> Know how the company works before you take the plunge. Ask how much influence the manager has on your progress. Is this even knowable in most companies? I'm

> Know how the company works before you take the plunge. Ask how much influence the manager has on your progress. Is this even knowable in most companies? I'm quite sure that regardless of the official system, charismatic and ambitious managers who deliver results will have much more influence than the rest... and perfectly competent managers may have less influence than the system assumes just because they're not pushing. So while there's probably a lot of variance between companies, I am very skeptical you could get actionable info on that in the interview process.