact go on holiday, change roles and leave. This is the question people most often wish they had asked at the moment the offer was made rather than three weeks later.
- 18
What do you wish somebody had told you when you started here?
Works on any colleague and produces the informal rules that no handbook contains. Ask it early, while being new is still a reasonable excuse for not knowing.
- 19
Is there a decision coming up that would be hard to undo?
Useful when you do not yet know enough to have specific questions. It aims at the small number of choices that actually matter rather than the many that can be revised later.
- 20
If I only ask you one more thing, what should it be?
A closing question for when the conversation is nearly over and you suspect you have missed something. It is also a graceful alternative to saying you have no questions at all.
Taking someone up on the offer
Practical guidance for the conversation itself.
Why the reflex is to say no
Why the reflex is to say no
The line is usually a polite close rather than a genuine invitation, so declining feels like the courteous match to it. In practice the person who asks one specific question is remembered as engaged, and the person who asks none is remembered as nothing at all. One question is almost always safe. Three is a conversation. Eight is an interrogation, so choose.
If the offer came by email
If the offer came by email
- Reply within a day. After that, the sender has moved on and your question restarts a thread they had closed.
- Ask one question per email. Two questions in one paragraph reliably get one answer, and it will be the easier one.
- Quote the specific line or page you are asking about. It halves the reply time and removes the risk of being answered generically.
- If you need several things, number them. Numbered questions get numbered answers; questions buried in prose get a summary.
- Say what you will do with the answer. People answer faster when they can see the reply is unblocking something.
If you are the one writing the line
If you are the one writing the line
- The comma goes after questions: if you have any questions, feel free to ask. It is a dependent clause, not an optional pause.
- It almost never produces questions, because it asks the reader to invent one. Naming a question does better: not sure whether this covers renewals? Ask me.
- Give a channel and a window. Reply here, or call me before Thursday, gets more responses than an open standing offer.
- Alternatives that get replies: tell me which part is unclear, let me know if anything here does not match your notes, ask me anything before you sign.
- If you actually want to hear from people, follow up once yourself. A single check-in three days later outperforms any phrasing of the original offer.