Questions to Ask Your Manager on the First Day
Questions to ask your manager on your first day in a new job, and through the first week: what to work on, how you will be judged, how the two of you will communicate, who to meet, and where the line sits between deciding and checking. They run from a short day-one list through setup, expectations, working together, the team and what comes later.
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The questions
Each question, and why to ask it
Start Here
What would you like me to focus on this first week?
Why ask it
Expect a logistical answer on day one: accounts, reading, people to meet. If your manager has nothing ready, say your own outline for the week out loud and ask what they would change, which is quicker for them than writing a plan from nothing.
What are your priorities for me over the first thirty, sixty and ninety days?
Why ask it
Note what they say for each stretch, then look at where it thins out. A detailed first month and a blank third usually means the role is still being defined around you, which is useful to know and not a bad sign in itself.
What does good work look like in this job, and how will you know?
Why ask it
Push until you hear something observable. Being a team player is not a measure; the weekly report going out without anyone chasing it is. If the role has numbers attached, ask where you can see them for yourself.
How do you prefer to communicate day to day: chat, email, a call or in person?
Why ask it
Ask which channel they actually read as well as which they prefer. A manager who answers chat in minutes and email in days has told you where anything with a deadline should go. If the answer is 'whatever suits you', go by how they contact you this week.
Who should I go to with questions when you're not available?
Why ask it
A manager's day can be back-to-back meetings, and a new hire waiting until four o'clock for a two-minute answer is an avoidable stall. Ask for a name, and check that the person knows they have been volunteered.
Is there a task or project you'd like me to pick up first?
Why ask it
A small real task teaches you the tools, the approvals and the people faster than a week of reading. If the answer is 'just settle in', ask whether there is something low-risk you could try anyway, such as updating a document or helping on a piece of work already under way.
When will we meet one to one, and what should I bring to it?
Why ask it
Get the slot into both calendars before you leave the room, because a meeting agreed in principle tends to vanish once the week fills up. Then ask how they like it run: a written list of topics sent the day before, or a conversation about whatever is stuck.
Getting Set Up
What tools and access will I need, and who arranges them?
Why ask it
Ask for the whole list in one go: systems, shared drives, mailing lists, a building pass. Where several departments have to approve, a request raised today can be what saves you an idle second week, so note who to chase for each item.
Is there an onboarding plan or training I should be working through?
Why ask it
Where a plan exists, find out who owns it and what happens when a session is cancelled, since onboarding calendars rarely survive a busy week intact. Where there is none, ask which three things someone in this job has to learn first and build your own list around them.
What does a normal week look like for someone in my seat?
Why ask it
The fixed points are what you are after: the Monday planning call, the Thursday report, the rush at month end. A manager who cannot name any is describing a reactive job, where the calendar gets set by whoever asks loudest.
What should I read first, and what can I leave for later?
Why ask it
New hires get pointed at more documents than anyone could finish. Your manager's top three also show what they think the job is really about, whether that is the strategy deck, a client contract or last quarter's numbers.
Who should I meet in the next couple of weeks, and why each of them?
Why ask it
The reason matters as much as the name: 'she approves your expenses' and 'he built the system you will be fixing' call for very different first conversations. Ask too whether your manager will introduce you or whether you should book the time yourself.
Is there someone I could shadow for a day or two?
Why ask it
Watching someone do the job shows what no document does: which screens they keep open, who they ring when something breaks, which steps they skip. If nobody has been lined up, ask who joined most recently, because the newest person on a team still remembers the parts nobody explains.
Which recurring meetings should I be in, and what is my part in each?
Why ask it
Find out whether you are there to contribute, to take notes or to pick up the vocabulary. Sitting silent where you were expected to report is a hard impression to undo, and holding forth where you were meant to listen is not much better.
Is there anything I should hold off on touching until I know more?
Why ask it
Most teams have something fragile: a client relationship in mid-negotiation, a system with no backup, a process one person guards closely. Managers seldom think to mention it, so a keen new hire tends to find it by accident.
Expectations
What are the core hours here, and are evenings or weekends ever expected?
Why ask it
Ask when people really start and finish, and whether a message sent at eight in the evening wants an answer that night or was only sent when your manager thought of it. What counts as working time and how extra hours are treated depend on your contract and where you work, so ask how it is handled here.
Which days do you want me in the office, and is that fixed or up to me?
Why ask it
Hybrid arrangements are often settled team by team, so company policy and your manager's preference can differ. Ask which days the people you will work with most come in, since an office day spent on video calls helps nobody.
If I'm ill or held up one morning, how do you want me to let you know?
Why ask it
Get the channel as well as the person: a text to your manager, a call before a set time, a form in the HR system. While you are on the subject, mention any trip or appointment you already have booked, so it is a scheduling detail now and not a surprise later. How leave is requested and how much notice it needs differ by employer, so ask what the rule is here.
When should I decide something myself, and when should I check with you?
Why ask it
Ask for one example on each side of the line: a refund you could approve alone, say, and a supplier you could not change without asking. Check too whether the line moves with the amount of money, with who the customer is, or with how easily the thing can be undone.
If two deadlines collide, how do you want me to choose?
Why ask it
The usable answers are rules of thumb: the client comes before the internal report, or anything for the director goes first. If you hear 'both matter', ask whether you should bring each clash to them as it happens, because that is what the answer amounts to.
Is there a probation period or a first formal review, and what goes into it?
Why ask it
Whether a probation exists, how long it runs and what it changes depend on the country, the contract and the employer, so ask how it works here. The date matters less than the inputs: your manager's judgment alone, written goals, or comments gathered from colleagues.
Which mistakes matter most in this job, and which are easy to put right?
Why ask it
Every role has errors that get shrugged off and a few that are remembered: the wrong figure in front of a client, a missed filing date, an email sent to the whole company. Knowing which is which lets you move quickly on everything else.
Working Together
How would you like me to keep you posted on my work?
Why ask it
The options run from a line in the team chat when something is finished to a written summary every Friday. Guess wrong and steady work goes unseen, which in a first month can read as not much happening. Ask what they want in the update itself: finished items, blockers, or what comes next.
What's the best way to ask questions while I'm getting up to speed?
Why ask it
A new hire has a steady stream of small questions for the first few weeks. Ask whether to send them as they come or keep a running list for a set time each day, and offer the list if your manager hesitates, since some of the morning's questions will have answered themselves by the afternoon.
How do you usually give feedback: on the spot, in our one-to-ones, or in writing?
Why ask it
Knowing the channel stops you reading silence as approval, or a passing correction as a crisis. Say how you take feedback best while you are at it. Most managers will adapt once told, and few will guess.
How would you like me to bring you bad news?
Why ask it
Nearly every manager says 'early'. What differs is what they want with it: a one-line warning the moment you suspect trouble, or the size of the problem and a suggested fix. Ask about a time someone on the team handled it well.
If I disagree with a decision, how would you like me to raise it?
Why ask it
One for the first week more than the first hour, once you have watched a decision or two get made. Some managers want pushback in the meeting and others in private afterwards, and the wrong setting can make a fair point look like a challenge.
How would you describe your management style?
Why ask it
Self-descriptions run generous, so take the answer as a statement of intent and not a forecast. A practical follow-up gets further than a label like hands-on or hands-off: 'If I hear nothing from you for a week, is that a good sign?'
What do the people who work best with you tend to do?
Why ask it
A kinder route to their pet peeves. The reply is usually concrete: they flag problems early, they arrive with a recommendation, they do not need chasing. Each is a habit you can pick up from your second day.
What are your own goals for this year, and where can I be most useful?
Why ask it
Your manager answers to someone too, and your work will be weighed partly by how much it helps with what they are on the hook for. Once you know their two or three commitments, you can guess which of your tasks will be noticed and which will sit in a queue.
How did you come to lead this team?
Why ask it
A two-minute history that changes how you read everything else they tell you. Someone who once sat in your seat will spot shortcuts and have a preferred way of doing things; someone who arrived from another company last year may be working out the place at the same time as you.
Is there anything about how I work that would be useful for you to know?
Why ask it
Few managers ask, so this is your opening to mention that you think better on paper than out loud, or that your mornings are built around a school run. Keep it to one or two things; a full list of preferences can wait until you have delivered something.
The Team
What is the team working on right now, and where do I fit?
Why ask it
Tells you whether the role exists to absorb known work or is expected to invent its own. If a piece already has your name on it, ask to see where it stands.
What's the hardest problem the team is dealing with at the moment?
Why ask it
The hardest problem is often the reason the job was opened, even when the advert never said so: a backlog, a system nobody trusts, a client close to leaving. If you hear nothing but good news on day one, ask again in a month.
How do decisions usually get made here?
Why ask it
Ask about a recent one, such as how the last tool or supplier was chosen. A real example brings out the informal route: the meeting where things are actually agreed, or the one person who has to be convinced first.
What should I know about how the team works together that isn't written down?
Why ask it
Norms about hours, reply times, cameras and which channel is for what are invisible until you break one. If the question draws a blank, prompt with examples: whether cameras stay on, whether lunch is eaten at the desk, whether people message before they call.
What tends to trip up people who are new here?
Why ask it
Managers answer this one readily because it is about other people. Expect something concrete, such as the expenses system, an approval that takes a week or a client who must never be emailed directly, and ask who can walk you through it.
How does this team's work feed into what the company is trying to do this year?
Why ask it
A clear answer sounds like a chain: the company wants to keep more customers, so this team is cutting response times, so your queue matters. If your manager cannot draw that line, expect priorities to move around more than you would like.
Who does what on the team, and who knows which systems and clients best?
Why ask it
Job titles rarely show who understands the billing system or who has handled the awkward client before. A five-minute rundown saves weeks of asking the wrong person, and it shows you how your manager sees each member of the team.
Who outside the team depends on our work, and what do they care about?
Why ask it
Other departments, clients or a senior sponsor will form their view of you through what the team hands them. Ask what each complains about when things slip, because that is the standard you are held to in practice.
Is this role new, or am I picking up where someone left off?
Why ask it
With a predecessor you inherit files, habits and whatever people thought of their work; with a new role you get a blank page and expectations nobody has tested. Where there was someone before, ask for the handover notes and whether they can still be reached.
Looking Ahead
What would you like me to be able to do in six months that I can't yet?
Why ask it
The answer is a skills list in disguise: run the monthly close alone, present to a client, cover for a colleague on leave. Ask which to start on and who could teach it, and you have a development plan without the form.
Is there a budget or time set aside for training, and how do people on the team use it?
Why ask it
Employers differ a lot on this, so ask how it works here and assume nothing. The telling part is the second half: a budget nobody on the team has drawn on in a year exists mostly on paper.
When would be a good time to talk about where this role could lead?
Why ask it
Asking when, not what, keeps it from sounding as though you are eyeing the next job on your first morning. A manager who suggests a date has had this conversation before; one who looks surprised may need you to raise it again in a few months.
Can we take ten minutes at the end of the week to go over how it went?
Why ask it
Early corrections are small ones: copy me on those emails, slow down on that system, speak up more in the Monday call. Left for a month, the same notes arrive as a pattern. Asking ahead also gives your manager a few days to notice things.
Before I leave today, is there anything I should have ready for tomorrow?
Why ask it
A small practical closer that often turns something up: a meeting to read ahead for, a login to test tonight, a different start time. It also tells your manager that you are already thinking about day two.
Is there anything else I should know that I haven't thought to ask?
Why ask it
Your manager can see the gaps in your picture better than you can, so give them a moment to think before you fill the silence. What comes back is often the thing they meant to say at nine and forgot: a visitor on Thursday, a system that goes down every Friday afternoon.
Using your first day well
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Pacing the questions
Don't ask them all on day one
A first day is mostly paperwork, tours and introductions. Start Here is the day-one shortlist: pick four or five from it, and save the rest for your first proper one-to-one later in the week.
Spread the rest over the first two weeks
Getting Set Up belongs to the first couple of days, while there is still time to chase an account or a missing invite. Expectations and Working Together suit your first one-to-one, The Team whenever your manager has half an hour to talk, and Looking Ahead the end of the week or later. A question about where the role leads lands better once you have done some of the work.
Write the answers down
You will be told dozens of names and systems before lunch and remember almost none of them. Notes also give you something to check against in a month.
Ask for examples, not principles
Hearing that the team is collaborative tells you nothing. Hearing that you should talk to Priya before touching the deployment pipeline is usable.
What to listen for
- Whether the goals for your role already exist in writing, or are being invented as you ask about them.
- Whether your manager describes the team's problems, or only its plans.
- Whether the stated process for decisions matches the examples they give.
- Which names come up repeatedly without appearing on the org chart.
- Whether anyone can tell you why the role is open.
- Whether your manager's account of how they give feedback matches how the first correction actually reaches you.
- Whether they ask you anything back about how you like to work.
Common mistakes
Nodding through an explanation you didn't follow
Pretending to understand a system on day one costs far more in week three, when everyone assumes it was covered.
Treating the day as an interview you're still in
Rapid-fire questions read as anxiety. Leave silence, and let your manager talk past their first answer.
Skipping the small talk
Useful context arrives sideways: who is leaving, what failed last quarter, which project is unpopular. None of it comes in response to a direct question.
Asking your manager what a teammate could answer
Where the printer is, how expenses get filed and which channel is for lunch plans are questions for a colleague. Keep your manager's time for what only they decide: priorities, standards and how the two of you will work together.