Questions to ask a company during a job interview • Hacker News Board

Re: Questions to ask a company during a job interview

#111

Post by dominotw » Mon, Sep 09, 2019, 2:10 PM UTC

theamk wrote: post #52

a3n wrote: post #3

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

During the last interview, I've had similar thing happen to me -- after we discussed whiteboard design question, the candidate asked, "how would you solve this?". This resulted in a pretty nice exchange of opinions. In a somewhat related point, last time I was designing the coding question, I tested it on my teammmates. They all solved it, and their response was very helpful, and it allowed me to clarify some points…

> They all solved it

But did they all solve in under the interview conditions? ( time pressure, coding infront of strangers, possiblity of not getting the job that you need etc).

I can pretty much solve all leetcodes on my own computer with noone staring at me like hungry wolf eyeing its next meal.

Re: Questions to ask a company during a job interview

#112

Post by JoeAltmaier » Mon, Sep 09, 2019, 2:11 PM UTC

jcadam wrote: post #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 eve…

Hey! That was my experience. New product direction; needed some designers.

Show up, and everybody is working on firefighting old bugs with a fake Agile approach. The kind where the manager hands out tickets to folks and the only metric is how many trivial bugs have been closed this week.

Every time I spent any time looking into the code (million lines of crap) to see if anything could be done, I'd get widely criticized.

I put up with it for a few months and bailed.

Re: Questions to ask a company during a job interview

#113

Post by PeterisP » Mon, Sep 09, 2019, 2:11 PM UTC

a3n wrote: post #3

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

Because in a two-sided interview the interviewer is trying to evaluate you, but you're trying to evaluate the company and its processes, not the interviewer as an individual.

Usually it literally does not matter how the interviewer thinks and what they believe is right, you want to know the actual company policy, which often will not be the same as the interviewer might want to.

However, if you're being interviewed by your future direct manager, then you do want to get a perspective on how they think, as their individual attitude towards various aspects of work life will be relevant to you - but usually most interviewers aren't that relevant.

Re: Questions to ask a company during a job interview

#114

Post by viraptor » Mon, Sep 09, 2019, 2:12 PM UTC

jeygeethan wrote: post #107

"Definitely don't try to ask everything from the list." ^ I wouldn't agree to this. If the interviewer can ask many questions about my working style, why can't I ask the same about the company with whom I am going to spend the most of my daylight with?

It's more about "choose what's important to you and respect each other's time". Not all questions will apply to a company. Many of them you can answer by reading company's website/blog, maybe looking at public repositories.

If you ask something that shows you did no research or don't understand the role description at all, that's actually going to count against you later. Same for holding someone busy with simple questions if you had a scheduled interview slot.

Re: Questions to ask a company during a job interview

#115

Post by anon1m0us » Mon, Sep 09, 2019, 2:13 PM UTC

jcadam wrote: post #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 eve…

It's illegal to lie on your resume, but lying to your recruits -- oh, that's fine. Corporate Immunity.

Re: Questions to ask a company during a job interview

#116

Post by destitude » Mon, Sep 09, 2019, 2:15 PM UTC

Has anyone tried to get the company they are interviewing for to provide written and signed answers to any of their questions relating to the company or job? Maybe even have ramifications if what was written turns out not to be true? Seems like this is the only way to keep companies from falsifying everything they say just to get a hire.

Re: Questions to ask a company during a job interview

#117

Post by logfromblammo » Mon, Sep 09, 2019, 2:16 PM UTC

username3 wrote: post #104

jcadam wrote: post #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 eve…

Why did it take a year to find something else?

Because it wasn't on the west coast of the US? Because the ancestor poster is older than 30? Because that company had some secret non-poaching agreements? Because companies were preemptively binning the resume for not staying at the previous company long enough?

The only people who could really say, won't.

Re: Questions to ask a company during a job interview

#118

Post by neogodless » Mon, Sep 09, 2019, 2:16 PM UTC

theamk wrote: post #46

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…

At my job, we have "do you have any questions for us" part as a standard part of every interview -- and my experience shows that most people always have at least one question.

I think there's nothing wrong with what you're talking about here, but I also think it's different from the comment here. You really need to be asking questions throughout, taking any questions directed at you, answering them, and then using that as an opportunity to learned related things about the company, the team, and the environment you would be spending all your time in. It should be continual engagement and back-and-forth, rather than a one-directional quiz (until it's time to ask your questions.)

Re: Questions to ask a company during a job interview

#119

Post by jcadam » Mon, Sep 09, 2019, 2:21 PM UTC

logfromblammo wrote: post #117

username3 wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why did it take a year to find something else?

Because it wasn't on the west coast of the US? Because the ancestor poster is older than 30? Because that company had some secret non-poaching agreements? Because companies were preemptively binning the resume for not staying at the previous company long enough? The only people who could really say, won't.

I'm in Florida and nearly 40 :)

I've landed a fairly good spot now, might actually stay longer than my usual 1-2 years.

Re: Questions to ask a company during a job interview

#120

Post by Diederich » Mon, Sep 09, 2019, 2:23 PM UTC

reallydontask wrote: post #69

> Is there a support / marketing / other call-heavy team close to my new team? This is so important. I can probably live with most open plan set ups, sure there will be annoying times, but if there is a call-heavy team nearby, forget it. I refuse to wear noise cancelling headphones all day long. FWIW, interviewers will blatantly lie. I asked at an interview about equipment quality and was told that they'd not heard a…

> I refuse to wear noise cancelling headphones all day long.

May I ask why? Even when I work at home alone, and there are no stray noises at all, I'll still wear my headphones when I want to really focus. Years of mental conditioning has led me to a place where it's much easier to deeply focus when I'm wearing headphones listening to white noise.