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Three questions to turn the table during technical interviews
71–80 of 114 posts
Re: Three questions to turn the table during technical interviews
#72Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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…
> Isn't this exactly the kind of answer that the question is meant to tease out, so that the candidate can know ahead of time that the company is more interested in executives' status than in innovating? 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 c…
This makes me sad for the companies you worked for. I'm at the director level at my company, and I make sure to both give credit to whomever does good work, and to enable them to do it. I do enough good work of my own that I don't need to steal credit to be successful.
Re: Three questions to turn the table during technical interviews
#73Re: Three questions to turn the table during technical interviews
#741. The offer is good. I was aiming at 12% more, though. Can we work it out?
2. Is on call mandatory?
3. Are there any plans to move away from 100% remote work?
Re: Three questions to turn the table during technical interviews
#75Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 point is that the answer shouldn’t be “just go build it”, it should be “get buy in”
“Get buy in” > “just build it ~= “go talk to a pm”
Re: Three questions to turn the table during technical interviews
#76Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
Plus any professional place will obviously have processes and rules in place to not discuss other candidates with a candidate. Sure you might be curious to know, but that is a waste of breath to ask an interviewer during a technical interview. Ask the recruiter if you must.
I have asked “How do you feel I can improve as a candidate in the future?” Basically asking for a mini retro at the end of the interview process.
I have found it acts as a decent proxy for how strong/weak I have done. But it also allows me to get some feedback to improve for future interviews.
There has been at least one job that me asking this question directly resulted in an offer as well.
Re: Three questions to turn the table during technical interviews
#77i don't care about most of the questions being raised here.
a slow process to get changes accepted, long build cycles, bad legacy code, irrational business decisions, whatever.
what i care about is how the team works together. how supportive the people i get to interact with are. how i can get help when i am stuck. if i can ask dumb questions without repercussions. if people compete or cooperate to solve problems. if they share code ownership. both on the individual and on the team level and beyond etc.
if i am in a team that works well together with a supportive manager or leader then i don't care what we are working on. as long as our superiors feel that we are contributing something, even if the end result is nonsense, i'd rather do that than suffer people who are unfriendly or uncooperative or bother each other in other ways, while working on something that saves human lives.
Re: Three questions to turn the table during technical interviews
#78"How tangled are the cables in the DC?"
Re: Three questions to turn the table during technical interviews
#79i don't care about most of the questions being raised here. a slow process to get changes accepted, long build cycles, bad legacy code, irrational business decisions, whatever. what i care about is how the team works together. how supportive the people i get to interact with are. how i can get help when i am stuck. if i can ask dumb questions without repercussions. if people compete or cooperate to solve problems. if…
> “…i'd rather do that than suffer people who are unfriendly or uncooperative…”
I assume if you had interview questions to root out cooperative groups you would have shared.
So maybe the next question would be, What management or leadership practices are indicative of a better group dynamic?
Otherwise, in my experience, the group dynamic is an interpersonal dynamic— the result of quality of work the group achieves and the synergies of individuals in that process—unpredictable.
Re: Three questions to turn the table during technical interviews
#80i don't care about most of the questions being raised here. a slow process to get changes accepted, long build cycles, bad legacy code, irrational business decisions, whatever. what i care about is how the team works together. how supportive the people i get to interact with are. how i can get help when i am stuck. if i can ask dumb questions without repercussions. if people compete or cooperate to solve problems. if…
> “…i'd rather do that than suffer people who are unfriendly or uncooperative…” I assume if you had interview questions to root out cooperative groups you would have shared. So maybe the next question would be, What management or leadership practices are indicative of a better group dynamic? Otherwise, in my experience, the group dynamic is an interpersonal dynamic— the result of quality of work the group achieves an…
to be honest, how to discover these issues in an interview is really the question. i have no idea what to ask to get that that. i mean, asking if i'll get help from my team mates is surely going to be answered with yes, whether it is true or not. same if dumb questions are ok. etc. i think you'll really have to spend a day with the team to get an even just an idea.
at best in a coding interview i can find out if the interviewer is helpful when i am stuck there. or as in one interview i had, the fact that i was allowed to do the tests in a language that i was familiar with but nobody else in the company knew, at least showed that they were open minded and would accept me as an experienced programmer despite not being as experienced in the language they were using.