| The first question is absolutely spot on, but I don't like the second two. Those last two tend to generate answers that are purely administrative and without substance, such as: We will perform your first mid-year review!. WTF, so what? Here are some better questions (repeating the first one from the article first): 1. “There’s an IC sitting out there who just had an amazing idea for a new feature/product. What happens?” That question is solid because it indicates they actually give a damn about employee contributions beyond what they populate on a Jira board. Its a telling sign if they are hostile to initiative. 2. "How do you measure things related to your product and what do you measure?" The answer to that questions addresses multiple concerns. Everybody claims to value product quality, but most places I have worked at really don't give a shit, because its just too much effort. If they aren't measuring things they have no idea how slow their product is, what kind of user engagement they achieve, their defect trajectory, and on and on and on. On a more primitive level if they aren't currently measuring things it also provides an indication of whether or not they actually want to, but maybe don't know how. The point here is you can use questions like that to cut through their bullshit and determine their level of current capability and also their level of honest versus conservatism. 3. "What is your average build time?" or "How do you perform test automation?" Most places care more about their tech stack than actually writing software. That should send all kinds of warning flags. When developers just waste time all day staring at the ceiling while software goes through a bunch of build nonsense that indicates developer time just isn't as valuable testing alternatives. its great to have 90 minute builds when the business is healthy and you can go out and go bowling, or whatever, but the moment the employer becomes unhealthy those undervalued developers will find themselves unemployed. As a bonus if you ask tough questions during the interview and the challenge makes the hiring manager uncomfortable consider they will remain as uncomfortable if you end up working there. That is really bad, because shit rolls down hill and their discomfort eventually becomes your problem. |