[HN Gopher] Interview questions to ask your interviewer
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Interview questions to ask your interviewer
Author : skellertor
Score : 107 points
Date : 2022-02-09 20:49 UTC (2 hours ago)
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| buscoquadnary wrote:
| A good couple of questions I've found that are very indicative of
| how things work is
|
| 1. How does budgeting work with your group? Who controls the
| budget they get?
|
| 2. How are priorities set on the team?
|
| 3. Who is the customer of your team, not your company but your
| team specifically is it sales, ops, finance, etc?
|
| It comes from the idea that if you can discover the incentives
| you'll be able to deduce a lot more about the position.
| toss1 wrote:
| I recently saw a great question that is generally applicable to
| all types of job:
|
| "When you think about the person in this role doing really
| outstanding work in the future, say, one and five years from now,
| what does that look like to you?"
| bryanrasmussen wrote:
| Out of the classical screwed up interview questions that people
| ask I think "where do you see yourself in 5 years" would be a
| pretty good one to hear the real answer to from your interviewer.
| kerneloftruth wrote:
| That's a good question to look for, as it indicates a really
| stupid and unimaginative interviewer. One should regard it as a
| possible symptom of a dull management staff. It's also a good
| one to turn around on the interviewer: "What have you been able
| to achieve here in the past 5 years?"
| daniel_iversen wrote:
| Important is to curate your own list based on the company and
| role. In the posted article there wasn't many cultural questions
| and I'd certainly add those (why do people typically enjoy
| working here? examples of tough situations the team or company
| has been through? What are the company values (does the
| interviewer even know?) and how are they important or not day to
| day, etc...) also probe on your managers management style (or you
| might end up hating the job) as well as ask to speak with future
| colleagues (in everyone's interest). Be prepared to be quizzed on
| why you're asking your questions (after all there has to be
| thought behind it). And for interviewers - many time the free
| dialog and understanding what's top of mind for your candidate is
| as important than the scripted questions. In fact I start off
| interviews saying we both need to get to know eachother in this
| session, and if there are any burning questions or things they'd
| like to know already? (that way I can see how much they've
| thought about the role and what's in their mind before they've
| had a chance to analyse the company or myself too much and maybe
| get a better picture of the candidate).. oh and my favorite
| question to the interviewer (even if it's me) is "If you had a
| magic wand and could improve one thing about the company what
| would it be?" - hard not to get some interesting insight into the
| company with that one.
| pmulard wrote:
| I've been keeping a list of interview questions in my personal
| docs, but just uploaded them to a repo once I saw this post.
|
| Feel free to check them out. They also include questions to ask
| the recruiter. I hope they can be of use.
|
| https://github.com/pmulard/interview_questions
| c7DJTLrn wrote:
| I did some interviewing recently and took a bit of a different
| approach. I remember reading somewhere about the idea of taking
| interviews as a casual conversation to establish wants/needs
| instead of taking turns to interrogate. I just spoke with the
| people interviewing me like colleagues, talked about technology
| frankly, asked questions when they popped into my head, and it
| turned out pretty well. It wasn't calculated but rather the
| opposite - I just behaved like my normal self and ended up with
| an offer.
| insickness wrote:
| Don't wait until the end to ask questions, ask them throughout
| the interview. When the interviewer asks, are you familiar with
| X, respond and then ask if that's something you'll be using on
| the job. If you're familiar with X, ask more about their
| implementation of X. By asking questions, it seems like you've
| got a lot of options and are looking for work that interests you,
| not just trying to qualify yourself to the interviewer.
|
| It also makes them feel like they are already working with you
| because that's what a good employee does when a manager gives him
| work: he asks questions about it throughout the process. He
| doesn't wait until the end when the manager says, do you have any
| questions?
| emaginniss wrote:
| On a scale of "Bob Saget on Full House" to "Bob Saget not on Full
| House" what level of jokes can I get away with?
| jaaron wrote:
| Great list of information anyone should know before accepting an
| offer.
|
| As a hiring manager, I'm usually one of the first people new
| candidates speak with (perhaps right after briefly talking to a
| recruiter). Generally, I want to make sure candidates have all
| this information within the first interview or two. These days, I
| tend to open my interview with an opportunity for the candidate
| to ask any questions about the role and company that weren't
| answered by the recruiter.
|
| I also try to leave time at the end, but I find that there's
| often so little time at the end, that it's better to start with
| any questions.
| msisk6 wrote:
| Same here. Nowadays I usually do "reverse interviews" and have
| the candidate grill me and ask me questions. After all, there's
| a ton of tech jobs and the power is in the hands of the
| candidate; their questions should come first.
|
| Some folks are surprised by this and I often have to help them
| along, but that's cool -- it is a bit different.
| errcorrectcode wrote:
| How's the food?
|
| What do you do for fun after work?
| yanowitz wrote:
| I've found this repo https://gitlab.com/doctorj/interview-
| questions to be useful as well.
| stephendause wrote:
| Cool! I've also used these:
|
| https://github.com/lkostrowski/job-interview-questions-to-as...
| https://github.com/viraptor/reverse-interview
| autarch wrote:
| I've been maintaining my own list of questions for quite a few
| years. I added some based on this post and the discussion here on
| HN.
|
| Here's the full list -
| https://gist.github.com/autarch/6e7e25e85db62a359f91aa090033...
|
| There's a few that are very specific to my future travel plans
| and my height, but the vast majority are potentially useful for
| everyone.
|
| Note that my goal is to _get answers to these questions during
| the interview process_. I do not expect to sit there and ask _all
| of them_ in a single interview. In my experience, quite a bit of
| this comes about naturally. For example, I'll often find out
| about their dev process, tech stack, tools, and so on from the
| technical questions they ask me, and the conversations those
| questions lead to.
|
| But my goal would be to have satisfying answers to all of these
| by the time I'm making my decisions about whether to accept an
| offer.
| jll29 wrote:
| Two questions to ask your interviewer:
|
| 1. What - from all the things you have accomplished while working
| here so far - are you most proud of?
|
| 2. What did they do for the last social outing?
|
| (Look for their face reaction as they answer the two questions.
| If they look surprised, or don't have a good answer, you may want
| to look elsewhere.)
|
| And, if not already covered in the interview (which they really
| should):
|
| - How technical is the CTO? Can/does s/he program? Ph.D. Degree?
|
| - Who (name and function) does the group (my boss' boss) report
| to?
|
| - What does the company do for training its people? Is there an
| annual budget?
|
| - What is the attrition rate in the team?
|
| - What is the career path anticipated for the role under
| discussion?
| sugaroverflow wrote:
| I love these! Adding some follow-up questions:
|
| To better understand the attrition rate:
|
| - Who is the team made up of - internal transfers or external
| hires?
|
| - How long have the current team members been on the team?
|
| - When was the last time someone on the team was promoted?
|
| Delving into career trajectory and your questions about
| training:
|
| - What does the path look like in 3, 5, 7 years for this role?
|
| - What leadership opportunities does this role lead to?
|
| - Will my professional goals be linked to the company's goals?
| dizzydiz wrote:
| What is the one thing you wish you knew before you joined?
| choletentent wrote:
| This is GOLD.
| comprev wrote:
| - Can you give me an example of when a project took a major turn
| in another direction, and what was the cause of this change?
| - (if applicable) How many heads is this role expected to
| support? - What was the team's last achievement recognised
| by the whole company? - When was the last time the team
| performed a disaster recovery exercise? - Can you explain
| the process of "idea to feature retirement" starting with the
| request from the product owner?
|
| I've got hundreds of questions from interviews over the years.
| karaterobot wrote:
| For this job, I asked all my interviewers (from my immediate
| manager to the CEO) what direction the company would be taking in
| the next few years: what are they focusing on at a high level,
| and what's the roadmap?
|
| Very informative. A lot of people did not have pat answers, and
| had to search their souls a little bit. I got different answers
| from everybody, but the same broad themes, and I interpreted that
| as meaning everybody was on board for the vision, but that there
| wasn't much top-down direction on how to get there. To me that
| was a plus, and it turned out to be the case.
|
| It also gave me an idea of what I'd be hired to work on, and what
| I'd be working on after that. I recommend this question!
| dec0dedab0de wrote:
| 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? Teams?
| Jira? Timesheets? Confluence? sharepoint? skype? etc
|
| How locked down are the computers/network?
|
| Am I able to use whatever development tools I choose without
| asking permission?
|
| Why did the person before me leave?
| lmilcin wrote:
| > 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.
|
| As a general rule, the only job of interviewer is to decide
| whether you are fit for the role.
|
| I don't have anything against people asking
|
| > Why did the person before me leave?
|
| It is unlikely you are ever going to get answer to that and
| even if you get it, it will have low value.
|
| First, there does not necessarily exist a link between your
| position and the person before you. If you are a developer then
| it is more like a pool with new developers replenishing losses
| over time.
|
| Second, a lot of people do not really know why they leave.
|
| Third, even if they do know, they do not give truthful answer.
| They might be saying something like "I needed a change", or
| they might be rationalising it in some way, where in fact they
| just got a better offer from FB.
|
| Fourth, as an interviewer you might not be privvy to that
| information officially.
|
| Fifth, even if, by accident you got to know this information
| privately, I still don't feel ok passing private information
| especially one that can be basically gossip.
| Dayshine wrote:
| 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.
| duped wrote:
| > As a general rule, the only job of interviewer is to decide
| whether you are fit for the role.
|
| These days half the job is convincing the candidate to accept
| an offer if it comes through.
| dec0dedab0de wrote:
| 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/company?
| the-dude wrote:
| % Why did the person before me leave?
|
| They just lied to me. That was a painful year.
| denysvitali wrote:
| 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 :)
| nemoniac wrote:
| Good question! My answer would be, not only will you be able
| to use Linux, you will have to use it. What does that tell
| you about my company? ;)
| lapetitejort wrote:
| I like to ask what version of software they're running, and
| why. You might catch some change-adverse or bleeding-edge
| jockeys that way.
| yjftsjthsd-h wrote:
| My favorite question as an interviewer is "What's your
| favorite OS of all time and why?"; the what is almost
| irrelevant and there are no right or wrong answers, but the
| whys are always useful/interesting (my favorite is probably
| a guy who raved about AIX's apparently amazing backup
| functionality).
| mrtranscendence wrote:
| 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 Macs by
| default, though getting blanket approval for data scientists
| has been an uphill battle, stupidly enough.
| blahyawnblah wrote:
| Windows with WSL2 is great. Have you tried that?
|
| VSCode can run from WSL2 and have access to its file system
| tragictrash wrote:
| 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.
| ygjb wrote:
| Oh please. Tell me you are a Linux zealot without telling
| me you are a Linux zealot. Its a tool in the toolbox. I
| use Linux everyday on servers at work, two desktops at
| home, and servers for my partners businesses.
|
| My main personal notebook is a windows device w/WSL and
| my main work notebook is a MacOS device, because at the
| end of the day, I need my computer's to just work,
| painlessly.
|
| WSL is great for alot of Linux userspace stuff and is a
| fantastic CLI for interacting with and managing remote
| servers, alongside the ease of Windows. Of course it's
| not as performance, and had some edges, but I happily
| accept the trade-offs due to great driver support and the
| flexibility to run almost any software on one device.
| jaaron wrote:
| Really depends on the sort of "windows-only" jobs you're
| thinking of.
|
| My startup is mostly Windows, but that's because we're doing
| AAA game development and still have some tooling that is
| Windows only at this stage.
|
| I find that with WSL2, I can do everything I need. A fair bit
| of my day is spent in emacs.
| yjftsjthsd-h wrote:
| This is probably just a personal thing, but that just
| defines which areas of our industry I probably don't want
| to work in. And WSL isn't helpful, because the goal for me
| isn't "run Linux", but "don't run Windows"; WSL won't save
| you from MS forcing updates down your throat, changing your
| browser to edge, spying on you, and sticking ads all over
| the system.
| dec0dedab0de wrote:
| _Really depends on the sort of "windows-only" jobs you're
| thinking of._
|
| I was hoping you were going to follow that up by saying
| you're working on a robot to clean vertical glass.
| tragictrash wrote:
| Underrated comment of the century
| ipaddr wrote:
| I've avoided jobs that are Mac only. Life is too short.
| Steltek wrote:
| Even if you're allowed to use Linux, you still end up
| getting a Mac to support your coworkers. I suppose I can be
| grateful that Docker Desktop is slowly fading away. Sadly
| Homebrew is too essential to die and the ${g} prefix
| remains for random commands.
| nlowell wrote:
| I like these and find them wise. Here are some additional fun
| questions:
|
| 1. How has the company changed in the past five years? How do you
| think it will change in the next five?
|
| 2. What was the biggest surprise about working here?
|
| I like these because they force the interviewer to activate their
| brain a bit and really highlight differences over time and
| differences from expectation. The surprise question especially
| helps you figure out unknown-unknowns as a candidate.
| elliottcarlson wrote:
| A question I like to ask, and have gotten some great answers to,
| is:
|
| > If there was anything you could change about <company>, whether
| or not it is in your control, what would it be?
|
| It has been effective in getting an idea of some of the problems
| that might exist organizationally - it might not be the worst
| things, but there's always something.
| denysvitali wrote:
| This is an awesome list! I always recommend every candidate I
| have interview with to ask as many questions as possible because
| with an interview both parties need to understand whether it
| makes sense to enter into an employment agreement or not.
|
| Thanks to my questions I doged some bullets when I was on the
| other end. Trying to understand if the company is a good fit for
| you is as important as it is for them to check if you're a good
| candidate.
| fartcannon wrote:
| 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
| MattGaiser wrote:
| Was the pay terrible too? As a Mac is a lot cheaper than a
| developer.
| fartcannon wrote:
| It was pretty good for the field, which is not software
| development.
| time_to_smile wrote:
| One general rule I've come up with is when your interviewer
| mentions values of the company, ask for examples.
|
| For example, it's common for a senior manager to say something
| like:
|
| "We value input from all of our employees, ideas can come from
| anyplace"
|
| For this just follow up with a sincere:
|
| "That's something I really value too, can you give me an example
| of when someone who was not in a leadership role proposed a
| solution that influenced a major decision?"
|
| I've found this surprisingly effective at finding out which
| values are real and which are bullshit. When it's real, you'll
| get answers like "certainly, why just last quarter Jen in
| customer support noticed..." and when it's BS you can immediately
| tell because the interviewer will freeze completely.
| acomjean wrote:
| Thats a good list. The questions are pretty specific. Interviews
| are 2 ways. As an interviewer realize the applicant can reject
| the job if they don't feel like its a good fit.
|
| I've asked a couple questions the past few interviews when
| looking for a job:
|
| - What do like about working here.
|
| - What could be better, or what are the pain points of working
| here.
|
| They're been pretty honest about those things.
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