"Do you have any questions?"

Every session ends with it, which means in a loop you will face it four or five times in one day, each time with less energy than the last. "No, I think you've covered everything" is the answer that gets given by the afternoon, and it is read — fairly or not — as the candidate having run out of interest.

Prepare more than you need

Bring ten questions to a five-session day. You will lose several to being answered earlier, and having a written list means the tired version of you at 4pm still has something specific to ask. Keep them on paper; taking out a note and saying "I had a few written down" reads as preparation, not as a crutch.

Match the question to the seat

• Hiring manager: "What would make you say at month six that this hire went well?"
• Peer: "What's the thing you wish someone had told you before you joined?"
• Cross-functional: "Where does your team most often end up frustrated with mine, and why?"
• Skip-level or founder: "What has to be true in two years for this to have worked?"

When they genuinely covered it

Do not invent a question for form's sake, and do not go blank either. The recovery is to reference something specific from the conversation: "you mentioned earlier that the team is splitting into two next quarter — where does this role sit after that?" This proves you were listening, which is the thing the ritual is actually testing.

Use the slot deliberately

You can also spend it on something other than a question. If a round went badly, this is your one chance to address it: "I want to come back to the design question — I think I answered the wrong version of it. May I take thirty seconds?" Interviewers almost always say yes, and a candidate who recognises their own weak answer often recovers the round entirely.

The closing line

End by asking about the process — what happens next and when — and, if you want the job, say so in one plain sentence. Not a speech. "For what it's worth, this has made me more interested, not less" is enough. Candidates chronically underuse this, and hiring managers weigh evident interest more than they admit.

Four hours of the day are theirs. These five minutes are yours, and they are the only ones you can prepare exactly.