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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

#91
post #29

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…

Related:

How long ago did you give raises?

How long before that was the last time you gave raises?

Re: Questions to ask a company during a job interview

#92

A problem that I've had is that every company says that they value code quality, emphasize developer growth, value developer's technical feedback, etc. even if they don't in practice. I've debated taking a page from old school behavioral interviewing and asking questions like: Tell me about a time that you made a decision to improve code quality or architecture at the expense of a deadline. Tell me about a time that…

friend of mine joined a company that in theory checked all the boxes, in practice, none. Extreme case but ...

Not that extreme. Interviews are meant to ensure candidates aren't lying on their resumes, but nothing is done to ensure companies aren't lying too.

Re: Questions to ask a company during a job interview

#93
post #61

> What's the on-call plan/schedule? (what's the pay for standby and call-out) I’ve never been in a position where we were paid for on-call (i.e. fix prod at 2am) work. Is that not typical?

The only job where I had to be on-call, we got paid extra during the week we were scheduled, and got paid more extra for the hours we put in.

Re: Questions to ask a company during a job interview

#94
post #43

One I am going to start to ask is "Are all developers allowed to have local admin access of their computers?" I've struggled against this in my last 3 positions. This is a dealbreaker for me, and should be for all developers.

From an infosec professional perspective, this one is always a challenge for security sensitive places. I agree with you that developers need admin rights on their development machines, but I have witnessed first hand why many companies attempt to take away local admin rights. When I'm responding to security alerts where developers have downloaded random .dll files from the internet, or some "troubleshooting utility"…

> If you want local admin as a developer, then we need to be able to trust that you aren't going to do something stupid.

Issues with trust imply greater problems in the workplace. Unless you're in a high-risk (of hacking) industry, like military, treating adults like children is a huge problem.

Granted, there are plenty of ways around these limitations. By now, all of my "I need admin rights" development is performed within a VM.

Re: Questions to ask a company during a job interview

#95

I think, the "source control question" comes from the Joel Test which is 19 years old. Almost every company uses source control now so it doesn't make as much sense. A better question would be "why do you use [the source control they use]". The answer, if coming from a knowing person, may tell you quite a lot about how the technical decisions are taken in the company.

There was definitely a time when that was an important question, because the answer could be "CVS", "nothing" or even "what is that?". Nowadays the answer is practically always "git".

Re: Questions to ask a company during a job interview

#96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's highly disrespectful to software engineers working outside of software companies. There are many of them and they are not necessarily less smart than others. Working in the profit center of a company is often enviable, but let's not forget that cost centers in large companies can also offer benefits in things like work/life balance.

I don't think the GP intended to call engineers at those kinds of companies lesser. I think the point that was made was that working at companies where the company makes more revenue by having better software is a better company to work for. If your role is a cost you're treated (explicitly or implicitly) as such. It's a lot easier to show your value to a company by being part of the revenue side of the equation. Red…

> I don't think the GP intended to call engineers at those kinds of companies lesser.

Why not? That's a prevailing opinion.

SWE: Works for a startup. HN: RESPECT!

SWE: Works for FAANG. HN: Respect.

SWE: Works in an industry that's not related to the web. HN: Wait, what? I don't understand.

SWE: Works anywhere else. HN: Crickets.

Re: Questions to ask a company during a job interview

#97

I'd love to ask, "Why do people quit?" during an interview, but can't think of a way to phrase it without sounding accusational or pretentious.

I always ask about staff turnover numbers, especially in ratio to new hires. If they're not prepared to discuss or don't know the answer then it's not important to them.

Re: Questions to ask a company during a job interview

#98

A problem that I've had is that every company says that they value code quality, emphasize developer growth, value developer's technical feedback, etc. even if they don't in practice. I've debated taking a page from old school behavioral interviewing and asking questions like: Tell me about a time that you made a decision to improve code quality or architecture at the expense of a deadline. Tell me about a time that…

I just feel that most interviewers when pressed on these are just going to lie unless the company truly does it, which will make it hard to tell whose telling the truth. I guess that's what the whole interview is, detect who is telling the truth about themselves. I think more detail on these questions, and to press on follow ups for specific examples.

Re: Questions to ask a company during a job interview

#99
Problem: Interviewers lie.

I once interviewed with a company that brought me into a new, shiny, well-appointed building on the corporate campus for an interview.

I did well answering their questions. And they answered my usual questions correctly. Stuff like "Can developers here choose their own tools?" and "My title is going to be Lead Engineer, will I actually be a Lead Engineer?"

After I was hired, I found out everybody uses Eclipse, no exceptions, and I was absolutely not going to be leading anything (I was basically going to be used like an overpaid junior engineer).

The best part: "Oh, you won't be working in the new building..." and was taken to an old, windowless, leaky, mold-smelling building with peeling paint and flickering fluorescent lights (think the opening scene from "Joe vs the Volcano"). My office was a supply closet that was being converted into an office (by that I mean, "we just pulled most of the stuff out of here, but otherwise just rearrange the furniture however.") I was given an old 70s vintage desk that was too low, a sort-of broken chair, and a laptop and left to my own devices for three weeks while waiting for my new project to get started. Then I was suddenly moved to even worse accommodations - a cubicle, which belonged to an employee who had recently died (his stuff was still there, and it was a month before anyone came to take it away).

I started looking for a new job about 2 days in. Took me a year to find something else (I eventually had to move to a new city).

Re: Questions to ask a company during a job interview

#100
I'd like to see a section specific to large projects. It's not uncommon for companies to hire for specific projects, especially in the contracting world. ERP, SAP, and other projects come to mind.

Something I wish I asked during my last big interview: Do you have a project schedule? Can you show that to me?

If there is no schedule, or a very ambiguous one, that's a big red flag.

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