<story><title>If someone asks if you have any questions, ask a question</title><url>https://kevin.burke.dev/kevin/ask-questions-during-interviews/?hn</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>burlesona</author><text>Haha, wow. No sense of humor? As a hiring manager I’ve run somewhere north of a hundred interviews, and honestly they get so boring and repetitive. I love it when people have questions because it shows you something about them which wasn’t on the script.&lt;p&gt;If someone’s question was “what did you have for lunch?” and they asked with a smile, I would laugh out loud and then tell them about my lunch, and probably write something like “likeable candidate, has good people skills,” in my review.</text></item><item><author>wccrawford</author><text>&amp;gt; Even asking &amp;quot;what did you have for lunch&amp;quot; is better than asking nothing; the interviewer might start talking about whether the company pays for lunch, whether it&amp;#x27;s any good.&lt;p&gt;No, it&amp;#x27;s not.  I&amp;#x27;m pretty sure anyone who asked that in an interview would be bottom of the list, regardless of how I felt about their interview otherwise.  It&amp;#x27;s flippant and shows a lack of care about what&amp;#x27;s going on.&lt;p&gt;Iv&amp;#x27;e never been upset with someone for not asking questions.  Interviews are tense and we &lt;i&gt;do&lt;/i&gt; try to answer the most common questions before they are asked.  If they have no questions, we extend and offer to email us later and we&amp;#x27;ll answer any questions they come up with later.&lt;p&gt;Stupid question affect the interview.  Lack of questions doesn&amp;#x27;t.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>wenc</author><text>Eh. I think it&amp;#x27;s a risky gamble.&lt;p&gt;It does depend on the context. If it was asked in the context of a casual conversation, say in between sessions -- it&amp;#x27;s ok.&lt;p&gt;But when I, the interviewer, am asking &amp;quot;do you have any questions for me?&amp;quot; during an interview, I invariably mean it in a professional context. Answering with &amp;quot;what did you have for lunch?&amp;quot; seems to cross the professionalism line somewhat (why the hell do you need to know what I ate?), and may not be appreciated by many. I wouldn&amp;#x27;t go as far as to outright dismiss the candidate&amp;#x27;s viability, but for me personally, it&amp;#x27;s comes across as weird and non-self-aware rather than funny.&lt;p&gt;(also, as someone who watches a lot of stand-up, I also have a high threshold for humor -- I&amp;#x27;m kinda of a humor snob. I like light-heartedness, but contrived failed attempts at  humor are grating to me because they often indicate someone&amp;#x27;s trying too hard. There&amp;#x27;s an inauthenticity there that rubs me the wrong way.)&lt;p&gt;So even if you&amp;#x27;re right, the trouble is an interviewee might not be able to tell a priori if they got someone like you or someone like me. So it&amp;#x27;s risky.&lt;p&gt;(otoh, &amp;quot;what are some good lunch spots around here, in your opinion?&amp;quot;, mentioned by another commenter, is almost always positive and indicates a candidate&amp;#x27;s interest in the workplace environment)</text></comment>
<story><title>If someone asks if you have any questions, ask a question</title><url>https://kevin.burke.dev/kevin/ask-questions-during-interviews/?hn</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>burlesona</author><text>Haha, wow. No sense of humor? As a hiring manager I’ve run somewhere north of a hundred interviews, and honestly they get so boring and repetitive. I love it when people have questions because it shows you something about them which wasn’t on the script.&lt;p&gt;If someone’s question was “what did you have for lunch?” and they asked with a smile, I would laugh out loud and then tell them about my lunch, and probably write something like “likeable candidate, has good people skills,” in my review.</text></item><item><author>wccrawford</author><text>&amp;gt; Even asking &amp;quot;what did you have for lunch&amp;quot; is better than asking nothing; the interviewer might start talking about whether the company pays for lunch, whether it&amp;#x27;s any good.&lt;p&gt;No, it&amp;#x27;s not.  I&amp;#x27;m pretty sure anyone who asked that in an interview would be bottom of the list, regardless of how I felt about their interview otherwise.  It&amp;#x27;s flippant and shows a lack of care about what&amp;#x27;s going on.&lt;p&gt;Iv&amp;#x27;e never been upset with someone for not asking questions.  Interviews are tense and we &lt;i&gt;do&lt;/i&gt; try to answer the most common questions before they are asked.  If they have no questions, we extend and offer to email us later and we&amp;#x27;ll answer any questions they come up with later.&lt;p&gt;Stupid question affect the interview.  Lack of questions doesn&amp;#x27;t.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>meddlepal</author><text>HackerNews has a pretty notorious lack of humor. I agree with your assessment and I&amp;#x27;d probably write something similar.&lt;p&gt;On the other hand, definitely on the candidate to gauge whether the person they&amp;#x27;re asking is a total curmudgeon or not before asking.</text></comment>