Questions to Ask Employees About the Company
Questions to ask current employees at a company you want to work for, whether you meet them in a panel interview, over coffee, or through a message to someone who already does the job. They follow the order such a talk usually takes: their own story, the working week, the manager and team, how the place runs, the health of the business, and what to ask before you part. Three or four per person is plenty, so choose by what you still cannot tell from the interviews.
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The questions
Each question, and why to ask it
Their story
How long have you been here, and what were you doing before?
Why ask it
An easy opener that also gives you a reference point for everything else they say. Someone three months in describes onboarding; someone six years in describes what has changed, and only one of them can tell you whether people stay.
What did you expect before you joined, and what surprised you?
Why ask it
The gap between the recruiting pitch and the job is exactly what you are trying to find, and this question asks for it without inviting disloyalty. If the surprise is scale, pace, or how much is unwritten, ask how long it took to stop being a problem.
What has kept you here?
Why ask it
People stay for the work, the manager, the pay, the colleagues or because moving is a bother, and current employees will usually tell you which. If the answer is only the people, ask what they think of the work itself.
What do you wish someone had told you before your first day?
Why ask it
This turns the employee into the adviser, a role most people enjoy, and it gets you the unwritten rule that took them months to learn. Write the answer down, because it is usually something no interviewer would think to mention.
Is the job you do now the job you were hired for?
Why ask it
Roles drift, and how they drift tells you what the company does with a person once they are inside. A job that grew is a good sign. One that quietly absorbed a departed colleague's work, with no change in title, is a different story.
What made you pick this company over the other places you could have gone?
Why ask it
Their reasons show what the company is good at selling to candidates, and you can check whether the same pitch is being made to you. Follow with whether that reason still holds. If they hesitate over that, ask what changed.
What was your first month like, and who showed you how things work?
Why ask it
Onboarding here is the onboarding you will get, give or take a year. A named person who sat with them is a real answer. Being handed a laptop and a login and left to it is also a real answer, and some people prefer it.
Which part of the hiring process gave you the most accurate picture of the job?
Why ask it
It tells you which of your own interviews to weigh most heavily. If nothing in the process matched the job they ended up with, treat what you have been told so far with the same caution.
The week
What did you actually work on last week?
Why ask it
Concrete and hard to answer in marketing language. A week that turns out to be mostly meetings, waiting for approvals, or firefighting tells you more than any description of a typical week would.
How much of your week goes to meetings?
Why ask it
Ask for a number of hours, then which of those meetings they would drop if it were up to them. A calendar they cannot change says something about how much say people at their level have over their own time.
What time do most people start and finish, and how much does it vary?
Why ask it
Ask about most people and not about the policy, since contracts say one thing and the car park says another. The spread matters as much as the hours: a team where everyone keeps the same day runs differently from one where people come and go.
How far ahead do you get your schedule, and how often does it change after that?
Why ask it
On shift work this decides whether you can plan childcare, study or a second job around the role. Some places have rules on how much notice an employer must give, and they differ by country, state and city, so ask the recruiter how it works there.
How late do people answer messages, and does anyone mind if you do not?
Why ask it
A late reply now and then is ordinary; being expected to send one is a working condition. Ask whether they answered anything after dinner this week, and whether it could have waited until morning.
What is the busiest stretch of the year like here?
Why ask it
Averages conceal the crunch, which is where the real hours live: a launch, a quarter end, an audit, a season. Ask what people do afterwards, since a company that gives nothing back after a hard month is telling you its terms.
How many days are people really in the office, and who decides?
Why ask it
Count the days this person came in last week before you hear the policy. Then find out where the rule comes from: one set by the team can bend, and one set at the top can change for everyone with a single email.
How much of your work do you choose, and how much is handed to you?
Why ask it
Autonomy is hard to judge from a job description, and this puts a rough proportion on it. Compare the answer with the level you would join at, because the freedom a senior person describes may be years away for you.
Which tool or system here costs you the most time?
Why ask it
Everyone has one, so the question is safe and the answer comes quickly. An expense system is an annoyance. A core tool the whole job runs through, which nobody has budget to replace, is something you would live with every day.
When you take a holiday, does the work wait for you or follow you?
Why ask it
Ask when they last had a full week off without opening a laptop, and who covered for them. Statutory leave and how it accrues depend on the country and the employer, so check the terms that would apply to you with the recruiter.
What part of the job is harder than it looks from outside?
Why ask it
This is the gentlest way to ask what is wrong with the role, since it invites a little pride along with the complaint. If the hard part turns out to be a relationship, a client or an approval chain and not the work itself, ask whether you would inherit it.
What does a good week look like, and how often do you get one?
Why ask it
Their good week is the job as it feels when it works, and that is the version you would be signing up for. The frequency is what to weigh: once a month and most weeks describe two very different jobs with one title.
Manager and team
What is your manager like to work for?
Why ask it
If this person would be a colleague, ask about your prospective manager by name. Careful, heavily qualified praise is a signal, and so is a switch from what they are like to what they have achieved.
How often do you sit down one to one with your manager, and what do you talk about?
Why ask it
A regular slot that survives busy weeks shows a manager who protects the time. If the half hour is only a status report, questions about your own development will have nowhere to go.
When a client or another team complains about your work, does your manager back you up?
Why ask it
A story is better than a yes here. Whether the manager took the awkward call or forwarded the complaint with a question mark tells you how exposed you would be on a bad day.
When did you last get feedback that was actually useful, and who was it from?
Why ask it
A quick answer with a name and a detail means feedback is part of ordinary work here. A long pause, or a mention of the annual review and nothing since, suggests you would mostly be left to judge your own work.
What does it take to get promoted, and who was promoted most recently?
Why ask it
The recent name is the check on the criteria. A ladder nobody has climbed lately can mean promotions are rare, negotiated one by one, or go to people hired from outside, so ask which it is.
How are raises decided here, and did the last round make sense to you?
Why ask it
You are asking about the process and not their figure, which keeps it comfortable for someone you have just met. An employee who cannot say how their own raise was arrived at is describing a system you would be inside too. For the actual range, ask the recruiter, since what an employer has to disclose varies by country and state.
Who does well here, and who struggles?
Why ask it
People describe the ones who struggle by what they do, such as needing instructions, working alone or pushing back, and that is plainer than any list of values. Hold the description against how you really work, not how you plan to come across in the interview.
How does the team treat someone new who gets something wrong?
Why ask it
You will be that person within a few weeks, so this is a question about your own near future. Ask for the last new starter by example. Whether the mistake was fixed quietly, explained or retold as a story at their expense says a lot about the room.
Who do people go to when they are stuck?
Why ask it
The name is often not the manager, and that is fine. It shows where the knowledge on the team really sits. If the whole team leans on one person, ask how long that person has been there and what happens when they are away.
Has anyone on the team moved to another team or role inside the company?
Why ask it
Internal moves are the clearest sign that a career here can go somewhere other than up or out. Ask how the move happened. A posted vacancy and an open application are one kind of company, and a quiet word between two directors is another.
What has the company paid for you to learn in the past year?
Why ask it
The answer you want names a course, a conference or a certificate with a rough date. If they have never asked for anything, find out whether anyone on the team has, because an unused budget is hard to tell from no budget.
How well do people on the team know each other?
Why ask it
Some teams eat together every day and some have never met in person, and people are happy in both. The point is to match it to what you want from colleagues. Notice whether they talk about the others with warmth, with caution or with very little detail.
How it runs
What happened the last time a project went wrong here?
Why ask it
Asking about one occasion gets you an event where a general question gets you the policy. Listen for whether someone was blamed, whether the work was quietly buried, or whether anything changed as a result.
When two teams disagree, how does it get settled?
Why ask it
Every organisation has a real answer to this, and it is usually a person rather than a process. If the answer is that it goes to the founder, or that it does not get settled, expect to spend energy on it yourself.
How often do priorities change, and who changes them?
Why ask it
Frequent reversals from one person at the top are a working condition no job description mentions. Ask what happened to the last thing that got dropped, and how the team was told.
How do you usually find out about a big decision here?
Why ask it
It might be the manager, an all-hands meeting or the grapevine, and the channel shows how much the company trusts its staff with news. If people hear things from colleagues first, ask whether that was also true of the last bad news.
When did someone last disagree openly with a senior person, and what happened to the idea?
Why ask it
Most companies say they welcome challenge, so ask for the occasion. A recent example with a visible result is the best answer you can get. If nothing comes to mind, that may mean nobody tries any more.
How long does it take to get a yes on something that costs money?
Why ask it
Approval speed is a fair measure of bureaucracy, and employees usually have a story ready. Three signatures for a small software licence means the same three signatures for whatever your job will need.
What do people grumble about at lunch?
Why ask it
Calling it grumbling makes it ordinary, so people answer without feeling they are criticising their employer. Sort what you hear into irritations, like the expenses form, and things that would wear you down, like a department nobody can get an answer from.
Which of the company's values do you see day to day, and which one is only on the wall?
Why ask it
Asking for one of each makes it easy to be honest, because you have assumed there is a gap. The value they pick as real is worth testing with a second employee. Two people naming the same one is a pattern you can lean on.
What gets rewarded here that is not written down anywhere?
Why ask it
Every workplace has an unofficial scoreboard: being seen late, speaking up in the big meeting, keeping one particular client happy. Knowing it before you start saves you the first six months of guessing. It may also be a reason not to start at all.
Company health
Where does the company make its money, and is that changing?
Why ask it
An employee who cannot answer this is telling you how much information circulates internally. If the answer names one large customer or one product, ask what would happen to this team if that one went.
How much do staff hear about how the business is doing, and how often?
Why ask it
Regular numbers shared with everyone suggest a leadership that expects to be held to them. If the answer is that results are for senior people only, you would learn about trouble late. Either way, compare what this employee knows with what the interviewers told you.
What changed in the past year, and how did people take it?
Why ask it
Reorganisations, new leadership, a funding round, or an acquisition all leave residue. How they describe the reaction, rather than the change itself, tells you how much trust there is in whoever makes decisions.
Has there been a layoff or a hiring freeze, and how was it handled?
Why ask it
Ask plainly, because it rarely comes up unprompted. What matters is the handling: how much notice people had, whether they were told the truth, and whether those who stayed took on the missing work for good.
Who has left your team recently, and where did they go?
Why ask it
Departures are something only an insider can tell you about, and few will bring them up unasked. Several people leaving for the same competitor, and several leaving with nothing lined up, mean quite different things.
When the leadership says something is going to happen, does it happen?
Why ask it
Trust in the people at the top is hard to ask about directly, and this version asks for a track record. A promised reorganisation, pay review or new office that arrived on time counts for more than any statement of values.
Is your team getting more people and budget this year, or less?
Why ask it
Where the money is going inside a company says more about its plans than the strategy slides do. A team that is shrinking while the company grows is worth a follow-up, particularly if it is the team you would join.
What are people here worried about that an outsider would not know?
Why ask it
It is a wide question, so give them time and do not fill the silence. A lost customer, a rumoured sale or a new boss nobody has met are the sort of thing that surfaces. Treat it as one person's reading, and see whether anyone else raises it unprompted.
Before you go
What would make you leave?
Why ask it
Keep this for a one to one talk, since few people will answer it with colleagues listening. The answers tend to be specific, such as their manager leaving, the commute changing or a project being cancelled, and each one points at what is fragile.
Would you tell a friend to apply here, and which team would you point them at?
Why ask it
Naming a team forces a distinction between parts of the company. Enthusiasm for the company in general, with a hesitation over the team you would join, is the answer you most need to hear.
Is the role I am up for new, or did someone hold it before me?
Why ask it
A new role means building the job as you go, with nobody to tell you what was tried. A replacement means there is a story, and an employee will often tell it more plainly than the hiring manager did. Ask how long the last person stayed.
If you had my offer in front of you, what would you want settled before signing?
Why ask it
By this point they know something about you, so the advice will be shaped to your case. Common answers are the reporting line, the working pattern and the start date, in writing. What can be changed in an offer depends on the employer and the local law, so raise the points with the recruiter and ask what is possible.
What should I be asking the hiring manager that I have not thought of?
Why ask it
An insider knows which question makes the real issue surface, and outsiders seldom guess it. Use their wording when you ask it, without saying where it came from.
Is there anyone else here you think I should talk to?
Why ask it
A name passed on by a colleague tends to get a reply where a cold message might sit unread. Pay attention to who they suggest: someone in a different team or at a different level gives you a second angle on everything you have just heard.
Could I come back to you with one more question once I have the offer?
Why ask it
It keeps the door open for the question you will only think of when the details arrive. Send a short note of thanks the same day, and when you do come back, keep it to the one question.
Getting honest answers from people who work there
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Where to ask
In the interview loop
Anyone the company puts in front of you is also assessing you, so ask about process, decisions, and how work gets done rather than about morale. Save the sharper questions for the informal conversations.
One to one, off the schedule
Ask the recruiter to connect you with someone doing the job you are applying for, ideally without their manager present. A company that refuses this at final stage is making a choice worth noticing.
People who have left
Former employees have less reason to be careful, and many will give twenty minutes to a stranger who asks politely and is specific. Ask why they left and what they miss; the second question keeps the answer balanced.
In writing, from a distance
A short message to someone who works there, saying that you have an offer and want one honest question answered, is easy to reply to. Say how you found them, and ask one thing, not ten.
How to ask
- Ask for the last time rather than the usual case. Recent examples cannot be answered with the recruiting script.
- Ask for both halves: what is good and what is not. People answer the negative half more honestly when it has been invited.
- Keep it to three or four questions per person and let the conversation go where it wants after that.
- Ask the same two questions of everyone you speak to. The variation between answers is the finding.
- Do not offer your own opinion of the company while they are talking. Filling the silence is the fastest way to get agreement instead of information.
Reading the answers
- Hedging on a specific question after fluency on everything else usually marks the real problem.
- Praise that is all about the people, with nothing about the work or the direction, often means the work is dull or the strategy is unclear.
- Watch for the phrase that everyone uses. Repeated wording across several employees is a sign of a message, not a consensus.
- Take note of who cannot answer a basic question about how money is made or how a decision was reached.
- One bad review online means little; the same complaint from two current employees and one former one means a great deal.
What to avoid
- Do not ask an employee to compare the company with a competitor by name. It puts them in an awkward position and the answer will be guarded.
- Do not ask about salary bands from a colleague you have just met. Ask the recruiter, or check what the law in your location requires them to publish.
- Do not repeat what one employee told you to another, particularly to anyone senior. Word travels and it can cost you the offer.
- Do not treat a single person's experience as the whole company. Teams a floor apart can differ more than two companies do.