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Ask HN: Best questions for an engineer to ask a CEO during a job interview?

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Re: Ask HN: Best questions for an engineer to ask a CEO during a job interview?

#71

Post by xemdetia »

floatrock wrote: post #65
shanehoban wrote: post #22

Revenue rate - Does the company take any money in, or is it simply running off funding Runway length - Similar to above, trying to gauge if the company is self propelled or not If received funding, how much and when was it received, also ask for burn rate here. Very quick estimate of company health = Revenue per month - (burn rate per month + (head count * average monthly salary)).

These are investor questions, not employee questions. In my experience, you're either going to get a vague dodge or a flat-out "we're not going to share that / it's confidential" response unless you're applying for a C-level position. A better approach is to dive into the product and make a judgement... "What does the company need to do to secure its next round of funding?" VC-scale rule-of-thumb is you need a new fu…

I think I have asked these kinds of questions in every one of the interviews I've ever done to whoever was the senior manager/C and they haven't even blinked at answering the question. It is critically important to me to know if the business feels healthy as it directly affects my confidence in the company, the vision that the person across the table is trying to sell me, and if the person in front of me has their head screwed on right. This is the kind of information that I use in combination with external signals to call bullshit or not. To also colour in this perspective a bit a frank 'I don't know, we are too small and we are struggling to get our internal operations on track and are looking for people who can help' is a sane and reasonable answer.

If I join the organization without asking these sorts of questions and realize that the person leading the company doesn't even know how their own company is running that kills my morale. It could also be that when I ask these sorts of questions I am frank about my opinions: I don't mind being part of the machine but I am business oriented and derive motivation/happiness from doing what I can to accelerate that business even further.

Re: Ask HN: Best questions for an engineer to ask a CEO during a job interview?

#73

Post by rsweeney21 »

awillen wrote: post #62
Avalaxy wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To name some: - "You have enough money you live the rest of your life in idle luxury. You could just go to the beach and never come back. If I had your money, that's what I would do. Why the heck are you still working?" (this is incredibly assuming) - "Will you share slides from the last board meeting?" (I think if you need this information you'd probably be on the board) - "Where do you see yourself in 5 years?" (th…

Every company I've worked at has shared board slides (usually slimmed down for time and to remove any personnel info, but with all the key financial info there). Transparency is a huge deal for me and tells me a lot about the value of the founders. Also, "if you need this information you'd probably be on the board" is just wrong - if you're compensating someone in equity, they need to understand the financials of the…

Sure, you can share that with employees, but not with any person off the street who happens to be interviewing. They most likely haven't signed an NDA.

Re: Ask HN: Best questions for an engineer to ask a CEO during a job interview?

#74

Post by arh68 »

What's the exit plan? To run the company privately forever? To hit IPO? To get acquired by some megacorp (which one)? What's the timeline on these things?

I wish I'd been able to ask the CEO these things. I've had an interview interrupted at 10am by the CEO showing up to work, walking into the (his) conference room I was being interviewed in, no knock, drop his stuff and leave. Yes, it was an open office, and yes, I think he had pretty much checked out at that point.

Re: Ask HN: Best questions for an engineer to ask a CEO during a job interview?

#75

Post by b_t_s »

Avalaxy wrote: post #60
cheesymuffin wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some of us have enough money that we just don't care. If you want people to tiptoe around your feelings I suggest messaging some broke new grads.

Why are you even applying to work for someone else's company then if you're so super rich? If you're gonna be arrogant you can expect many companies to shut the door for you.

There's a whole spectrum between super rich and broke. In the middle of that spectrum we may still have to work for a living, but we have a job an we have savings and if we need to pass up several offers from toxic and/or doomed companies then thats totally OK. That's not arrogant, that's experienced. We have seen the failure modes of management and business models, and want to do a little due diligence before we make a significant investment of time and energy. It's way better to burn a few hours in interviews and even get rejected occasionally for "arrogance" than to jump ship from a decent job to a quagmire. Not that we're accusing you of being a quagmire, but we gotta kick the tires and pop the hood. We've all heard the trope about how costly one bad hire can be. I'd argue that it's much more true in the other direction. Imagine moving from a 40 hour a week job in a clean codebase with good coworkers and management to a dumpster fire where everyone's working 80 hour weeks and the company is loosing money and goes bankrupt 6 months after you get hired. Not a such a big problem in SF, but say you moved your wife and kids to some medium sized city for this job, bought a house there, and the local job market is mediocre. Now you've go serious problems, all because you didn't spend 10 minutes asking "hard" questions.

Re: Ask HN: Best questions for an engineer to ask a CEO during a job interview?

#76

Post by spectramax »

notjustanymike wrote: post #59
jl2718 wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These are important culture questions, but you will never get the truth from them. Everybody knows what you want to hear. If you ask a harder question, they will dislike you. Maybe the only real way to get at this is to ask about specific standards and procedures that define the culture. If you want to get right to it, culture is 99% defined by “who” is given power over hiring, firing, and promotion. If it’s your man…

I disagree with your points, and think there is no need to act so jaded. When asking these questions, you will sometimes get honest answers and sometimes get the pre-canned responses. How people choose to answer questions tells you a lot about the kind of person you're dealing with. I value the answers not just for their content, but also how the person chooses to interact with me. If a CEO only flatters me with suga…

I disagree. You’re most likely going to get a “CEO answer”.

The problem with asking these questions is - what is the criteria for a good vs bad response? What are red flags?

These questions sound super handwavy and can be answered easily by polished talk. They’re useless mostly.

Instead ask specific questions that can reveal deeper issues. If you’re asking about time, then ask - how many months until X? If they waggle around then follow up again - specifically, how many months or quarters do you think it’s going to take to do X?

Re: Ask HN: Best questions for an engineer to ask a CEO during a job interview?

#77

Post by u10 »

floatrock wrote: post #65
shanehoban wrote: post #22

Revenue rate - Does the company take any money in, or is it simply running off funding Runway length - Similar to above, trying to gauge if the company is self propelled or not If received funding, how much and when was it received, also ask for burn rate here. Very quick estimate of company health = Revenue per month - (burn rate per month + (head count * average monthly salary)).

These are investor questions, not employee questions. In my experience, you're either going to get a vague dodge or a flat-out "we're not going to share that / it's confidential" response unless you're applying for a C-level position. A better approach is to dive into the product and make a judgement... "What does the company need to do to secure its next round of funding?" VC-scale rule-of-thumb is you need a new fu…

if part of the compensation is equity than the financial health of the company is very relevant.

Re: Ask HN: Best questions for an engineer to ask a CEO during a job interview?

#78

Post by what-the-grump »

Avalaxy wrote: post #47
notjustanymike wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which examples bother you?

To name some: - "You have enough money you live the rest of your life in idle luxury. You could just go to the beach and never come back. If I had your money, that's what I would do. Why the heck are you still working?" (this is incredibly assuming) - "Will you share slides from the last board meeting?" (I think if you need this information you'd probably be on the board) - "Where do you see yourself in 5 years?" (th…

Seriously?

1. Is a poorly worded "what's your passion" question to the CEO

2. That's a red flag, you can redirect and say minutes are posted ... question to gauge transparency

3. No more arrogant than asking the employee

4. Poorly worded... "how do you plan to keep me here when the market turns in 2-3 years to the next fad"

5. Is a perfectly fine question, not asking about your wife

Some of these are poorly worded, none of them are out of line. If you are not comfortable answering them speaks to your character greatly.

Re: Ask HN: Best questions for an engineer to ask a CEO during a job interview?

#80

Post by warmind99 »

dfee wrote: post #29
shanehoban wrote: post #22

Revenue rate - Does the company take any money in, or is it simply running off funding Runway length - Similar to above, trying to gauge if the company is self propelled or not If received funding, how much and when was it received, also ask for burn rate here. Very quick estimate of company health = Revenue per month - (burn rate per month + (head count * average monthly salary)).

Might annoy or alienate a CEO (maybe that’s a warning sign?). But, these are the right questions to ask.

Def might, if your tone is off/the CEO is neurotic. If some rando came in trying to gauge how long he could hang on to a job rather than how he can contribute to the idea I'd be a bit put off.
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