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

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101–110 of 127 posts

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

#101

I understand what you're looking for and certainly can relate! Here is a counterpoint: As a lead, are you not confident that you can bring a circle of health with you? Influence and change the environment as you see necessary?

If leadership is hell bent on doing the wrong thing most of the time, you're not going to be able to change that as a technical lead. It's just a situation to avoid if possible.

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

#102
post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They are conspiring to replace an existing employee. That says enough. If the organization were "healthy" they would be upfront with the existing manager and allow him/her to gracefully exit. You seem to start from this very distrustful premise and never look back. Would you say the same of someone who gives significant notice of their departure (say, a retirement or medical situation) to the relevant supervisors b…

> You seem to start from this very distrustful premise and never look back. The OP writes "they want to replace the existing manager". Chances are this would have been phrased "the existing manager is moving on" if no deceit was involved. > Would you say the same of someone who gives significant notice of their departure When to make the information known to the rest of the team should be a management team decision.…

Yes. If the existing manager were retiring or moving on, then they would be one of the people interviewing their potential replacements. They know the particular role's needs and issues better than anyone else.

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

#103
post #79

They are conspiring to replace an existing employee. That says enough. If the organization were "healthy" they would be upfront with the existing manager and allow him/her to gracefully exit. That they won't do this suggests that there is a lot of mistrust going on, or possibly optics with the investors around turnover -- not sure which is worse. By taking the role, you will be viewed as having taken sides with the p…

This is twice in a week where me and 'grandalf are in enthusiastic agreement. Something strange is going on.

Full moon.

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

#104
post #79

They are conspiring to replace an existing employee. That says enough. If the organization were "healthy" they would be upfront with the existing manager and allow him/her to gracefully exit. That they won't do this suggests that there is a lot of mistrust going on, or possibly optics with the investors around turnover -- not sure which is worse. By taking the role, you will be viewed as having taken sides with the p…

This is twice in a week where me and 'grandalf are in enthusiastic agreement. Something strange is going on.

Planetry conjunction.

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

#105
post #79

They are conspiring to replace an existing employee. That says enough. If the organization were "healthy" they would be upfront with the existing manager and allow him/her to gracefully exit. That they won't do this suggests that there is a lot of mistrust going on, or possibly optics with the investors around turnover -- not sure which is worse. By taking the role, you will be viewed as having taken sides with the p…

This is twice in a week where me and 'grandalf are in enthusiastic agreement. Something strange is going on.

Planetry conjunction.

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

#106
post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honest question, do you know many people who enjoy jumping into dysfunction and making it better?

I'm not the parent, but yes those people definitely exist. They enjoy improving human systems the same way hackers enjoy building things. And they get paid well for it.

To me, it seems more analogous to coders who go into legacy spaghetti code repos to clean them up.

I enjoyed establishing process with a team and iterating on it with a mostly functional team. I don't really care to get between drama and infighting, but I certainly see the value.

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

#107

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?

> Are there any female employees?

Not sure if this a good enough criteria, sometimes you just dont find good female techies.

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

#108
I understand you're not looking for a software engineering position. But for what it's worth, being in a company with an almost toxic work culture right now, here's some stuff I'll vent out.

Talk to a lot of people in the company. Can't overstate this enough. People you work with/work under should NOT BE ASSHOLES. Assholes are a pain to deal with everyday and will take a toll on your emotional health.

I talked with my interviewer, who happens to be my manager, and asked him what he feels about Docker (not that Docker is the most bleeding edge tech). He said he didn't like it and would never implement it in because some other dude in his previous firm introduced it there and he doesn't like that dude. Ouch! I should've taken the hint. Look for people who debate with you based on knowledge/data and not with emotions.

If your interviewer/founder bathes you in startup buzzword crap, RUN! If they say, we're "open", "transparent", "humble", "impact", "growth hacking" etc 5+ times in the conversation, he's just faking it to make it sound hipster. I learned this the hard way.

Boy, I ranted. I should really get a job change. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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

#109
3 teams on 3 continents is not a problem. Moreover, when teams are separated strongly, i.e. no video and/or voice communication between teams, it helps to create healthy team, because non-realtime text-based communication causes well-written documentation and well-defined goals (just because it is much faster to write throughout description of goal once, in lengthy email or ticket, that to iterate with iteration cycle length equal to 1 day). Just use SCRUM, and follow it fanatically, and it will work. BTW: 2 week sprints are the best in such case.

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

#110
Monitors.

Are developers being issued several ones, and of above average quality?

Do people need to stack object oriented design books to place their monitors at a comfortable level?

Are they using old, low resolution, low refresh rate, 15" TFT monitors?

Is there disparity between monitor quality among employees?

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