Ask HN: Interview tomorrow – How to learn whether an org is “healthy”? • Hacker News Board

Ask HN: Interview tomorrow – How to learn whether an org is “healthy”?

#1

Post by mud_dauber » Thu, Jul 21, 2016, 2:26 PM UTC

Recall the NYT article describing Google's team culture case study. (http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/28/magazine/what-google-learned-from-its-quest-to-build-the-perfect-team.html?_r=0).

I am being recruited by a manager & two technical leads for a leadership slot. They want to replace the existing manager for vague, but apparently real, "communication" problems - details forthcoming. 3 teams on 3 continents, perhaps 30 people total.

I know & trust the two technical leads, but want to have solid due diligence in place before accepting any offer. What questions can I use to learn whether the dev teams play well together?

Re: Ask HN: Interview tomorrow – How to learn whether an org is “healthy”?

#2

Post by byoung2 » Thu, Jul 21, 2016, 2:44 PM UTC

Is this outgoing manager already gone? If not, see if you can talk to him/her. Take that story, and the story you get from the people hiring you, and average them.

Re: Ask HN: Interview tomorrow – How to learn whether an org is “healthy”?

#3

Post by kognate » Thu, Jul 21, 2016, 2:53 PM UTC

I would ask them what, specifically, within the organization itself failed w/r/t the manager being replaced and what has the organization changed to prevent the same thing from happening in the future.

For example, did they not evaluate the manager before putting them into a position where they failed? How do they know it was a communication problem? Remember, this question is not asking the details of what happened (those don't really matter). This question is asking what the organization did and how does the organization improve itself over time.

The last thing I'll say is that it's very difficult to establish the 'health' of a team during a brief interview. 'Health' is often variable in that what I find healthy and effective you may not. Most teams aren't filled with psychopaths. Also, if you have the right tools and a willing team you (that's a plural you) can change and build a team that is healthy and productive.

Re: Ask HN: Interview tomorrow – How to learn whether an org is “healthy”?

#4

Post by keithflower » Thu, Jul 21, 2016, 3:03 PM UTC

Ask permission to talk to the outgoing manager. If they balk at transparency, you'll know where the "communications" problem lay.

Re: Ask HN: Interview tomorrow – How to learn whether an org is “healthy”?

#5

Post by mud_dauber » Thu, Jul 21, 2016, 3:50 PM UTC

kognate wrote: post #3

I would ask them what, specifically, within the organization itself failed w/r/t the manager being replaced and what has the organization changed to prevent the same thing from happening in the future. For example, did they not evaluate the manager before putting them into a position where they failed? How do they know it was a communication problem? Remember, this question is not asking the details of what happened…

Here's the twist: I know the outgoing manager & worked with him, albeit briefly, ~8 yrs ago. Liked him but didn't know enough. The tech leads that called me also worked with him before - hence his getting hired.

So, something's changed. Just trying to understand what.

Re: Ask HN: Interview tomorrow – How to learn whether an org is “healthy”?

#6

Post by rianjs » Thu, Jul 21, 2016, 5:06 PM UTC

So they told you, an external candidate, that they're firing someone, and that you would take their position?

That's a pretty big red flag with respect to organizational behavior. It seems incredibly unprofessional.

Re: Ask HN: Interview tomorrow – How to learn whether an org is “healthy”?

#7

Post by Raphmedia » Thu, Jul 21, 2016, 5:07 PM UTC

Observe the employees.

Is the office full after 5 - 6 PM? Is everyone looking at the floor when the boss walk in? Is everyone's nails bitten to a bloody mess? Are there any female employees? Are the desk too clean and absent of personal items?

Re: Ask HN: Interview tomorrow – How to learn whether an org is “healthy”?

#8

Post by cabacon » Thu, Jul 21, 2016, 5:15 PM UTC

My favorite interviewing question as an IC was "Tell me about someone on your team you admire". It let me learn about what people valued based on why people were admired, and gave some depth-of-bench sense whether there were lots of distinct names, or if everyone was in awe of the one good person on the team.

If you're looking for cross-team health, maybe you could adapt it to "Tell me about someone on the other team that you admire?"

Re: Ask HN: Interview tomorrow – How to learn whether an org is “healthy”?

#9

Post by zer00eyz » Thu, Jul 21, 2016, 5:15 PM UTC

There are a lot of things you can ask for that will red flag an organization as a whole.

Are you being given stock. Ask for a cap table and learn to read it.

Tell them your wiling to sign an NDA, and that you want to look at the repository. Tell them that you may need to ask follow up "who is who" questions to pin checkins. Code never lies. Embattled areas of code, and comments are great targets for your search.

Ask about recent outages and technical issues. Are they having problems keeping things up and running. Ask about how they were identified and how long to resolve.

Do they have documents for requirements? Wireframes, PRD's. Ask to see these as well.

If they raise any objection to any of this, just ask for a reason. It might set off an alarm for you. It might be reasonable.

Since you have some history with the other team leads, make a personal phone call. Start the call off that way (that its a personal call) and that you want to know the truth/history here because you have concerns. If there is something funny going on in the background one of them might just give you an honest answer.

Re: Ask HN: Interview tomorrow – How to learn whether an org is “healthy”?

#10

Post by gyardley » Thu, Jul 21, 2016, 5:24 PM UTC

Talk to as many people as you can at the company, especially people who aren't in leadership positions. Ask if you can talk to a couple of the people who'd be reporting to you. A scheduled interview is like talking to a provided reference, while an unscheduled interview is like calling up someone not on the provided reference list - you're more likely to get something interesting from the latter.

Whether it's a scheduled or unscheduled interview, people generally want to speak honestly with you - they just might not feel like they have permission to do so, or feel that airing the company's dirty laundry would be inappropriate. In my experience, it can be hard to get people to initially admit things aren't perfect, but once they've done so, the floodgates open.

I tend to ask things like "so, how would you rate working here on a scale of one to ten?" Unless they're absolutely delighted with their workplace, most people respond with an eight or a nine, which doesn't mean anything - you'll get an eight or nine if the company's pretty great, and you'll get an eight or nine if the company's a total dumpster fire. But then you can say "A nine? Why not a ten? What would make your experience here a ten?" This doesn't always work, but at this point the interviewee figures they've already admitted the company isn't 100% ideal and I've usually gotten an unvarnished opinion.