Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Questions to ask a company during a job interview

github.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

281–290 of 467 posts

Re: Questions to ask a company during a job interview

#281

Post by rhizome »

Beldur wrote: post #149

In my experience it's important to not ask "easy" questions that can be answered by a simple yes/no. Instead of: Are you friendly to remote work? Ask: Will I be working with anyone who is remote, or who works from home on a regular basis? Instead of: Is the work life balance good? Ask: How responsive are people to emails/Slack over the weekends and after 6pm? Instead of: Can I have a good career path? Ask: Did any of…

I've never asked it yet, but I've been thinking along these lines, and for the last one I think a good construction is "Do you work with anybody who was hired under a different title than they have now?"

Re: Questions to ask a company during a job interview

#282

Post by umvi »

neilv wrote: post #276

> What's the status of / view on diverse hiring? As someone who believes in value of diversity (just to be clear), for both organizational and societal reasons, I think this is an important question, for a variety of reasons -- but also a question that candidates might not want to ask. Candidates might not want to ask, due to not knowing how the asking will be perceived. Or due to not wanting to mention some unappare…

It could also be asked for the opposite reasons. For example, some developers might consider it a "red flag" that companies prioritize diversity hiring and will want to stay away.

Re: Questions to ask a company during a job interview

#283

Post by kristianc »

neilv wrote: post #276

> What's the status of / view on diverse hiring? As someone who believes in value of diversity (just to be clear), for both organizational and societal reasons, I think this is an important question, for a variety of reasons -- but also a question that candidates might not want to ask. Candidates might not want to ask, due to not knowing how the asking will be perceived. Or due to not wanting to mention some unappare…

> Candidates might not want to ask, due to not knowing how the asking will be perceived. Or due to not wanting to mention some unapparent quality (e.g., being gay), because they don't know how welcome that will be, or they just want to be treated as, say, a developer, at that stage of meeting prospective colleagues.

Wouldn’t it be much better to be aware of this at the outset?

Re: Questions to ask a company during a job interview

#284

Post by megous »

rajacombinator wrote: post #145

I tried this in my last round of interviews. It is very difficult to get any meaningful information from this process, because, just like candidates, interviewers are incentivized to not tell the full truth. Except in the worst cases when the interviewer just dgaf, they can’t really share negative information for fear of reprisal. (And it doesn’t benefit them either.) Your best bet is to ask a question that allows th…

"If I was hypothetically a person that likes to refactor/maintain confusingly tangled mess of a code, would I enjoy working here?" :D

Re: Questions to ask a company during a job interview

#285

Post by aniham »

harimau777 wrote: post #63

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…

One question I like to ask is "Tell me about the worst day (work-wise) you've had in the last six months." Most of the answers I've had gotten generally have to do with escalations and I find that answers are quite honest and unpracticed. I think the way a team/company handles an unusual high-stress situation is in many ways telling of the team/company dynamic in general. And as a bonus, there's usually a good anecdote about a buried body or two in their codebase, process, you name it.

Re: Questions to ask a company during a job interview

#286

Post by rat9988 »

RobertDeNiro wrote: post #92
reallydontask wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I'm pretty sure you can leave in the first weeks easily in most countries.

Re: Questions to ask a company during a job interview

#287

Post by NikolaNovak »

sgustard wrote: post #196
jbob2000 wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This only works if you're interviewing with decision makers. At a larger organization, I don't think the person you're interviewing with would have any capacity to answer these (which could be a red flag for you, but also a very limiting one).

What if as a condition to accept a job offer you request a meeting with the CEO? Would the company refuse or do they value you enough to make it happen? I have never taken a job without talking to a top executive. You get a view of the company bigger than your team, you get to ask those business questions your manager may not know, and you have a head start on making good connections with upper management.

That question reveals a very, very specific set of assumptions (applying to very small companies); which may be relevant to the most active HN audience, but by strict numbers, is not applicable to majority of actual employees.

Re: Questions to ask a company during a job interview

#289

Post by duxup »

harimau777 wrote: post #63

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 joined a team that does agile software development.

Apparently that meant that occasionally a slack bot asks me what I did recently.

Re: Questions to ask a company during a job interview

#290

Post by kempbellt »

Why should I work here?

It's a forward question, but your time is valuable. If you are going to spend a large chunk of your foreseeable future working at a company, they should have a good answer to this question. If they hop around all awkwardly while trying to come up with an answer - next. I want to work with people who are excited by the work they do. Plain and simple.

Always remember, the interview goes both ways. Be sure to interview the interviewer.

Post reply on HN