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Interview questions to ask your interviewer

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Re: Interview questions to ask your interviewer

#141

Post by hlbjhblbljib »

anitil wrote: post #101
Buttons840 wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Usually there's a surprise contract waiting for day one of a job, after you've left your other job. Yes, you can still walk away, but it's better to review that contract sooner. If you don't ask to see the contract, it will almost certainly be a day one surprise. And even if you do ask, the legal department, who neither you nor the people interviewing you frequently communicate with, might still have some surprises i…

I've been sprung with these before. Usually trivial, unenforceable issues, but annoying none the less. The worst was I once even had a background check _after_ accepting and signing. Nothing came up, but that could have left me with no job and no recourse. How do you avoid this? It's a particular kind of institutional trickery that may not even be intentional but is very frustrating.

I faced this off, said I wouldn't sign until after they'd done all their checks.

Then I got radio silence, could see all the checks passed on their end. Didn't end up signing, kept my current job.

Glad I refused. I don't want to work for any company that tries this bullshit.

Re: Interview questions to ask your interviewer

#142

Post by cormacrelf »

rad_gruchalski wrote: post #124
Kranar wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This isn't true unfortunately and there are absolutely horror stories of this happening to people. For example at some FANG companies you sign what you think is your regular employment contract and then move on down to the Valley excited to start your new job on the agreed upon terms... then as soon as you introduce yourself at reception just before orientation, you're made to sign a secondary agreement with terms yo…

Serious question then: do you really believe that they are going to show you “the second contract”? It seems like the better question is: are there other documents than this contract on which this job depends to sign and can I see them. If yes, can you please put this in the contract.

Yes, good question. It can be more of a demand, even -- before you sign, ask "can you send me all of the documents I will be required to sign along with my contract?" and expect to be given the full run of corporate policy, non-disclosure agreements, etc etc etc. If they won't give them to you, they are hiding something and you shouldn't sign. Corporate policy should be incredibly boring and nobody has a good reason to prevent you from seeing that.

If you've signed a complete contract already, and there are new things to sign, they're asking you to agree to a new contract. Which you don't have to agree to, and if you don't, then anything you've already signed is still in effect. To get rid of you after that they have to resort to the termination provisions in the original contract. Of course "refusing to agree to corporate policy" is typically something that they can terminate you for. So a big part of the law dictating how much they can make you sign later is found in termination provisions. If your original contract's termination clauses are written so broadly that they could fire you easily for refusing to agree to a new contract that essentially rewrites the old one, then there are things you should see a lawyer about before touching it. (This is a much bigger deal than policy changes. I'm talking "no we actually have 10 more onerous pre-conditions to exercising stock options that we hid from you, such that you will find it almost impossible to do. sign here".) Large swaths of contract law are devoted to invalidating terms that say versions of "I can dictate the terms".

So my guess is that the horror stories were not supported by the original contract using likely-invalid language, but rather purely on the threat of messing up someone's new job. Especially if you're e.g. moving for a job, your goal is to sniff this out before you sign. So insist on full pre-signing transparency, get assurances that there are no other documents that are considered mandatory, and watch the responses carefully.

Re: Interview questions to ask your interviewer

#143

Post by cormacrelf »

user_named wrote: post #119
BeetleB wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are multiple things to sign. At my company, you sign most of them on your first day on the job. I probably could have asked to see them during the offer stage, but there's no guarantee that's the same document you'll be asked to sign (and likely the part of HR involved in giving you the offer is not the same part of HR that makes you sign the first day).

I asked to see these at the offer stage. They said nobody had ever asked for this before and didn't give it to me. Company with 100k employees globally.

That's not a good enough reason. They want to hire you, they've been through a lot of candidates, spent tons of important people's time interviewing you, and may be paying a recruiter $20k to find you. They can send you a damn PDF. Insist.

Re: Interview questions to ask your interviewer

#144

Post by hlbjhblbljib »

anontrot wrote: post #138

I got an interview scheduled with Meta/Facebook, for monday (14th Feb 2022). Their careers portal has a lot of sample leet codes, I'm not even able to do the level 1 puzzles. Sure going to bomb the interview with live codinng session! Sigh... this would have been a life changer for me

Share the portal?

I suggest doing it anyway. I think I've learned more from failed interviews than I have from some jobs. Useful lessons anyway.

Re: Interview questions to ask your interviewer

#146

Post by HelloNurse »

denysvitali wrote: post #6
dec0dedab0de wrote: post #3

I would add Am I allowed to have side projects that I own? Am I allowed to contribute to open source from work? ie bugfixes for libraries we use. How many meetings are there in an average month? Does your insurance cover my preferred doctors? (obviously more of an email question) How strict are the requirements in whatever tracking software we use (jira,rally, etc) How many required programs are there? Outlook? Slack…

My go-to question is: Am I able to use Linux? This tells you a lot about the company. I avoided some Windows-only jobs in the past :)

Everyone has their own allergies. I can live without Linux, but I'd ask whether there is any IBM software involved.

Re: Interview questions to ask your interviewer

#147

Post by rad_gruchalski »

cormacrelf wrote: post #142
rad_gruchalski wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Serious question then: do you really believe that they are going to show you “the second contract”? It seems like the better question is: are there other documents than this contract on which this job depends to sign and can I see them. If yes, can you please put this in the contract.

Yes, good question. It can be more of a demand, even -- before you sign, ask "can you send me all of the documents I will be required to sign along with my contract?" and expect to be given the full run of corporate policy, non-disclosure agreements, etc etc etc. If they won't give them to you, they are hiding something and you shouldn't sign. Corporate policy should be incredibly boring and nobody has a good reason…

Indeed, you have very well summarized my thoughts on this. 100% that.

Re: Interview questions to ask your interviewer

#148

Post by the-dude »

lmilcin wrote: post #54
dec0dedab0de wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I'm interviewing with a future teammate, then they should know what the contract is. If the company is so big that they have bespoke employment contracts, then the first interview is usually HR. As far as the person im replacing, that's more of a poker move to feel out if there is a toxic boss driving people away. Perhaps a better way to do that would be to ask about the turnover rate for the team/department/compa…

The contract that the interviewer has may not look anything like the one you are going to get. The only contract that matters is the one you sign. Every company will negotiate the contract with you and they will frequently be happy to negotiate other things than just your bare salary. There might be things that you care more than others and the company will be happy to provide you with. A lot of people treat the cont…

> I think turnover rate is definitely better question

They lied about that too.

Re: Interview questions to ask your interviewer

#149

Post by mcv »

anitil wrote: post #101
Buttons840 wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Usually there's a surprise contract waiting for day one of a job, after you've left your other job. Yes, you can still walk away, but it's better to review that contract sooner. If you don't ask to see the contract, it will almost certainly be a day one surprise. And even if you do ask, the legal department, who neither you nor the people interviewing you frequently communicate with, might still have some surprises i…

I've been sprung with these before. Usually trivial, unenforceable issues, but annoying none the less. The worst was I once even had a background check _after_ accepting and signing. Nothing came up, but that could have left me with no job and no recourse. How do you avoid this? It's a particular kind of institutional trickery that may not even be intentional but is very frustrating.

As a self-employed contractor, it's quite common for me to negotiate the contract and wait for screening while already working on the project. They still have to pay me for time worked, and if we can't agree, they're screwed as much as I am, because they're already investing in onboarding, and I haven't delivered anything yet.

So there is some room for negotiation, although some things aren't negotiable for them. I've often had a non-compete clause of some sort in my contract, and I've always been able to get its scope reduced, but mever been able to get it dropped entirely. But if you ask up front about it, it's also to their benefit to be honest about it, because hiring you and then having you quit at the last moment because of their lie is not good for them either

The other option is to get the contract signed, or at least seen, before you quit your previous job. If it's a job for which you need to move and dramatically change your life, then you should definitely get some hard commitments from them before you do anything drastic.

Re: Interview questions to ask your interviewer

#150

Post by mcv »

BeetleB wrote: post #98
rad_gruchalski wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Signing means accepting an offer. To sign, one needs to get a copy of a contract. So one always sees a contract before signing, no? Let’s look at it from a different angle. One does not file a resignation before receiving a countersigned copy from the company.

There are multiple things to sign. At my company, you sign most of them on your first day on the job. I probably could have asked to see them during the offer stage, but there's no guarantee that's the same document you'll be asked to sign (and likely the part of HR involved in giving you the offer is not the same part of HR that makes you sign the first day).

Never sign anything on the spot. Always take it home to study it. If there's clauses you have doubts about, consult with your lawyer. Negotiate everything that's not acceptable to you.

You could also being a contract of your own for them to sign. They won't, of course, but it can help drive home the point why you need time to look at the contract.

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