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> “There’s an IC sitting out there who just had an amazing idea for a new feature/product. What happens?” Man, I bet my answer and my VP's answer to that are gonna be rather different.
I usually try to ask these What are the bad things about this job? What's the average tenure on the team, how many people have left the team recently and why? How does this team & company compare with other places you've worked? (second or third round) How many other people are being interviewed and how do I compare?
“There’s an IC sitting out there who just had an amazing idea for a new feature/product. What happens?” Sounds like a good question, but the answer doesn't really matter, because it depends on whether the business actually wants to implement the idea. And if they do, it needs to sound like it's coming from an executive, because if it's not, they'll be embarrassed and try to crush the idea. So if the dev really wants…
> Sounds like a good question, but the answer doesn't really matter, because it depends on whether the business actually wants to implement the idea. And if they do, it needs to sound like it's coming from an executive, because if it's not, they'll be embarrassed and try to crush the idea. So if the dev really wants the idea to get into product, they should be funneling the idea through their manager or through a pro…
This is like asking if sharks like the taste of blood. Any answer other than the obvious is a shark looking for a meal.
Executives only exist because they are obsessed with status/power, the share price, the market cap, competition, winning. That is their purpose in life. If they cared more about innovation, they wouldn't be executives, they'd be engineers.
It's not impossible for an engineer to get an idea into a product. But they have to know how to swim with sharks.
I usually try to ask these What are the bad things about this job? What's the average tenure on the team, how many people have left the team recently and why? How does this team & company compare with other places you've worked? (second or third round) How many other people are being interviewed and how do I compare?
I had 3 different Engineers mentioning "X person who left" in the interviews of a company once, which triggered all sorts of red flags. Digging a bit deeper, the company had a major merger and it seemed it had gone from a super-nice environment where devs were trusted and empowered to a top-down, strict structure where they were all now fighting to stay hired.
I usually try to ask these What are the bad things about this job? What's the average tenure on the team, how many people have left the team recently and why? How does this team & company compare with other places you've worked? (second or third round) How many other people are being interviewed and how do I compare?
I like the middle two questions a lot, and I try to ask them as well. I think the other two are flawed, though: > What are the bad things about this job? Too vague. Most interviewers won't be ready to shit talk their employer with this question and will say "nothing." A better question would be some variation of "What would you change about the way your team works if you could?" Frame the question properly so that th…
“There’s an IC sitting out there who just had an amazing idea for a new feature/product. What happens?” in a company with more than 10 staff, they should talk to a product manager, sorry. you can't build a sustainable company by adding new features willy nilly whenever some dev has a Great Idea.
I don’t like the wording of the question but saying “talk to a product manager” is a red flag answer that would be the exact wrong answer an engineer would be looking for. A good manager coaches their engineers on how to package (one pager, demo, talking to partners etc.) and present their ideas to get buy-in from leadership, these types of managers are the ones hackers like. A bad manager is one who gives a dismissi…
The reason being, job descriptions are very often a fantasy. An aspiration. What the company wishes its people did, not what they are actually doing. Often the reality is much less attractive than the job description you think you are interviewing for. Faced with this "week in the life of..." question, very few interviewers can conjure up a detailed fantasy of fictional projects concluded, smooth running operations, and friction-free collaboration on the spot. They are more likely to say what the person will _actually_ be doing. This is typically a lot less attractive. Only then you can really start "talking turkey" for the remaining minutes.
I usually try to ask these What are the bad things about this job? What's the average tenure on the team, how many people have left the team recently and why? How does this team & company compare with other places you've worked? (second or third round) How many other people are being interviewed and how do I compare?
It gives me insight into their recent frustrations and often company going-ons or culture. It then opens for a potentially interesting discussion on how changes are made at the company which is particularly relevant to working in leadership roles
> “There’s an IC sitting out there who just had an amazing idea for a new feature/product. What happens?” Man, I bet my answer and my VP's answer to that are gonna be rather different.
Maybe the question could be sharpened: "Can you tell about some examples where an IC in your company had a good feature idea, and what ended up happening?"
This is one of those few “social engineering” pay-walled click-bait articles that I’m very happy IS pay-walled to reduce its cogent thought pollution. This is not wisdom. This is over-fitting industry/era/role-specific individual experience to generic candidate advice. Do none of these things.