What Was the Best New Word Added to the Dictionary in 2017?

Thanks to the fine folks at Merriam-Webster, our dictionaries continue to get heavier and even more robust than they were twelve months ago.

As language evolves and new words continue to flood our lexicon, it’s good to have more ammunition for any conversation or correspondence you encounter. When new phrases from popular culture get cosigned and introduced into our language, it’s important to recognize the terms that make you stop and think and appreciate our evolving forms of communication.

Both in verbal conversation and in written communication, Grammarly loves to recognize wordplay of all sorts. So with that in mind, let’s look at eight great English words that were added to the record books, or in this case, books of record, in 2017.

Take a look at the new words that achieved dictionary-status and inspired us to diversify our style. Vote for your favorites below and use the comments section to let us know what new words and phrases made waves where you live!

1 Ghost

verb

What it means: To abruptly cut off all contact with (someone, such as a former romantic partner) by no longer accepting or responding to phone calls, instant messages, etc.

2 Word salad

noun

What it means: A string of empty, incoherent, unintelligible, or nonsensical words or comments.

3 Froyo

noun

What it means: A term used to describe frozen yogurt. Often used before another noun—a froyo shop, froyo flavors.

4 Weak sauce

noun

What it means: Something inferior, ineffective, or unimpressive: something weak.

5 Photobomb

verb

What it means: To move into the frame of a photograph as it is being taken as a joke or prank.

6 Throw shade

verb

What it means: To express contempt or disrespect for someone publicly, especially by subtle or indirect insults or criticisms.

7 Listicle

noun

What it means: An article consisting of a series of items presented as a list.

8 Facepalm

verb

What it means: To cover one’s face with the hand as an expression of embarrassment, dismay, or exasperation.

Apostrophe Rules

Apostrophes can be tricky. Sometimes they form possessives. Sometimes they form contractions. Can they ever make something plural?

Apostrophe Use: Contractions and Omissions

A contraction is a shortened form of a word (or group of words) that omits certain letters or sounds. In a contraction, an apostrophe represents missing letters. The most common contractions are made up of verbs, auxiliaries, or modals attached to other words: He would=He’d. I have=I’ve. They are=They’re. You cannot=You can’t.

Some writers use less common contractions when they want to represent a particular style of speech. They might write somethin’ to represent the way people often don’t pronounce the final g of “something” in speech. Occasionally, you might see e’er (instead of ever) in poetry. And, of course, in the American South, you will probably encounter y’all (you all). Decade names are often contracted as well: the ’60s (the 1960s).

Contraction	Uncontracted	Examples
-n’t	not	Isn’t (is not), hasn’t (has not)
-‘re	are	They’re (they are), we’re (we are), you’re (you are)
-‘d	had, would	She’d (she had, she would), I’d (I had, I would)
-‘ll	will	We’ll (we will), you’ll (you will)
-‘s	is	He’s (he is), it’s (it is)
I’m	I am	—
let’s	let us	—

Contractions are usually considered to be relatively casual. If you’re writing something very formal, you may want to avoid using them except in cases like o’clock, where the full phrase (of the clock) truly is rare.

Apostrophes and Possessive Nouns

The rules about forming possessives probably cause the most apostrophe confusion. They vary a little bit, depending on what type of noun you are making into a possessive. Here are the rules of thumb:

For most singular nouns, add apostrophe+s:

The dog’s leash The writer’s desk The planet’s atmosphere

For most plural nouns, add only an apostrophe:

The dogs’ leashes (multiple dogs) The writers’ desks (multiple writers) The planets’ atmospheres (multiple planets)

For plural nouns that do not end in s, add apostrophe+s:

The children’s toys The geese’s migration route

Style guides vary in their recommendations of what to do when you have a singular proper noun that ends in s. Some recommend adding only an apostrophe:

Charles Dickens’ novels Kansas’ main airport

Others say to add apostrophe+s:

Charles Dickens’s novels Kansas’s main airport

No matter which style guide you use, add only the apostrophe to plural proper nouns that end in s:

The Harrises’ house The Smiths’ vacation

Use whichever style matches the style guide you use for your writing. If you don’t have a style guide, it’s OK to just pick one of the methods, as long as you don’t switch back and forth within the same document.

Apostrophes and Possessive Pronouns

Personal pronouns, unlike regular nouns, do not use apostrophes to form possessives. Most writers don’t have trouble with the possessive pronouns my, mine, his, her, and our.  It’s your, yours, hers, its, ours, their, and theirs, that tend to cause the confusion. The relative possessive pronoun whose is also frequently the victim of apostrophe abuse. Note that none of these forms uses an apostrophe. In fact, for some of these pronouns, adding an apostrophe forms a contraction instead of a possessive (see the table above).

Pronoun	Possessive Pronoun	Absolute (Independent) Form
Me	My	Mine
You	Your	Yours
He	His	His
Her	Her	Hers
It	Its	—
We	Our	Ours
Them	Their	Theirs
Who	Whose	—

How to Write Joint Possession

What do you do with the apostrophe when you’re talking about things that belong to more than one person? When one thing belongs to two or more people, make only the final name possessive:

Bob and Jim’s bait shop (Bob and Jim co-own the same bait shop) Ryan, Jessica, and Elinor’s parents (All three share the same parents)

When you’re talking about separate things that belong to different people, make all the names possessive:

Bob’s and Jim’s bait shops (Bob owns one bait shop and Jim owns a different one) Ryan’s, Jessica’s, and Elinor’s parents (Each has a different set of parents)

Using possessive personal pronouns in joint constructions often sounds awkward (You have their and my gratitude). Usually, the best solution is to rephrase the sentence to avoid the joint construction (You have our gratitude or You have their gratitude and mine).

Apostrophes and Plurals

Using an unnecessary apostrophe to form the plural of a noun is a very common mistake. Sometimes, it’s called the grocer’s apostrophe because of how frequently it is spotted in grocery store advertisements (3 orange’s for a dollar!). Don’t do it! With very few exceptions, apostrophes do not make nouns plural.

The one notable exception to this rule is the plural form of lowercase letters, which are formed with an apostrophe to prevent misreading:

Don’t forget to dot all your is.

Don’t forget to dot all your i’s.

Apostrophes with Surrounding Punctuation

An apostrophe is part of the word it belongs to, so it should not be separated from the word by periods, commas, question marks, or any other punctuation mark.

Can I ask you somethin’? “’Twas the night before Christmas,” he said.

In the second example, take note of the apostrophe at the beginning of ’Twas. Apostrophes that fall at the very beginning of a contraction are often mistyped as left-hand single quotation marks. Word processors tend to do this by default. Keep this in mind, especially when you are writing about specific decades, such as the ’60s or the ’90s.

When to Check a Style Guide

Sooner or later, you’ll come across a phrase that sounds fine out loud but looks weird on paper because of the apostrophes. Do’s and don’ts? Dos and don’ts? Do’s and don’t’s? For cases like these, it’s best to check a comprehensive style guide, such as the Chicago Manual or the AP Stylebook (it’s do’s and don’ts, according to the AP). A good dictionary may also be able to offer you some guidance. If you can’t find a precedent, it’s probably best to use a different word or phrase; overly creative apostrophe use will inevitably distract your readers.

3 Things You Should Do When Speed Proofreading

We’ve all been there—mortified by the consequences of our own lack of care. Catching typos after you’ve hit send can limit your personal and professional opportunities at worst or be just plain annoying at best. You know that you should proofread but don’t because it requires an English degree (right?) and is time-consuming (right?). Actually, almost anyone can quickly and easily reduce (dare we say eliminate?) post-send mortifications by following these three proofreading tricks.

1. Copy your text into a different editor or change the font. One of the biggest reasons that writing errors make it from draft to sent copy is because your brain is so familiar with the text that it literally auto-corrects the mistakes it sees—making them almost invisible to you. Unfortunately, the longer you work on a text, the more likely this is to happen. Changing the way your text looks helps your brain perceive your writing as something fresh so that it can more easily spot oddities.

2. Read your text backward. If you don’t have time to step away from your writing for a few hours (or, better, a day or more), try this hack. Read the sentences in reverse order. Instead of reading from top to bottom, read bottom to top. This will add novelty to the sentences, making it easier to find errors.

3. Read your text out loud. Even if you’re just whispering away at your desk, reading aloud is a great way to find and spot mistakes, especially missing punctuation or repeated words. As an added bonus, you will likely hear when something doesn’t flow properly or sounds awkward. While not necessarily incorrect, these phrases can be reworded for better clarity.

This is a pared-down version of what we would recommend for more substantial proofreading tasks. However, if you are writing for social media or on a tight timeline, these tips should make a big impact. What is your proofreading process?

How to Write a Thank-You Email After an Interview, According to Experts

Have you ever been in this situation?

You go in for an interview, and after a harrowing two hours, walk out feeling relatively confident that you made a good impression. Your resume was flawless. Your cover letter was witty and showed passion. Your interview outfit was on point. You thought you really bonded with the team that interviewed you. Nothing could go wrong, right?

What went wrong? You forgot a vital (and oft-overlooked) part of the job search process: the interview thank-you email!

Why Should You Send a Thank You Email or Letter After an Interview?

If you think it’s terrifying being interviewed, you’re not alone. But let me tell you, interviews (especially in-person interviews) can be an equally traumatizing experience from the other side of the table.

I kicked off the search for my first hire at Grammarly earlier this year, and when the first on-site interview came around, I was terrified. Sitting there with my list of questions and my notebook, I tried to simultaneously project confidence, follow my company’s values, ask the right questions, make sure my hair didn’t do anything weird, and (attempt to) mask my nerves.

Sound familiar?

Even if interviews are a vital part of the recruiting process, the first round of the interview process can be awkward for everyone. That’s why it’s key to write a thank you note after the interview—often the process has made them just as uncomfortable as you are! That’s why a killer post-interview thank-you note can help you make a great impression and land the job.

But don’t take my word for it! Lily Zhang, a career expert at MIT, put it this way on The Muse:

Think of it this way: Your interview isn’t over until you send a thank you note. You want to move the hiring managers from interview mindset to decision mindset as quickly as possible, so don’t drag it out.

I asked Olivia Seastrom, a recruiter at Grammarly, what she loves about thank-you notes. She said,

I really like thoughtful, sincere thank you notes after interviews, and I always sent them when I was interviewing. It doesn’t have to be formal, just a nice note to express interest and thank someone for their time.

Additionally, a great thank-you note can make you stand out from the crowd. CareerBuilder determined that only 57 percent of candidates send thank-you notes, and 20 percent of hiring managers would be less likely to hire someone without a thank you. That could mean the difference between a job and a rejection.

When to Send an After Interview Thank You Note

With any important piece of writing, planning is half the battle. Should you follow up over email, in a handwritten notecard, or on social media? And what should you write?

There are two vital factors to consider when writing a thank-you note after an interview: speed and specificity. Thank yous are not “better late than never.” In fact, most interviewers expect an email or letter within a day. That means time is of the essence, and you need to work quickly! As one Glassdoor recruiter puts it, “it is vital to send a thank you email to your interviews within 24-48 hours.”

Even though you must write quickly, you also need to personalize each thank-you note to the interviewer. Gone are the days where I would look at a template thank-you note and consider it worth my time to read. As Valerie LeClair, Grammarly’s Director of Recruiting, once described to me,

Write from the heart! If a candidate is going to write a standardized, impersonal note, there is no reason to even send it.

But don’t panic! Take a deep breath and reflect on your interview experience. Now, ask yourself these idea-generating questions:

• How did the interview go? Did anything weird happen?
• Did I flub on a question I know I have a better answer for?
• Did I forget to ask the interviewer one of my questions?
• Is there something additional this interviewer should know about me?
• Did I discuss anything interesting? Find any similarities to my interviewer?

After you formulate a few ideas (either in your head or on paper), it’s time to think format. If you want to make a truly over-the-top impression, consider a handwritten note. If you had many interviewers or know you have more rounds of interviews to go through, you can probably stick with email. No matter what, avoid a public social media follow-up. As Jenny Foss writes on The Muse:

Who are you trying to thank? The interviewer (this is who you should be trying to thank, directly) or the entire corporation and all of its thousands of followers? Seriously.

Planning Your Interview Thank You Note

By now, you should have a format, deadline, and list of ideas for your thank-you note, and it’s time to slap on your writing hat and get to work. Here are the general principles of a great letter or email.

Be your best self, on paper.

Your cover letter and resume were all about representing the best version of your professional self, and this thank-you note should be no different. Don’t resort to overly familiar language just because you’ve met someone in person, but also don’t suddenly become cold and dispassionate. Keep the same tone you would in any other email to the recruiter or hiring manager, and if there’s a place to remind them of your passion for the role, go for it!

The only thing you should avoid in a thank-you is trying to sell yourself once again. You’re writing this note to show you appreciate someone’s time, not to tell them you’re awesome. Remember that.

Keep it short, and mind your structure.

In the same vein, don’t suddenly write a novel about how much you love the company or the person you talked to. You may have many things to tell this recruiter or hiring manager, but try to stick to one main point, question, or fun fact.

Personally, if I’m reading a thank-you email longer than five sentences, I’ve probably started to wonder if the time to read it was worth my investment. Knowing how to write a thank you email after an interview is a valuable skill. Trust me.

How to write a perfect thank you email after an interview: Tips & Templates

I know all of this sounds great in theory, but slamming pen to paper (or fingers to keys) to write a thank you letter after a job interview is a very different matter. Never fear, templates and suggestions are here!

Before I share a general format, I want you to repeat after me: “I solemnly swear not to copy-paste this template into my email.” We’ve already covered why a generic thank you is almost worse than no thank you, but in case you’re not convinced, here’s an infographic to change your mind. That said, a few ideas never hurt, so feel free to steal any of the phrases or sentences below and make them your own! Here’s a great sample thank you email after an interview.

Dear [Interviewer’s Name],

[Opening line thanking them.] [Personalized detail about how you enjoyed meeting them, the hiring manager, and/or the team.] [Sentence that adds value to the discussions you had, and shows your passion for the company and position.]

[Sentence about how excited you are to hear from them, that also sets you up to send a follow-up email later.] [Closing sentence that thanks them again, and offers to provide further information.]

[Sign-Off],

[Your Name]

Subject Lines

• Thanks for Chatting Today – Use something like this if you had a phone screen or video interview.
• Nice to Meet You Today – This works well for interviews that take place on site.
• Thanks, and a Question – Have a nagging, relevant question that shows you’re passionate about the role? Use this email to follow up after your interview!
• Thank You for Your Time – Especially good if it was a long interview.
• Many Thanks – Short, sweet, and classic.

Opening Lines

• It was really nice meet you today.
• Thank you for taking the time to meet with me today.
• Thanks for taking the time to introduce me to the team today.
• Thank you so much for your time today.
• Thanks for chatting with me today.

Closing Sentences

• Thank you again for your time, and let me know if there is any further information I can provide to aid in your decision.
• Let me know if there is any more information I can provide. I’d be happy to follow up on any items we discussed today.
• Thanks again for your time. It was great to meet you!
• Thanks again for chatting with me. I am eagerly awaiting next steps.

Sign-Offs

• All the Best,
• Many Thanks,
• Thank You,

• Editing Your Work: A Thank-You Email and Letter Checklist

  I love to edit all sorts of writing, but I know this isn’t true for everyone! Since editing can be a time-consuming step, here are two checklists you can use to make sure your email is flawless: one for real letters and one for emails. Don’t worry, editing shouldn’t take longer than five minutes, so you’ll still get that email out in time!

  If you’re writing a pen-and-paper thank-you note after an interview:

  • Did I format this note correctly? If it’s handwritten, can any average person read my handwriting?
  • Have I addressed the person I’m thanking correctly? Am I spelling their name right?
  • Did I make my point in under five sentences?
  • Did I mention a specific topic, common interest, or question relevant to my discussion with this person?
  • Did I say “thank you” at some point in the note?
  • Did I sign the thank-you letter?
  • Did I proofread the note? (Don’t know how to do this? Check out this blog on proofreading techniques.)
  • No really, is the writing flawless?
  • Have I addressed the envelope, purchased postage, and mailed the letter within 24-48 hours of the interview?

  If you did all of these things, congratulations! You deserve to put your feet up and sip your favorite post-interview beverage (mine’s herbal tea, but you do you).

  If you’re writing a thank-you email:

  • Did I include a relevant subject line? Is everything spelled correctly there?
  • Have I addressed the person I’m thanking correctly? Am I spelling their name and email right?
  • Did I make my point in under five sentences?
  • Did I mention a specific topic, common interest, or question relevant to my discussion with this person?
  • Did I say “thank you” at some point in the note?
  • Are my signature, email name, and email avatar photo all in alignment to project a professional image?
  • Did I use Grammarly to edit this note for correctness, clarity, and word choice? (Don’t have Grammarly? Get the app here.)
  • Did I proofread this email? (Don’t know how to do this? Check out these tips.)
  • Did I hit “Send” within 24-48 hours?

  If you did all of these things, congratulations! You deserve to grab a book and a snack and take a break. The hard part is (mostly) over.

  Need more help following up after interviews? Check back for more insights next week.

5 Helpful Tips on How to Write Emails from Your Phone

Today, 80 percent of Internet users own a smartphone. It’s been predicted that, by this year, eight in ten email users will access their email accounts exclusively from their mobile devices. We’re reading and writing more emails on mobile than ever, so getting it right has never been more important. Getting communication right (in email or otherwise) is the driving force behind Grammarly’s recent launch of a mobile keyboard for iOS and Android. But, although Grammarly will help you write mistake-free messages, it’s combining that polish with style and substance that will inevitably make your written communication effective.

Five Tips for Writing Emails From Your Phone

We’ve all seen the ubiquitous “Sent from my iPhone” email signatures, or sigs along the lines of, “Please excuse the brevity. This was sent from my phone.” These signatures, in part, are meant to excuse the sender from typos, autocorrect slips, and all those other times our thumbs betray us when we communicate via mobile devices.

But just because you wield your thumbs instead of ten phalanges carefully placed on the home row doesn’t mean everything you send from your phone has to look as though it was transcribed by a typing chimpanzee. There’s hope! This article will guide you towards writing clear, concise emails from your mobile device with panache.

1 Put important information first.

Nearly half of mobile readers spend three seconds or less reading an individual email. That is, of course, if you can get them to open your email at all. But let’s assume you send emails that people want to read. Your challenge is to keep those emails brief or risk losing your reader to a very short digital attention span.

That means it’s essential to optimize. Before you put your thumbs to work tapping out your email opus, take a few minutes to figure out the key point you want to get across in your message. Ask yourself If I could have my recipient take just one thing away from this email, what would it be? Use the answer to that question to front-load your email so that the most critical information comes first. If you don’t, your recipient might miss the point of your email entirely, or breeze past it in her haste to move on to her next email to-do.

Hi Jane,

Yesterday, I was talking to Jim and he suggested you would have some good ideas about the upcoming Windy City Widgets marketing campaign. As you know, Windy City is an important client and this marketing campaign is pivotal to our success here at XYZ Advertising Associates. I’m going to be downtown tomorrow afternoon, so I thought we might have lunch at JB’s Sammiches to unpack what the client has told us about their ad needs and deadlines. JB’s is close to your office, so I thought it would be convenient. Does 12:30 p.m. work for you? All the best, Richard

Oy! That email comes in at around a hundred words, and most of them aren’t necessary. Let’s consider all the things this message conveys that it doesn’t have to.

For starters, it’s not necessary to state that Jim suggested talking to Jane. Especially not up front. If Jim’s referral would be helpful in sealing the lunch appointment, go ahead and use it, but consider saving it for later in the email.

It’s also not necessary to reiterate that a client is important. Any time you start a sentence with As you know, you’re probably telling the reader something they actually do already know. Driving home the point with an as you know statement can translate as passive-aggressive. It’s as if you’re saying, “You should know this, but I’ll reiterate just in case you’re not good at your job.” Make sure you don’t come across as talking down to your colleagues.

While it’s nice to consider a lunch location that’s convenient for your colleague, it’s not necessary to point out how nice you’re being. That extraneous information adds words, not impact.

Let’s front-load this email with important information and leave out any unnecessary details.

Hi Jane,

Are you available to meet me for lunch tomorrow at JB’s Sammiches at 12:30 p.m.? I’d like to unpack some of the info Windy City Widgets gave us about their needs and deadlines for the upcoming campaign. Let me know if that would be convenient for you. All the best, Richard

Much better! The message body comes in at a sleek forty-nine words and the all-important ask is straight up front rather than buried in a bunch of unimportant details. We can almost taste those sammiches now!

2 Clean up your wordy writing.

Can you imagine how long it would’ve taken Tolstoy to compose War and Peace on a smartphone? If you want to really feel like a slacker, consider that one novelist wrote a significant portion of his novel on his smartphone while commuting on the subway. (And he did it nearly a decade ago.) When you’re using two thumbs and staring at a small screen to craft your messages (let alone a novel), it pays to know how to keep your writing lean and mean.

First, avoid common filler words and phrases. We already talked about As you know. Now, strike useless phrases like As a matter of fact, For the most part, each and every, and at this point in time from your lexicon. Your readers will appreciate your clear, concise language and you’ll convey your points much better without all the clutter.

While you’re at it, dump most adverbs. These words, which often end in -ly, are unnecessary unless removing them drastically changes the meaning of your sentence. So, don’t bother thumb-typing words like basically, very, usually, extremely, probably, and absolutely.

3 Practice perfect email etiquette.

Your signature may say that your email was sent from your phone, but that doesn’t mean you should bypass the rules of polite email discourse.

When you send email to multiple recipients at the same time, respect everyone’s privacy by masking their email addresses with BCC. Similarly, don’t use Reply All and accidentally share an email with all members of an email chain when your reply was meant only to go to one person. And don’t automatically assume that email is private and confidential. Avoid saying things in an email that you wouldn’t say publicly. Otherwise, that email could come back to haunt you.

Here’s a tip: Don’t email when you’re angry. If you must tap out a strongly worded letter, hold off on hitting the Send button until you’ve had a chance to let it simmer. If you can wait, leave that letter on the back burner and come back to it twenty-four hours later. Were you more hostile than you meant to be in the heat of the moment? Could you have been more diplomatic and gotten your point across just as well? Edit!

4 Dictate it.

Some years back, my friend and I tried having a Messenger conversation by using our phones’ voice-to-text feature, and then sending whatever our smartphone interpreted. The result was hilariously bad. But voice-to-text has come a long way since then.

Most mobile keyboards have voice-to-text functionality. On the Grammarly keyboard, simply long-press the comma key to activate your phone’s voice capabilities and dictate your message. Once dictated, you can quickly edit or correct any misheard words.

Here’s a tip: Speak your punctuation so you don’t have to add it after the fact. Dave, did you remember to file your report? would be spoken as, “Dave comma did you remember to file your report question mark.”

5 Proofread.

You want to make a good impression. Proofreading is one way to ensure you will. We often write hasty notes when we use mobile technology, figuring that others will forgive us because, well, writing on a mobile device has its challenges. But proofreading before you hit send isn’t that complicated. And, if you’re using the Grammarly mobile keyboard, you can simply press the Grammarly button once you’ve finished writing to check your text and make sure your grammar, spelling, and punctuation is pristine. No more excuses just because you sent it from your iPhone!

25 Smart Questions You Can Ask in an Interview

It’s the day of the big interview for your dream job. You’ve been prepping for weeks. You know the company in and out. You know why you’re the best candidate for the job. You’re ready to talk about your skills, weaknesses, ideas, plans, hopes, dreams, and favorite TV show.

And then they ask: any questions for us? And you’ve got nothing.

Don’t be that person. Acing an interview doesn’t just mean knowing all the answers to the questions that get thrown at you: it also involves having a good set of questions to ask them. Having smart questions prepared in advance shows that you’re motivated, that you’ve done your homework, and that you’re invested in learning more and being informed.

Good questions can also show what kind of a thinker you are or demonstrate your personality, giving you an extra boost as that candidate who thinks critically and digs for information successfully.

And most importantly, the answers you get can help you make sure you’re making the right choice in this job you’re applying for. After all, it’s not all about impressing the hiring manager: the company should impress you, too. That’s the difference between a good job and a dream job: making sure that not only does it look good on paper, but that it’s the right fit for you.

These cover the basic categories you might want to know about. Consider this the footnotes version of the kinds of questions you might want to ask.

• What’s life on the job like?
• What kind of training do they offer?
• How is feedback provided?
• What’s the company culture like?
• Who’s on the team you’ll be working with, are they cool, and how does working together work?
• What are the next steps in the interview process? In other words, when are you going to tell me whether I’m hired?

But to get the answers you really want, you probably want to get even more specific in the questions you ask. Sure, you probably won’t have time to ask a full list of twenty-five questions, but the more specific you get, the better informed you’ll be. Especially if there are a few uncertainties about the job niggling at the back of your mind, this is the time to make sure you have the answers you need before making a big decision.

And so, here are twenty-five great questions to ask to impress your potential bosses, find out what you need to know, and set yourself up for success. Pick and choose based on the conversation you’re having with the interviewer and the questions you actually have.

1. Can you describe an average day at the office?

2. What characteristics and abilities does a successful employee here generally have?

3. What are the key responsibilities of this position, and do you expect them to change within the next year or so?

4. What are the upcoming projects I’d be working on during my first few weeks?

5. Are there gaps in the current team’s skillset or experience that my position is meant to fill?

6. Can you describe the company’s objectives and current projects? How does our team contribute to those?

7. What does the training process look like?

8. How long does it usually take for a member of the team to feel fully trained and up to speed?

9. What recommendations do you have for pursuing professional development and advancement at this company?

10. How will my performance be evaluated? Are there both formal and informal feedback processes?

11. Are there plans for the company’s growth or new developments in the pipeline in the next few years?

12. The company’s mission statement emphasizes [fill in the blank]. Can you tell me how that comes across in daily life working here?

13. Can you tell me about the other people I’ll be working with closely?

14. Whom will I be reporting to? And [if you’re applying to a more senior position] who will be reporting to me?

15. In your experience, what are some of the highlights of working here?

16. What’s the biggest challenge you’ve had working here?

17. How did you end up here, and how has your role changed since you started?

18. Has the company changed in any notable ways since you started here?

19. Does the work process involve more team collaboration or individual projects, or are there any other formats you use?

20. What other departments does our team most frequently interact with, either on a formal or a casual level?

21. Are there any office traditions or activities you do as a group?

22. Is there a sense of community in the workplace? And does the company contribute to the broader community in any way?

23. If you were starting this job now, what advice would you give yourself?

24. Do you have any final questions for me, or is there anything else that would be helpful for you at this stage?

25. What are the next steps in this process, and when can I expect to hear from you?

These questions can of course be customized based on the job you’re applying for, the company’s focus, and what you want or need to know. But now you’re armed with a solid list to help you make sure you know what you’re signing up for in your potential new job—and that your potential new employers know what they’re signing up for with you, too.

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