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

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11–20 of 127 posts

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

#11
post #6

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.

"If they do it in front of you then they will do it to you"

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

#13

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?

Do the employees hide their flasks in their desks and sip furtively and alone? Do they cry in the restroom before or after meetings? Is it a Dilbert cartoon on the fridge or is it XKCD? Are the only Pokémon to be found Rattatas? What is going on with the coffee?

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

#15
post #6

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.

Or they're being transparent with good intentions?

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

#17
A friend of mine once said he asked an interviewer, "so just how screwed up is this company"? Not because he expected a straight answer, but because he wanted to watch the interviewer's first reaction -- if their facial expression showed genuine surprise, or a knowing nod, maybe even an incriminating smile...

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

#19
post #9

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…

But we are talking about interviewing for a leadership position. Judging the health of a place by how its current tech looks might be valid if you are just going to be a coder, but as a leader, you will be expected to identify and fix problems. So it is OK if there are problems.

It is much more important to figure out how people communicate, how they are treated, how the other leaders think, what they want their culture to be, etc... If you can believe in a shared future vision, and participate in the process to move towards that vision, then the details of the status quo are far less important.

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

#20
post #6

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.

I think it would depend on the 'why' of the firing. However to mention it at all without telling you something like "You're replacing X, who is being investigated on criminal charges for/related to..." IE you have a legacy mess that you'll be cleaning up; yeah that's extremely unprofessional and likely unethical.
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