Interview: do you have any questions for us?

'Do you have any questions for us?' is the standard last question in an interview. There are several pitfalls here, and here I explain how to give a great answer.
0:00 A standard closing question for any interview, PhD student, postdoc or faculty
0:23 Tips for giving a great answer and what not to say
6:06 Let me know what you think! :)
Matthias Rillig, professor of ecology at Freie Universität Berlin, chats about life in academia.
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[@kanikabhalla65]

Thank you! I got into the PhD program at UC!

[@mrillig]

Congratulations, and good luck with your PhD!

[@SINTL]

Very informative; just made same mistakes in interview at MSU. Rillig I want to see you on salary negotiation, how to answer, what are you salary expectations? particularly when it is not mentioned or a range is given in job profile, very hard question for me. Second when one should not apply for postdoc (I have three postdocs even now i cannot stop myself when I saw a best fit postdoc position).

[@mrillig]

Thanks for writing and for these suggestions; I have put them on my list of topics to think about.

[@SINTL]

@@mrillig sbscribed and notification bell is on😊for your thoughts on it

[@sabanikan4014]

Thanks a lot for your valuable points. I will have an interview to obtain a grant for the postdoctoral program with a jury in the absence of the host organization's PI; what questions could I ask? Since most of the points are evident in the proposal. I appreciate your suggestions in this regard.

[@mrillig]

Thanks, glad the video is helpful. In this particular case you could ask about relevant specifics of the program itself (whatever they are for you, unless already obvious from the announcement of the program), or in the end about when you can expect to find out about the outcome of the selection.

[@sabanikan4014]

@@mrillig Thank you for taking the time to reply to my question. It was very helpful.🙏

[@dr.saniaasifvlogs5946]

😂😂😂i got this question at the end of my interview today. And I asked about the possible time for joining the position , if i got selected 😅

[@mrillig]

nice, and good luck!

[@binny1211]

Very helpful.. can I ask a question relating to the job advertisement? Such as.."I see that you have mentioned such and such experience for this teaching position. Could you explain why?" ...or something like that?

[@mrillig]

Sure, that could be a good question; unless the answer is obvious from the context.

[@andyzhang3595]

thanks for this impressive video. I am going to have a PhD position interview. I have just 2 years scholarship. Do you think ask some questions like: is there any possibility of getting a salary in your group or how many papers usually need to be published for your students?

[@mrillig]

I would ask the first question after you have the offer.

[@prince1mad]

Is it good to ask about their research in particular?

[@mrillig]

Sure, but questions shouldn't be so general that you could have easily found out about this by preparing for the interview.

[@prince1mad]

@@mrillig I’ll appear for the interview of postdoctoral fellow tomorrow. I’m thinking to ask about their opinion on one of the techniques over another. How does that sound? My background is very different from what they’re doing. Also I have a gap in my career after a PhD of around 11 months because i reject one offer as I got married and had to relocate. Do you have any suggestions for Me?

[@dr.saniaasifvlogs5946]

So what you did?