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Questions to ask a company during a job interview

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Re: Questions to ask a company during a job interview

#21

Post by codingdave »

I'd focus your questions to only the ones where answers might make a difference as to whether you accept the job. Are you really going to turn down a job because their on-boarding process isn't optimal? Or to a bad tech answer... would you turn down the offer, or help them improve from the inside?

I do like this list, but filter it down to what you need to respond to an offer. And that filter will be different for everybody.

Typically when I am in an interview, I explicitly draw that line with the interviewer, saying, "I have more questions, but I also have the answers I need to make a decision if you extend an offer, so we can get the rest answered later if we move forward together."

Re: Questions to ask a company during a job interview

#22

Post by alistairSH »

viraptor wrote: post #10
acollins1331 wrote: post #7

Interviewing the interviewer has been THE best way to get the job. It just oozes a confidence that you already know you're good enough to get the job, and you're trying to figure out if they are good enough for YOU. Figure out questions before hand that describe the type of good working environments or fixes for bad ones that you've had in the past. The interviewer will quickly shift and try to sell the position to y…

> The interviewer will quickly shift and try to sell the position to you I wonder if that's often how it's perceived on the other side. I love when the people I interview ask me questions. If they're interested in something, not only am I going to answer as best as I can, I'm going to be interested in why you it's important to you. It can be a great conversation, and I'm not even trying to sell the position :-) Peopl…

The best interview I ever conducted, the candidate not only aced the technical questions, but was able to ask solid follow-up questions on those topics. "I solved it this way, what would you have done differently?" "This solution was quick to write and simple to understand, would you prefer a more performant solution?" And during the "social" part of the interview, he asked detailed questions about the company and our niche, not just generic "how big is the team" stuff.

Re: Questions to ask a company during a job interview

#23

Post by 2rsf »

viraptor wrote: post #8
2rsf wrote: post #4

Hmmm, I did discuss some of the technical questions from the list and I have to admit that it's not easy to make a decision based on them. It's a great start for discussions, and definitely something to consider but your time is limited, the other side will beautify the answer, the same as you do, and you might end up in another totally different team than this of your interviewer. Remember that things tend to be flu…

Completely agree. Would you mind if I stole your second paragraph? (Or could you submit it as a pr?) Those are definitely seeds of conversations rather than something you can 100% rely on. But if you have doubts about the organisation and then hear "no bug tracking, we don't need it" without explanation, then something's definitely fishy. That's one of the red-flag questions. Then again if they don't but have an expl…

Sure no problem, go ahead and steal it

Re: Questions to ask a company during a job interview

#25

Post by wastedhours »

tomekowal wrote: post #12

I would change the part: ``` Do you use source control? Do you test code? Do you use bug tracking? Do you use CI/CD? ``` to ``` How do you use source control? How do you test code? How do you perfrom bug tracking? How do you solve CI/CD? ``` For really good companies asking if they test code seems insulting :P

That also moves the question from being closed to being open - potentially leading to a secondary question that will highlight your ability to ask insightful Qs.

Re: Questions to ask a company during a job interview

#27

Post by viraptor »

codingdave wrote: post #21

I'd focus your questions to only the ones where answers might make a difference as to whether you accept the job. Are you really going to turn down a job because their on-boarding process isn't optimal? Or to a bad tech answer... would you turn down the offer, or help them improve from the inside? I do like this list, but filter it down to what you need to respond to an offer. And that filter will be different for ev…

Turn down an interesting offer because of onboarding? Maybe not. Choose between two roughly equivalent companies, because one has a good onboarding process which likely means both investing in growth and caring about documenting things for people who didn't have lots of existing context? Definitely possible.

Re: Questions to ask a company during a job interview

#28

Post by alistairSH »

a3n wrote: post #3

Why doesn't the interviewee ever ask the interviewer a whiteboard or puzzle question, "to see how you think?"

Ask their own whiteboard question? That would be strange, as I'm a manager and don't write much code these days. But, if I ask a whiteboard question (or any tech question), asking me related questions as a means to further the discussion would be a good signal.

Re: Questions to ask a company during a job interview

#29

Post by sanj »

For many years I gave a talk titled "Questions Engineers Should Ask"

This list is missing the two most important [busines] questions:

1. How do you make money?

If you can't understand, or the interview can't explain, then I'd run away. This can also lead to interesting questions about risks, competitors, etc.

2. What's preventing you from making more money?

The answer that you want to hear is engineering effort. If not, you're (at best) a wallflower at the party. Don't be the chump that's at Goldman Sachs acting as a code monkey for the traders. Don't be writing code at a company (like Enron) which has its success based on digging holes in the ground.

I can dig up the slides if anyone is interested.

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