Bopping through Lifehacker articles, I found a gem speaking to interview questions: “The Interview Question That’s Always Asked and How to Nail it.” (Ironically, Lifehacker has so much noise in its rss feed, I really feel only 1 in 100 articles is worth clicking into…)

When I first looked for a job after college, I would really have nothing to say after being asked, “Do you have any questions for us?” I usually didn’t. I didn’t know what I liked, what I wanted, what was out there, or what to even ask. I had such little experience, that I didn’t know what I didn’t know!

These days I know better and use that question to my benefit. It lets me fill in gaps in my knowledge of the company, open questions on why I should work there, whether I’d like the job/people, and demonstrate a bit of interest in the position without sounding like a jerk. Truly, I’m not usually looking to get in good with the interviewer and demonstrate that I’m a critical thinker or something, but really there are always questions about the job, company, manager, people, and expectations such that they should be asked before making such a big decision as a job opp.

The article itself has a few suggestions, two of which I’ve used regularly in the past: “What is the immediate need on your team that you are hoping to fill with this position?” and “How would you describe a typical day on this team?”