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Interview questions to ask your interviewer

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Re: Interview questions to ask your interviewer

#61

Post by Rebelgecko »

A few questions I've been asked by interviewees that I really liked:

* What's your favorite thing that you've accomplished so far in your current role?

* What's a recent challenge that you personally faced? What challenges are you/your team/division/company/industry facing in the next few years?

* How does your team make big decisions (the article goes into this a bit, but I think it can be helpful to be explicit about whether engineering/PM/sales are on the same page)

* What time did you start work today? (Corollary to "what's a typical day like?", and a good segue to culture type questions)

Re: Interview questions to ask your interviewer

#62

Post by fzzt »

A lot of these questions touch on important topics, but I think there are too many of them and they are far too specific - to the point where you might be inadvertently signaling some kind of unreasonable inflexibility ("you better be using a particular bug tracking system or else I'm out!"). I'd suggest generalizing and combining many of these. Asking the interviewer to walk you through the development process can be more revealing and is less adversarial than a rapid-fire of 30 questions.

Also, the likelihood that a candidate will be informed of any non-public plans to sell the company are slim...

Re: Interview questions to ask your interviewer

#63

Post by ryandrake »

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…

I remember vividly interviewing for a Bay Area tech company and asking about their policy on side projects and open source contribution, and the interviewer got really cagey and basically said he didn't know but don't worry too much about it. Got rejected for the role and surprisingly the recruiter was very forthcoming about the reason: Don't remember the actual words but he said that my interest in working on side projects was a red flag and showed I wouldn't devote 100% to the role. Leadership apparently insisted that candidates asking about these kinds of things were not good fits.

I feel I really dodged a bullet there! Thank you, anonymous recruiter for being unusually candid in post-interview feedback!

Re: Interview questions to ask your interviewer

#64

Post by lnxg33k1 »

blahyawnblah wrote: post #36
mrtranscendence wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of my former coworkers who's an absolutely huge Apple guy recently left for another job. When I asked him whether he could use a Mac he told me he didn't know and hadn't asked ... he must've really wanted that job. Or really hated his old one. I'd take a job that let me use Linux, but I too am a Mac guy at heart. I had a short stint on Windows not long ago and hated it. Where I work now they'll give developers Ma…

Windows with WSL2 is great. Have you tried that? VSCode can run from WSL2 and have access to its file system

Wsl 1/2 are quite painful, but the issue is also windows, you might get a wsl3 that is good and it would still be surrounded by windows, i would still tolerate windows but Microsoft isn't offering windows to you as a product that gets out of the way, doesn't touch defaults, doesn't show you ads on the desktop etc, it's using a software to push on you other stuff, so nein

So there are many companies and many projects and i don't work with any Microsoft technology, for me it makes sense to just dodge any company that doesn't allow me any kind of Linux on daily driver, it's just that for me it makes sense, it's not a huge effort, it's not a huge sacrifice, it would be a sacrifice accepting a job with windows/mac when there are many more on linux

Re: Interview questions to ask your interviewer

#66

Post by twayt »

A lot of these questions don’t really matter and are a waste of time.

The only real questions to ask imo are:

1. How is performance/promos determined?

2. How are peoples interpersonal skills in other teams?

In the first question, look out for cues regarding inefficiencies or resentment about the performance process.

In the second one, the interviewer can discuss whether people are cooperative or assholes without being too specific about their own team dynamics.

That’s pretty much all you can expect a random employee in a company to be able to provide accurate information about.

The questions about wfh policy and org structure are best left to the recruiter.

The other questions about learning opportunities, flexibility of roles, working hours and how people get along are just going to be met with drivel about how the company is the best place to work at on all these categories.

Re: Interview questions to ask your interviewer

#67

Post by icedchai »

Dayshine wrote: post #32
lmilcin wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Am I allowed to have side projects that I own? > Does your insurance cover my preferred doctors? (obviously more of an email question) Your contract specifies that and other answers to other questions. Don't ask your interviewer this question, the only thing he/she can do is rely to HR. Best ask HR directly. > Why did the person before me leave? It is unlikely you are ever going to get answer to that and even if yo…

Unless you're at the strange faang companies which do intake without finding you a team first: one of your interviewers should be your like manager, who can get these amendments made to your contract, and should know the answer.

This is one of the problems with a company my friend is at. They do intake without preference to a specific team. They also do re-orgs every 3 to 6 month, so even if they did, the team you interview for might not exist for long anyway. He's on his third team in less than a year. People randomly get moved around due to dysfunction, etc.

Re: Interview questions to ask your interviewer

#68

Post by technion »

fartcannon wrote: post #18

I had a really cool job opportunity to implement cool technology in a novel field but I rejected it for two reasons: 1) My immediate manager was dressed in incredibly expensive clothing in the interview, 2) He said we didn't need Linux, we could afford to use Mac. Barf

I'll never forget a guy trying to headhunt with:

"Do you see this watch? Genuine rollex. Do you know what it feels like to own one? Probably not, because you don't work for me yet, so you can't afford one".

Re: Interview questions to ask your interviewer

#69

Post by jbluepolarbear »

tragictrash wrote: post #44
blahyawnblah wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Windows with WSL2 is great. Have you tried that? VSCode can run from WSL2 and have access to its file system

Tell me you don't use Linux without telling me you don't use linux Wsl is pretty terrible in my experience. your better off using a vm you manage yourself. Every vendor has shared folders. Each one can use a x server to display programs in your windows window manager.

Tell me you don’t use WSL without telling me you don’t use WSL.

I use WSL everyday and it’s no different than using native Linux. What’s so terrible? It’s easy to setup and easy to add to windows terminal.

Re: Interview questions to ask your interviewer

#70

Post by jbluepolarbear »

ryandrake wrote: post #63
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…

I remember vividly interviewing for a Bay Area tech company and asking about their policy on side projects and open source contribution, and the interviewer got really cagey and basically said he didn't know but don't worry too much about it. Got rejected for the role and surprisingly the recruiter was very forthcoming about the reason: Don't remember the actual words but he said that my interest in working on side p…

That’s more a red flag for that company.
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