What follow up questions will I get after I answer an interview question?

Follow up questions in interviews

Many interviewers ask follow up questions after the interviewee gives their initial answers. Don’t get nervous if you get follow up questions. Being asked follow up questions doesn’t mean your answer was bad, it’s just a standard part of many interviews.

Consider these follow up questions another part of the interview and prepare for them. It shouldn’t be hard to answer the follow up questions if the story you’re using was about a real scenario and you can remember it well.

What points will your interviewers use to analyze your answers and base their follow up questions on? 

1.   The interviewer will analyze the answer using the STAR/PAR structure.

If you’re not clear what I mean by this structure, you should read about this method.

If your story uses the PAR structure, you probably won’t get questions about it. If you forget to add in one of the sections – this often happens with the Results section – you may get asked what the Results were, for instance. If you aren’t clear about what the Problem or Situation was, you may get asked to clarify this.

2.   The interviewer may ask clarifying questions about any part of your story they didn’t understand or want more information on.

They may ask for more information because you didn’t give enough detail or they may pick one of the things you said and challenge it, like a statement, decision, or a thought process.

Follow up questions - format to use for answers

Do the answers you give to the follow up questions have to follow the STAR/PAR structure? No, definitely not. You can answer them without telling a full story in the proper format. You can think of the challenge questions section like a conversation, so you don’t need to give the full formal answer in PAR structure. 

Possible Follow Up Questions

Here are some specific questions you might be asked as follow ups.

Questions about the beginning of your story (Situation/Task/Problem)

Why is this important?

What was the goal?


What was the initial scope of the project?

What were the challenges?


What were the risks and potential consequences if nothing happened?

Why did you choose this story to illustrate this accomplishment?


What other stories can you think of that demonstrate this?


Could you come up with an example that is more recent?

Questions about the middle of your story (Action)

Were you the key driver or project owner?


You mentioned that “we” did…. What exactly was your contribution versus the team?

What was your biggest contribution?

What unique value did you bring?


What were the most significant obstacles you faced? How did you overcome them?


How did you set priorities?

How did you deal with X problem?

How did you get manager buy-in?


What decisions did you challenge? Why?

How did you influence the right outcome?



Exactly how did you approach…?

Tell me more about…

Questions about the end of your story (Results)

How did you measure success for this project?

What results did you achieve specifically?
 (cost savings, revenue generation, volume, size, scale, percentage change, year over year improvements, time to market, implementation time, time savings, impact on the customer, the team…)

What was the financial impact?

I offer several interview coaching services. If you’re looking for an interview coach, email me at [email protected] to schedule a free 15 minute consultation or an interview coaching session.

I’m happy to say that after working with me, my clients, who range from entry level to executive level, have done well in their interviews and gotten the job they wanted.