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Questions to ask in a job interview that reveal company culture

201 points by ColinWright 6y ago

SMAAART 6y ago
Kind of interesting.
pwinnski 6y ago
This is a surprisingly practical list of good questions!
legerdemain 6y ago
This is well-intentioned, but kind of misses the point. The interview process at most companies of non-trivial size is designed to expose you and obfuscate the company. Interviewers get 50 minutes to grill you in front of a board. You get 5 minutes at the end, when all you really want is a pee break. Interviewers want you to describe past experiences and projects and incidents in utmost detail. In turn, they expect you to understand that discretion prevents them from sharing many specifics about their current projects, satisfaction with teammates, or thoughts about company direction. The entire process is about creating as big an information imbalance as possible to minimize the hiring risk to them and offload all the stress and frustration onto you.
- wombatmobile 6y ago
  Your comment emphasises what you call the first 50 minutes, which you characterise as a difficult, imbalanced ordeal. But the article is about what you call the 5 minutes at the end, and how to make it work in your favour. If you ignore that opportunity, your experience will only be worse.
- drewrv 6y ago
  If you get an offer, it’s reasonable to ask the hiring manager to meet for a coffee and discuss some of this stuff before accepting. They might try to sell you on the role a bit but you can get answers to these questions, and if they refuse to meet you that’s a signal in and of itself.
  - quicklime 6y ago
    This is a much better way to do it imo. The 5 minutes at the end is usually just a courtesy, and the interviewer isn't expecting to get grilled. Some (not all) hiring managers even treat this as an additional way to assess you, to see if you're the type of person who has done their research on the company and asks intelligent questions. Much better to set expectations upfront and ask for half hour chat with the hiring manager (or even other team members such a tech leads) separate to the interview.
    - thomaslangston 6y ago
      > The 5 minutes at the end is usually just a courtesy, and the interviewer isn't expecting to get grilled. This is not true in my experience. Questions are expected and insightful questions have been considered major marks in favor of candidates. A lack of questions is seen unfavorably.
- joecot 6y ago
  This is a lot of companies, but this is not every company. Yes, they probably can't get into specifics with avoid harming worker privacy, but if they have to spend their time obfuscating their culture, I probably don't want to work with them. At this point in my career, as I'm looking for senior roles in internal development, I'm interviewing the company as much as they're interviewing me. If I have to take over major development projects and architecting, I need to know what I'm walking into. If they aren't comfortable answering questions, I don't need to work there. Recently I interviewed for a senior position at a development company, and their CTO seemed miffed by fairly straight forward questions about their history and practices. I didn't get a third interview, but I also see they've now made a posting for that same job a 3rd time, so it doesn't seem like that strategy is working out for them. If you want senior developers to lead, you have to be honest with them about what they're leading.
- dehrmann 6y ago
  Not getting a chance to ask these questions is only the fault of the interviewee. There's a shortage of engineers, and finding good people is hard. If you don't have enough time to ask these questions in an interview loop, and the company tells you they'd like to make you an offer, if you follow up with "I'm excited about this opportunity, but I'd like to chat with the hiring manager or someone from the team for half an hour before we move forward," the recruiter/coordinator will almost certainly make it happen. I've had companies big and small suggest this after an interview went well so they can sell the team and company more.
  - jimbob45 6y ago
    >There's a shortage of engineers r/CSCareerQuestions would readily contest you on that assertion.
    - pja 6y ago
      Yeah: there’s a self-imposed shortage of people capable of passing the tech interview gauntlet would be the more accurate framing.
      - Guest42 6y ago
        The biggest challenge I see is the years of experience requirement on certain technologies that disregards ones that are very similar, particularly when that requirement isn't central to the problems being solved.
  - joecot 6y ago
    Given the ludicrousness of the tech interview process, if I have to wait for the offer to ask about company culture, that's too late. I've already put in a dozen hours on the rest of the steps, and passed countless gates, only to now find out I don't actually want to work there with the offer in hand? These things need to be cleared up in the phone screening and the first interview, before both sides have put a tremendous amount of time and effort in.
    - 6y ago
- adambatkin 6y ago
  Maybe that says something about the company culture. I interview a LOT of candidates, and I make sure that there is always time at the end of the interview for the candidate to ask questions (even if that means running over on my time). Regardless of how well/poorly the interview went, I try to answer honestly and openly, to the best of my abilities. It's not in my best interest (or the company I work for) to hire someone who won't be happy working at the company - they won't be performing their best, and they won't last long.
  - fangdejavu 6y ago
    Just out of curiosity, have your company hired someone that you interviewed, that ended up being a complete fiasco?
- Kranar 6y ago
  Every place I've interviewed at, and my current company as well, gives candidates all the time they want to learn about the company and usually the most competent hires are very selective, have multiple job offers, and use the information they gain about company culture to determine where they want to work. There is absolutely no benefit to a potential employee or the employer not to be up front about these things to good hires. A good hire can easily find another job in a matter of weeks and given the cost to the company to train new hires and get them familiar with the project, it would be a colossal waste to hide these things until after they are hired only to have them leave and have to repeat the entire hiring process all over again.
  - hitekker 6y ago
    The asymmetry of information the GP describes boils down to the asymmetry of power between employer and candidate. You aimed to resolve that uncomfortable tension by exaggerating the power of the candidate. In fantasy, a "good hire" is a rockstar; an amazing, fantastic individual who exists on the same plane as their paymaster. Of course, this one person and this group of people see eye-to-eye; they're equals! In reality, particularly in the job realities outside of software engineering, candidates and employers are not equals. The applicant is the supplicant; they compete to do one job for a low price and at low risk to the company. Rejection for that candidate is hardship: a month without a paycheck, a month of uncertainty. Whereas rejection for the average company is just another process, a few more days filling a recruitment pipeline. Such disparity sets the stage for the interview and beyond: the candidate refrains from poking into the gray areas of company for fear of losing the offer, and the company rigorously dissects the candidate for their own enjoyment. Maybe, once the candidate starts the job and sees the company's ugliness, they'll question their decision. But in most cases I've seen, the employee bows to the simple truth that they need their employers more than their employers need them.
    - MarblePillar 6y ago
      Would you say that candidate:employer::supplicant:benefactor::debtor:creditor?
    - 6y ago
- the_local_host 6y ago
  Even assuming ruthlessness, it's still in the company's interest to make sure a new hire isn't going to quit five minutes after they see what the company is really about. Hiring costs money.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- 0800LUCAS 6y ago
  You do realize you can just ask the recruiter to have meetings with the team members, right? I've done just that. Once you're done with the interviews and they come back with an offer, ask for 30min with your future manager and 30min with someone from the team. Then you can ask them as much as you want. It also shows the company you are seriously considering them.
- hintymad 6y ago
  I always asked for additional reverse-interviews after getting an offer from a company, and the company was always happy to chat with me.
- mbrodersen 6y ago
  Not my experience at all. Interviewers are often open and very frank about what is good/bad about the company. When they aren’t, it tells me that it is not a company for me.
- nirui 6y ago
  > offload all the stress and frustration onto you Man! I can feel you. However, after these years, I've learned how to be a polite dick: You don't have to wait until they allow you to, job interview is a negotiation, not an interrogation. If you feel abused during an interview, give them an one star on Glass Door and try another company. My strategy go like this: Whenever there is a chance to insert, I will start by asking which version control (or other quality management tool) they are using, followed by the detail of their CI/TDD/release/deploy system and code-reviewing tool, and then the code-reviewing and QA process, and then how they distribute responsibility and reward and so on. In the real world, it sound like: "Oh, You guys using Git? Nice. So, do the team also use CI, such as Jenkins? ..... How you test your code? ..... So what's the code review tool the team is using?". Always sound positive, casual, cute and all while professional, like you just met the child of your middle school crush taking by his dad to your clinic for a flu shot. Control your emotion like an airplane lieutenant telling others "everything will be fine" while the airplane is crashing into the ground at supersonic speed. If they can't produce an appropriate answer, maybe there isn't one[0]. I personally take it as a red flag, and will raise my caution when answering their question from the point and on. Of course, you have to ask the question to the right person. Negotiation itself is a skill. [0] You know, even if they don't have one, the correct and professional answer should be like "Oh, we don't have that right now. We would like to build one if it is necessary for us. [Do you like to share more information about it?|Do you like to build one with us?]"
bryanrasmussen 6y ago
well, these are the kinds of questions that I hate getting when I am interviewing, so I guess it seems fair to turn it about on the company. Maybe should also ask stuff like - what is your company's greatest weakness or maybe if I am interviewing at another company that is offering me the same salary and benefits as you for the exact same job but they are right across the street from where I live why should I take the job with you. I mean I think these questions are the kind that irritate me, so I think somehow they would irritate the person interviewing me if I asked them. I guess I might still ask them if I had already decided I didn't want to work there, but it also seems a bit rude.
- johnghanks 6y ago
  It's only rude because of the culture of interviewing we've all let happen. Why can an interviewer ask prying and rude questions designed to extract information about a potential candidate but it's not OK for the candidate to do the same to learn more about where they are going to work? If, as an interviewer, you'd be annoyed at these kinds of questions, you're probably part of the problem and why people hate interviewing in the first place.
shoulderfake 6y ago
This is so bad. The premise is "Avoid cliche questions by asking these cliche questions". There's nothing here that forces real answers out of the manager.
- dehrmann 6y ago
  Half of it is how they answer. If you say "tell me about someone you are proud of," you're looking for someone genuinely excited about someone they work with. I've had one-on-ones with managers where everything is fine, but I still say "do what you can to keep X because they're that good."
IG_Semmelweiss 6y ago
https://archive.is/Vq8T3 https://archive.is/Vq8T3 In case adblock got in the way
AnimalMuppet 6y ago
I stole this, I think from someone here: "What is your greatest problem inside the company? What is your greatest threat outside it? Which one keeps you awake at night?"
- Kranar 6y ago
  I wouldn't be able to answer this. This is too dramatic of a question and has some implicit assumptions that I don't think applies to many well established and organized companies. The best I could do, and I'm the owner of the company, is give a vague and overly general answer that doesn't really help anyone. 1. "My company isn't organized around a single dimension that can be used to measure one problem in absolute terms against all others. Every team is working on a series of problems on a month to month basis and in turn every individual is working on problems of their own." 2. "The biggest threat to our company is the one we don't know about." 3. "Nothing keeps me up at night, I sleep fairly well." Am I alone in this or are people responsible for hiring able to give an actual informative answer rather than some canned response?
  - fractionalhare 6y ago
    To be fair that third one is usually about your biggest worry in general. It doesn't need to literally keep you up at night - though it's a positive signal if you never lose sleep over your company.
  - void_mint 6y ago
    Respectfully, your answer seems like the exact type of sidestep/intentional opacity that causes this blog post/problem to exist in the first place. Much less, flip the table around. If you asked a question to a candidate and they responded as vaguely as they possibly could, would you hire them? Would you just let them give extremely vague answers without asking further clarifying questions? > 1. "My company isn't organized around a single dimension that can be used to measure one problem in absolute terms against all others. Every team is working on a series of problems on a month to month basis and in turn every individual is working on problems of their own." Are you saying your company internals have no shared issues? Each business unit is totally agnostic from all the others? There aren't any company-level concerns you have as a business owner? Some common examples include: Massive refactors/re-orgs, changing of company direction, growing pains, changes in sales strategy, offshore development problems, remote work problems > 2. "The biggest threat to our company is the one we don't know about." This again feels intentionally vague. It seems like one could've assumed "that you know about", as your answer is inherent to all companies. > 3. "Nothing keeps me up at night, I sleep fairly well." "What's your biggest weakness?" "My biggest weakness is that I have no weakness."
daniel_iversen 6y ago
These are great questions. And to the other poster, if the company only gives you 5 mins at the end to ask questions then that’s a red flag in itself. Also, if a candidate doesn’t have any questions for me it’s a major red flag and I don’t feel like they’re actually interested in the job.
hjorthjort 6y ago
In every single job interview I've had, I've asked some variation of this: "what's it like to work here" or "what's the culture like". Every time I've received honest, thoughtful responses. Every time I took the job or knew someone who did, the answer was verified. Maybe it's not the most fail-safe way to get a good answer, but the article make it sound like the recruiters/interviewers are adverserial and have rehearsed talking points about shilling culture. If you can't get an honest answer from a recruiter to genuine questions, that's a red flag.
- mattkevan 6y ago
  It’s a good question. Sometimes the straightforward ones are the best. Last time I was looking for a job I asked what the culture was like of one place and they said, ‘Like Lord of the Flies’. I politely declined the second interview.
- notsag-hn 6y ago
  The problem with asking about their culture is that they already know by heart what they should say about it. This is how they sell themselves as opposed to their real opinion about the culture which you will probably never know unless you ask it in an original way to avoid the response by the book
- m463 6y ago
  There's a problem with that question you have to keep in mind. You're asking a self-selecting population. You're mostly talking to people who are exactly where they want to be.
kowlo 6y ago
You're unlikely to reveal any truths w.r.t. company culture... you'll have more likely speaking to multiple employees directly and not at their office.
- fma 6y ago
  When I interview at I company I look to see who in my LinkedIn knows someone who worked there, or used to work there. If I feel comfortable, I will ask them if they can ask my culture fit questions to them. Also, this doesn't work for large companies where the culture depends a lot on the team itself...in that case the tips the article gives is prob as good as you can get.
jawns 6y ago
It's unfortunate that interviewers, by and large, wait for interviewees to ask these questions rather than volunteering them. It's normal to expect an engineering interviewee to present a resume and do a coding assessment for every job they apply to, yet it's abnormal for hiring companies to present a detailed self-assessment, even though the work involved is O(1), versus O(n) for some of the candidate tasks.
analyst74 6y ago
What I find hardest when gauging if I want to join a company, is whether I want to work for the manager. Managers are good sales people, and can be quite convincing in order for you to accept the offer. Trying to pierce that veil of salesmanship and personal charm to get to hard truths is really difficult. Questions I would like to get answers to, but unsure how to ask: - how much do engineers trust the manager and their colleagues? - how much support will I get for growing my career? especially around navigating internal politics. - do engineering leadership have the clout/backbone to ensure roadmap stability, or do they just let engineers work overtime to deal with bad planning?
- alisonkisk 6y ago
  It's easy for me. If the manager is a charming salesperson, they are a bad manager.
  - wincy 6y ago
    Happened to me. The manager seemed like a really nice guy. Turned out to be all smoke and mirrors he was a total slimeball.
- neilv 6y ago
  When it comes to hiring, maybe roughly half the managers (and founders) I've talked with lean too much on persuasion, and not enough on earned trust, IMHO. I don't know why attempts at persuasion are so common when trying to hiring people for engineering roles. Maybe it's habit? Maybe they don't realize that people can sometimes tell, and that it has a counter-persuasive effect with some of those people? Maybe it wins more than it loses? In any case, I think too much emphasis on persuasion generally erodes trust, and sets a suboptimal precedent and dynamic. I'd want my engineering people to be conscientious and focused on shared goals -- not to tell me what I want to hear, nor to try to manipulate me -- so why would I set an example otherwise.
74d-fe6-2c6 6y ago
For German companies the following questions come to mind: - How are overhours compensated? - After how many sick days do I have to provide a doctor's certificate? Both are tough to ask - but they reveal a lot about the culture. After glossing over the thread I must say that almost all suggested questions here are basically just revealing a high level of naivity on the part of the applicant ...
- angrais 6y ago
  Those questions reveal a lot about the candidates intention too, and they're often questions that can be looked up within the contract or online. I would not ever recommend asking such questions directly.
  - 74d-fe6-2c6 6y ago
    > Those questions reveal a lot about the candidates intention too, But in a different way. I want to be rejected by a company that doesn't acknowledge overhours f.x. Seems like you're the type of applicnt who is so obsessed with being liked that you will bend over backwards for getting an offer by a company you actually do not want to work at and then you regret it a few months later and ask on HN what you have to ask next time to avoid that situation ...
orf 6y ago
I ask "what's the worst thing about working for $COMPANY", and if they answer with a variation of "the worst thing is how awesome it is" and there is time I push for something deeper. You get some quite interesting answers.
- system16 6y ago
  I always make it a point to ask this as well. I precede it with the softball "what's the best thing about working here" which usually makes them feel compelled to answer the "worst thing" a little more honestly. As you said, it can often reveal a lot.
- kmano8 6y ago
  I've been asking this positive/negative in the form of "What keeps you at $COMPANY?" and "What did you find out isn't so great about $COMPANY after 3 months you wish you would've known before you started?"
  - Brian_K_White 6y ago
    I am imagining my response to that which is the inscrutable stare until the other person realizes they said something that is beneath acknowledging and flops their way out of it however they will. But these days with the meeting taking place over zoom and residential networks, just going still and staring is not certain to carry the same meaning!
Agingcoder 6y ago
I find it interesting that the candidate is expected to interview the company as much as the company is interviewing the applicant. It implies a significant degree of balance in power between employers and potential employees (ie, there's a shortage of software engineers in general, not only the wizard like ones, so there's pressure on the hiring side) which I'm not sure exists in many industries ( unless they're looking for specifically strong people who are usually in demand and not available ). In other words, for some jobs/in some other industries you probably just can't ask these questions without either meaning 'I'm going to be annoying to manage' or 'I don't understand that I should be grateful to just have a job'. Does it make sense, or am I completely wrong?
- void_mint 6y ago
  You're totally right. For software it's kind of a totally different ballgame, where the demand is way higher than the supply, so companies are willing to do things they normally wouldn't. > 'I'm going to be annoying to manage' or 'I don't understand that I should be grateful to just have a job'. In this market, lots of devs feel empowered to not just be grateful they have a job, but to find employers they actively want to work for. If an employer got frustrated that you were asking questions, you'd just bail on them.
- analyst74 6y ago
  There is always a balance of power between employers and potential employees who have leverage, regardless of industry. If you have the skill to deliver a lot of value, then your service will be in demand, which gives you leverage. Good construction workers and waitresses will get a lot of leeway from their employer once they've demonstrated their value.
- nsgi 6y ago
  I don't think it necessarily implies a balance of power. Even without that, it makes sense for a company to allow the candidate to ask lots of questions to make sure it would be the right job for them and they're likely to be happy and stick around
- Brian_K_White 6y ago
deleted 6y ago
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askonomm 6y ago
I think it might make sense to also ask "how long an average developer stays at the company?". This reveals quite a bit; most developers usually leave because there's a better offer on the table, so if developers don't stay long it usually indicates that the company doesn't want to pay their people more. Add to that "How much time do you allow for knowledge work without interruptions per day?", and I might just have all I'd need to figure out if I'd actually like to work at a place.
JJMcJ 6y ago
And go with your gut if you think they are stretching the truth to seem good.
TeeMassive 6y ago
The questions aren't bad per se, but they lack substance. Here's my go-to list after a series of rookie mistakes: 1) What's your version control system? (if not git or hg just don't bother, they're a lost cause) 2) What's your testing strategy before releasing to the trunk and/or the client? 3) What's your continuous integration system looks like? (Again flee if you hear "huhhh") 4) What's your typical release cycle time? (lower is better) 5) What kind of Agile method do you follow? Corollary to that, ask them "at which frequency your teams meet directly with clients?" (The second question is to see if they're faking agile) 6) Can you give examples of concrete objectives your typical employee has to accomplish for career advancement?
- em-bee 6y ago
  questions 1-4 are interesting only if that really matters to you. but why should it? these things depend on the business and the nature of the job, and just because they use CVS or something worse, doesn't mean that working there has to be bad. hmm, i'd say these questions matter more in large companies than in small ones. for question 5 i'd focus on the specifics: do you have daily standups? how frequently does the team meet? questions about meeting culture...
  - TeeMassive 6y ago
    > questions 1-4 are interesting only if that really matters to you. but why should it? >these things depend on the business and the nature of the job, and just because they use CVS or something worse, doesn't mean that working there has to be bad. A fair point. The problem is not really in the technology or methods of development in themselves but the reason why they have them. In my own experience it's because they only focus on product delivery and extinguishing fires left and right, not too dissimilar to the Phoenix Project. For example right now I work for a company that still uses TFS with an in house build system, it's fine because I as hired for my experience in devops and to push our move to git and it's more of an opportunity than an obstacle and they have made that clear at the beginning that they wanted to move forward. But had they lied by omission to me like some other companies did I wouldn't be working there. > or question 5 i'd focus on the specifics: do you have daily standups? how frequently does the team meet? questions about meeting culture... Standups are a meme at this point. Most companies implement Agile as "Water Scrum Fall" as a DSM in the morning. Not that it's bad per se, since most companies I've worked for were designing their hardware, but those are superficial and doesn't really answer the important important that Agile really shines for: small releases, frequent feedback from the users, adapt the plan often.
stakkur 6y ago
One question I always ask in an interview, often of multiple people: "If you could change one thing about this company, what would it be?" I always find the answers telling--not just for what it reveals about the company, but the person. I've heard responses ranging from thoughtful to downright hostile.
- winrid 6y ago
  I always ask this as well - it also gives you insight into what the people you are going to work with care about.
kingsuper20 6y ago
Who are the last 5 people to have left this group and why did they leave? Honestly, I never much cared about company 'culture'. They'll always fib anyhow. If the work was sufficiently sexy, take the job, give them six months to see if it sucks in some other way. Usually you can clear a decent campsite for yourself. I've only had to bail on three jobs after giving them a shot for half a year.
- summm 6y ago
  You'll just get BS answers for that. Most reasons for leaves are even internally announced to the colleagues with a fake reason to save face for both the company and the employee. Mostly "moving to another city because of family" "health", "want to see something else". Never "poor performance" or "shitty tasks" or "bad relationship to boss"
bmurray7jhu 6y ago
Is this a new position or a backfill for an employee that left? If the former, why is the company creating a new position? If the later, why did she leave?
Tade0 6y ago
I don't think I would get a straight answer asking any of those questions. I rather ask indirect ones which tell me how it is, e.g. instead of "Do you fully disconnect during holidays and vacations?" I ask: -How many people are there in the team? -In how many projects is a developer at once? Small teams with resources stretched out to multiple projects mean that time off is essentially non-existent.
MathematicalArt 6y ago
In “Culture’s Consequences”, Hofstede mentions five key aspects of culture based on extensive research. 1. Individualism (IDV) 2. Masculinity (MAS) 3. Power Distance (PDI) 4. Uncertainty Avoidance (UAI) 5. Long-Term Orientation (LTO) Furthermore, there is a distinction made between values and practices. Practices are comprised of symbols, heroes, and rituals. Whereas values refer to the meaning to people of their practices. People can thus have the same practices (watching same TV shows, dressing similarly, leisure activities) while have drastically different values. Values and practices together define key aspects of the organization. Values are more important as you move towards national identities whereas practices tend to dominate at the organizational level. Furthermore, values tend to be instilled earlier in life through family and community while practices are learned later in life, for instance, once one enters the workforce itself. Some factors of practice include professionalism, distance from management, trust in colleagues, orderliness, hostility, and integration. Likewise, some factors in values include personal need for achievement, need for supportive environment, machismo, workaholism, alienation, and authoritarianism. The main thesis of this comment is that if one understands the factors that go into culture, one can be better equipped to actually probe the organization thoughtfully and develop their own questions in order to do so.
celticninja 6y ago
This may be relevant in a small section of workers. The number 1 answer for most people when asked "why do you want to work for this company/ get this position/job?" Is in most cases, because you pay me. If the culture sucks I will find out in time and decide if I can bear it or not. You are not going to get a real feel for it in an interview situation
29athrowaway 6y ago
My questions are directed towards screening out tech debt mills. You do not want to work at a place where you are consistently told to do the wrong thing.
conductr 6y ago
I actually lean on my network of recruiters a few I call friends. They see all the churn and hear the unfiltered stories. While they’re not on the inside, I feel like they have the best view of what the inside is like. I don’t know if this works for software. But in corporate finance it’s a pretty good way. Recruiting is largely outsourced (so recruiters know everything). Also, it’s extremely possible that the company as a whole has a great culture but the finance team is a shit show. And really, that’s my top concern.

201 points by ColinWright 6y ago

SMAAART 6y ago

Kind of interesting.

pwinnski 6y ago

This is a surprisingly practical list of good questions!

legerdemain 6y ago

This is well-intentioned, but kind of misses the point. The interview process at most companies of non-trivial size is designed to expose you and obfuscate the company. Interviewers get 50 minutes to grill you in front of a board. You get 5 minutes at the end, when all you really want is a pee break. Interviewers want you to describe past experiences and projects and incidents in utmost detail. In turn, they expect you to understand that discretion prevents them from sharing many specifics about their current projects, satisfaction with teammates, or thoughts about company direction. The entire process is about creating as big an information imbalance as possible to minimize the hiring risk to them and offload all the stress and frustration onto you.

wombatmobile 6y ago
Your comment emphasises what you call the first 50 minutes, which you characterise as a difficult, imbalanced ordeal. But the article is about what you call the 5 minutes at the end, and how to make it work in your favour. If you ignore that opportunity, your experience will only be worse.
drewrv 6y ago
If you get an offer, it’s reasonable to ask the hiring manager to meet for a coffee and discuss some of this stuff before accepting. They might try to sell you on the role a bit but you can get answers to these questions, and if they refuse to meet you that’s a signal in and of itself.
- quicklime 6y ago
  This is a much better way to do it imo. The 5 minutes at the end is usually just a courtesy, and the interviewer isn't expecting to get grilled. Some (not all) hiring managers even treat this as an additional way to assess you, to see if you're the type of person who has done their research on the company and asks intelligent questions. Much better to set expectations upfront and ask for half hour chat with the hiring manager (or even other team members such a tech leads) separate to the interview.
  - thomaslangston 6y ago
    > The 5 minutes at the end is usually just a courtesy, and the interviewer isn't expecting to get grilled. This is not true in my experience. Questions are expected and insightful questions have been considered major marks in favor of candidates. A lack of questions is seen unfavorably.
joecot 6y ago
This is a lot of companies, but this is not every company. Yes, they probably can't get into specifics with avoid harming worker privacy, but if they have to spend their time obfuscating their culture, I probably don't want to work with them. At this point in my career, as I'm looking for senior roles in internal development, I'm interviewing the company as much as they're interviewing me. If I have to take over major development projects and architecting, I need to know what I'm walking into. If they aren't comfortable answering questions, I don't need to work there. Recently I interviewed for a senior position at a development company, and their CTO seemed miffed by fairly straight forward questions about their history and practices. I didn't get a third interview, but I also see they've now made a posting for that same job a 3rd time, so it doesn't seem like that strategy is working out for them. If you want senior developers to lead, you have to be honest with them about what they're leading.
dehrmann 6y ago
Not getting a chance to ask these questions is only the fault of the interviewee. There's a shortage of engineers, and finding good people is hard. If you don't have enough time to ask these questions in an interview loop, and the company tells you they'd like to make you an offer, if you follow up with "I'm excited about this opportunity, but I'd like to chat with the hiring manager or someone from the team for half an hour before we move forward," the recruiter/coordinator will almost certainly make it happen. I've had companies big and small suggest this after an interview went well so they can sell the team and company more.
- jimbob45 6y ago
  >There's a shortage of engineers r/CSCareerQuestions would readily contest you on that assertion.
  - pja 6y ago
    Yeah: there’s a self-imposed shortage of people capable of passing the tech interview gauntlet would be the more accurate framing.
    - Guest42 6y ago
      The biggest challenge I see is the years of experience requirement on certain technologies that disregards ones that are very similar, particularly when that requirement isn't central to the problems being solved.
- joecot 6y ago
  Given the ludicrousness of the tech interview process, if I have to wait for the offer to ask about company culture, that's too late. I've already put in a dozen hours on the rest of the steps, and passed countless gates, only to now find out I don't actually want to work there with the offer in hand? These things need to be cleared up in the phone screening and the first interview, before both sides have put a tremendous amount of time and effort in.
  - 6y ago
adambatkin 6y ago
Maybe that says something about the company culture. I interview a LOT of candidates, and I make sure that there is always time at the end of the interview for the candidate to ask questions (even if that means running over on my time). Regardless of how well/poorly the interview went, I try to answer honestly and openly, to the best of my abilities. It's not in my best interest (or the company I work for) to hire someone who won't be happy working at the company - they won't be performing their best, and they won't last long.
- fangdejavu 6y ago
  Just out of curiosity, have your company hired someone that you interviewed, that ended up being a complete fiasco?
Kranar 6y ago
Every place I've interviewed at, and my current company as well, gives candidates all the time they want to learn about the company and usually the most competent hires are very selective, have multiple job offers, and use the information they gain about company culture to determine where they want to work. There is absolutely no benefit to a potential employee or the employer not to be up front about these things to good hires. A good hire can easily find another job in a matter of weeks and given the cost to the company to train new hires and get them familiar with the project, it would be a colossal waste to hide these things until after they are hired only to have them leave and have to repeat the entire hiring process all over again.
- hitekker 6y ago
  The asymmetry of information the GP describes boils down to the asymmetry of power between employer and candidate. You aimed to resolve that uncomfortable tension by exaggerating the power of the candidate. In fantasy, a "good hire" is a rockstar; an amazing, fantastic individual who exists on the same plane as their paymaster. Of course, this one person and this group of people see eye-to-eye; they're equals! In reality, particularly in the job realities outside of software engineering, candidates and employers are not equals. The applicant is the supplicant; they compete to do one job for a low price and at low risk to the company. Rejection for that candidate is hardship: a month without a paycheck, a month of uncertainty. Whereas rejection for the average company is just another process, a few more days filling a recruitment pipeline. Such disparity sets the stage for the interview and beyond: the candidate refrains from poking into the gray areas of company for fear of losing the offer, and the company rigorously dissects the candidate for their own enjoyment. Maybe, once the candidate starts the job and sees the company's ugliness, they'll question their decision. But in most cases I've seen, the employee bows to the simple truth that they need their employers more than their employers need them.
  - MarblePillar 6y ago
    Would you say that candidate:employer::supplicant:benefactor::debtor:creditor?
  - 6y ago
the_local_host 6y ago
Even assuming ruthlessness, it's still in the company's interest to make sure a new hire isn't going to quit five minutes after they see what the company is really about. Hiring costs money.
deleted 6y ago
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0800LUCAS 6y ago
You do realize you can just ask the recruiter to have meetings with the team members, right? I've done just that. Once you're done with the interviews and they come back with an offer, ask for 30min with your future manager and 30min with someone from the team. Then you can ask them as much as you want. It also shows the company you are seriously considering them.
hintymad 6y ago
I always asked for additional reverse-interviews after getting an offer from a company, and the company was always happy to chat with me.
mbrodersen 6y ago
Not my experience at all. Interviewers are often open and very frank about what is good/bad about the company. When they aren’t, it tells me that it is not a company for me.
nirui 6y ago
> offload all the stress and frustration onto you Man! I can feel you. However, after these years, I've learned how to be a polite dick: You don't have to wait until they allow you to, job interview is a negotiation, not an interrogation. If you feel abused during an interview, give them an one star on Glass Door and try another company. My strategy go like this: Whenever there is a chance to insert, I will start by asking which version control (or other quality management tool) they are using, followed by the detail of their CI/TDD/release/deploy system and code-reviewing tool, and then the code-reviewing and QA process, and then how they distribute responsibility and reward and so on. In the real world, it sound like: "Oh, You guys using Git? Nice. So, do the team also use CI, such as Jenkins? ..... How you test your code? ..... So what's the code review tool the team is using?". Always sound positive, casual, cute and all while professional, like you just met the child of your middle school crush taking by his dad to your clinic for a flu shot. Control your emotion like an airplane lieutenant telling others "everything will be fine" while the airplane is crashing into the ground at supersonic speed. If they can't produce an appropriate answer, maybe there isn't one[0]. I personally take it as a red flag, and will raise my caution when answering their question from the point and on. Of course, you have to ask the question to the right person. Negotiation itself is a skill. [0] You know, even if they don't have one, the correct and professional answer should be like "Oh, we don't have that right now. We would like to build one if it is necessary for us. [Do you like to share more information about it?|Do you like to build one with us?]"

bryanrasmussen 6y ago

well, these are the kinds of questions that I hate getting when I am interviewing, so I guess it seems fair to turn it about on the company. Maybe should also ask stuff like - what is your company's greatest weakness or maybe if I am interviewing at another company that is offering me the same salary and benefits as you for the exact same job but they are right across the street from where I live why should I take the job with you. I mean I think these questions are the kind that irritate me, so I think somehow they would irritate the person interviewing me if I asked them. I guess I might still ask them if I had already decided I didn't want to work there, but it also seems a bit rude.

johnghanks 6y ago
It's only rude because of the culture of interviewing we've all let happen. Why can an interviewer ask prying and rude questions designed to extract information about a potential candidate but it's not OK for the candidate to do the same to learn more about where they are going to work? If, as an interviewer, you'd be annoyed at these kinds of questions, you're probably part of the problem and why people hate interviewing in the first place.

shoulderfake 6y ago

This is so bad. The premise is "Avoid cliche questions by asking these cliche questions". There's nothing here that forces real answers out of the manager.

dehrmann 6y ago
Half of it is how they answer. If you say "tell me about someone you are proud of," you're looking for someone genuinely excited about someone they work with. I've had one-on-ones with managers where everything is fine, but I still say "do what you can to keep X because they're that good."

IG_Semmelweiss 6y ago

https://archive.is/Vq8T3 https://archive.is/Vq8T3 In case adblock got in the way

AnimalMuppet 6y ago

I stole this, I think from someone here: "What is your greatest problem inside the company? What is your greatest threat outside it? Which one keeps you awake at night?"

Kranar 6y ago
I wouldn't be able to answer this. This is too dramatic of a question and has some implicit assumptions that I don't think applies to many well established and organized companies. The best I could do, and I'm the owner of the company, is give a vague and overly general answer that doesn't really help anyone. 1. "My company isn't organized around a single dimension that can be used to measure one problem in absolute terms against all others. Every team is working on a series of problems on a month to month basis and in turn every individual is working on problems of their own." 2. "The biggest threat to our company is the one we don't know about." 3. "Nothing keeps me up at night, I sleep fairly well." Am I alone in this or are people responsible for hiring able to give an actual informative answer rather than some canned response?
- fractionalhare 6y ago
  To be fair that third one is usually about your biggest worry in general. It doesn't need to literally keep you up at night - though it's a positive signal if you never lose sleep over your company.
- void_mint 6y ago
  Respectfully, your answer seems like the exact type of sidestep/intentional opacity that causes this blog post/problem to exist in the first place. Much less, flip the table around. If you asked a question to a candidate and they responded as vaguely as they possibly could, would you hire them? Would you just let them give extremely vague answers without asking further clarifying questions? > 1. "My company isn't organized around a single dimension that can be used to measure one problem in absolute terms against all others. Every team is working on a series of problems on a month to month basis and in turn every individual is working on problems of their own." Are you saying your company internals have no shared issues? Each business unit is totally agnostic from all the others? There aren't any company-level concerns you have as a business owner? Some common examples include: Massive refactors/re-orgs, changing of company direction, growing pains, changes in sales strategy, offshore development problems, remote work problems > 2. "The biggest threat to our company is the one we don't know about." This again feels intentionally vague. It seems like one could've assumed "that you know about", as your answer is inherent to all companies. > 3. "Nothing keeps me up at night, I sleep fairly well." "What's your biggest weakness?" "My biggest weakness is that I have no weakness."

daniel_iversen 6y ago

These are great questions. And to the other poster, if the company only gives you 5 mins at the end to ask questions then that’s a red flag in itself. Also, if a candidate doesn’t have any questions for me it’s a major red flag and I don’t feel like they’re actually interested in the job.

hjorthjort 6y ago

In every single job interview I've had, I've asked some variation of this: "what's it like to work here" or "what's the culture like". Every time I've received honest, thoughtful responses. Every time I took the job or knew someone who did, the answer was verified. Maybe it's not the most fail-safe way to get a good answer, but the article make it sound like the recruiters/interviewers are adverserial and have rehearsed talking points about shilling culture. If you can't get an honest answer from a recruiter to genuine questions, that's a red flag.

mattkevan 6y ago
It’s a good question. Sometimes the straightforward ones are the best. Last time I was looking for a job I asked what the culture was like of one place and they said, ‘Like Lord of the Flies’. I politely declined the second interview.
notsag-hn 6y ago
The problem with asking about their culture is that they already know by heart what they should say about it. This is how they sell themselves as opposed to their real opinion about the culture which you will probably never know unless you ask it in an original way to avoid the response by the book
m463 6y ago
There's a problem with that question you have to keep in mind. You're asking a self-selecting population. You're mostly talking to people who are exactly where they want to be.

kowlo 6y ago

You're unlikely to reveal any truths w.r.t. company culture... you'll have more likely speaking to multiple employees directly and not at their office.

fma 6y ago
When I interview at I company I look to see who in my LinkedIn knows someone who worked there, or used to work there. If I feel comfortable, I will ask them if they can ask my culture fit questions to them. Also, this doesn't work for large companies where the culture depends a lot on the team itself...in that case the tips the article gives is prob as good as you can get.

jawns 6y ago

It's unfortunate that interviewers, by and large, wait for interviewees to ask these questions rather than volunteering them. It's normal to expect an engineering interviewee to present a resume and do a coding assessment for every job they apply to, yet it's abnormal for hiring companies to present a detailed self-assessment, even though the work involved is O(1), versus O(n) for some of the candidate tasks.

analyst74 6y ago

What I find hardest when gauging if I want to join a company, is whether I want to work for the manager. Managers are good sales people, and can be quite convincing in order for you to accept the offer. Trying to pierce that veil of salesmanship and personal charm to get to hard truths is really difficult. Questions I would like to get answers to, but unsure how to ask: - how much do engineers trust the manager and their colleagues? - how much support will I get for growing my career? especially around navigating internal politics. - do engineering leadership have the clout/backbone to ensure roadmap stability, or do they just let engineers work overtime to deal with bad planning?

alisonkisk 6y ago
It's easy for me. If the manager is a charming salesperson, they are a bad manager.
- wincy 6y ago
  Happened to me. The manager seemed like a really nice guy. Turned out to be all smoke and mirrors he was a total slimeball.
neilv 6y ago
When it comes to hiring, maybe roughly half the managers (and founders) I've talked with lean too much on persuasion, and not enough on earned trust, IMHO. I don't know why attempts at persuasion are so common when trying to hiring people for engineering roles. Maybe it's habit? Maybe they don't realize that people can sometimes tell, and that it has a counter-persuasive effect with some of those people? Maybe it wins more than it loses? In any case, I think too much emphasis on persuasion generally erodes trust, and sets a suboptimal precedent and dynamic. I'd want my engineering people to be conscientious and focused on shared goals -- not to tell me what I want to hear, nor to try to manipulate me -- so why would I set an example otherwise.

74d-fe6-2c6 6y ago

For German companies the following questions come to mind: - How are overhours compensated? - After how many sick days do I have to provide a doctor's certificate? Both are tough to ask - but they reveal a lot about the culture. After glossing over the thread I must say that almost all suggested questions here are basically just revealing a high level of naivity on the part of the applicant ...

angrais 6y ago
Those questions reveal a lot about the candidates intention too, and they're often questions that can be looked up within the contract or online. I would not ever recommend asking such questions directly.
- 74d-fe6-2c6 6y ago
  > Those questions reveal a lot about the candidates intention too, But in a different way. I want to be rejected by a company that doesn't acknowledge overhours f.x. Seems like you're the type of applicnt who is so obsessed with being liked that you will bend over backwards for getting an offer by a company you actually do not want to work at and then you regret it a few months later and ask on HN what you have to ask next time to avoid that situation ...

orf 6y ago

I ask "what's the worst thing about working for $COMPANY", and if they answer with a variation of "the worst thing is how awesome it is" and there is time I push for something deeper. You get some quite interesting answers.

system16 6y ago
I always make it a point to ask this as well. I precede it with the softball "what's the best thing about working here" which usually makes them feel compelled to answer the "worst thing" a little more honestly. As you said, it can often reveal a lot.
kmano8 6y ago
I've been asking this positive/negative in the form of "What keeps you at $COMPANY?" and "What did you find out isn't so great about $COMPANY after 3 months you wish you would've known before you started?"
- Brian_K_White 6y ago
  I am imagining my response to that which is the inscrutable stare until the other person realizes they said something that is beneath acknowledging and flops their way out of it however they will. But these days with the meeting taking place over zoom and residential networks, just going still and staring is not certain to carry the same meaning!

Agingcoder 6y ago

I find it interesting that the candidate is expected to interview the company as much as the company is interviewing the applicant. It implies a significant degree of balance in power between employers and potential employees (ie, there's a shortage of software engineers in general, not only the wizard like ones, so there's pressure on the hiring side) which I'm not sure exists in many industries ( unless they're looking for specifically strong people who are usually in demand and not available ). In other words, for some jobs/in some other industries you probably just can't ask these questions without either meaning 'I'm going to be annoying to manage' or 'I don't understand that I should be grateful to just have a job'. Does it make sense, or am I completely wrong?

void_mint 6y ago
You're totally right. For software it's kind of a totally different ballgame, where the demand is way higher than the supply, so companies are willing to do things they normally wouldn't. > 'I'm going to be annoying to manage' or 'I don't understand that I should be grateful to just have a job'. In this market, lots of devs feel empowered to not just be grateful they have a job, but to find employers they actively want to work for. If an employer got frustrated that you were asking questions, you'd just bail on them.
analyst74 6y ago
There is always a balance of power between employers and potential employees who have leverage, regardless of industry. If you have the skill to deliver a lot of value, then your service will be in demand, which gives you leverage. Good construction workers and waitresses will get a lot of leeway from their employer once they've demonstrated their value.
nsgi 6y ago
I don't think it necessarily implies a balance of power. Even without that, it makes sense for a company to allow the candidate to ask lots of questions to make sure it would be the right job for them and they're likely to be happy and stick around
Brian_K_White 6y ago

deleted 6y ago

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askonomm 6y ago

I think it might make sense to also ask "how long an average developer stays at the company?". This reveals quite a bit; most developers usually leave because there's a better offer on the table, so if developers don't stay long it usually indicates that the company doesn't want to pay their people more. Add to that "How much time do you allow for knowledge work without interruptions per day?", and I might just have all I'd need to figure out if I'd actually like to work at a place.

JJMcJ 6y ago

And go with your gut if you think they are stretching the truth to seem good.

TeeMassive 6y ago

The questions aren't bad per se, but they lack substance. Here's my go-to list after a series of rookie mistakes: 1) What's your version control system? (if not git or hg just don't bother, they're a lost cause) 2) What's your testing strategy before releasing to the trunk and/or the client? 3) What's your continuous integration system looks like? (Again flee if you hear "huhhh") 4) What's your typical release cycle time? (lower is better) 5) What kind of Agile method do you follow? Corollary to that, ask them "at which frequency your teams meet directly with clients?" (The second question is to see if they're faking agile) 6) Can you give examples of concrete objectives your typical employee has to accomplish for career advancement?

em-bee 6y ago
questions 1-4 are interesting only if that really matters to you. but why should it? these things depend on the business and the nature of the job, and just because they use CVS or something worse, doesn't mean that working there has to be bad. hmm, i'd say these questions matter more in large companies than in small ones. for question 5 i'd focus on the specifics: do you have daily standups? how frequently does the team meet? questions about meeting culture...
- TeeMassive 6y ago
  > questions 1-4 are interesting only if that really matters to you. but why should it? >these things depend on the business and the nature of the job, and just because they use CVS or something worse, doesn't mean that working there has to be bad. A fair point. The problem is not really in the technology or methods of development in themselves but the reason why they have them. In my own experience it's because they only focus on product delivery and extinguishing fires left and right, not too dissimilar to the Phoenix Project. For example right now I work for a company that still uses TFS with an in house build system, it's fine because I as hired for my experience in devops and to push our move to git and it's more of an opportunity than an obstacle and they have made that clear at the beginning that they wanted to move forward. But had they lied by omission to me like some other companies did I wouldn't be working there. > or question 5 i'd focus on the specifics: do you have daily standups? how frequently does the team meet? questions about meeting culture... Standups are a meme at this point. Most companies implement Agile as "Water Scrum Fall" as a DSM in the morning. Not that it's bad per se, since most companies I've worked for were designing their hardware, but those are superficial and doesn't really answer the important important that Agile really shines for: small releases, frequent feedback from the users, adapt the plan often.

stakkur 6y ago

One question I always ask in an interview, often of multiple people: "If you could change one thing about this company, what would it be?" I always find the answers telling--not just for what it reveals about the company, but the person. I've heard responses ranging from thoughtful to downright hostile.

winrid 6y ago
I always ask this as well - it also gives you insight into what the people you are going to work with care about.

kingsuper20 6y ago

Who are the last 5 people to have left this group and why did they leave? Honestly, I never much cared about company 'culture'. They'll always fib anyhow. If the work was sufficiently sexy, take the job, give them six months to see if it sucks in some other way. Usually you can clear a decent campsite for yourself. I've only had to bail on three jobs after giving them a shot for half a year.

summm 6y ago
You'll just get BS answers for that. Most reasons for leaves are even internally announced to the colleagues with a fake reason to save face for both the company and the employee. Mostly "moving to another city because of family" "health", "want to see something else". Never "poor performance" or "shitty tasks" or "bad relationship to boss"

bmurray7jhu 6y ago

Is this a new position or a backfill for an employee that left? If the former, why is the company creating a new position? If the later, why did she leave?

Tade0 6y ago

I don't think I would get a straight answer asking any of those questions. I rather ask indirect ones which tell me how it is, e.g. instead of "Do you fully disconnect during holidays and vacations?" I ask: -How many people are there in the team? -In how many projects is a developer at once? Small teams with resources stretched out to multiple projects mean that time off is essentially non-existent.

MathematicalArt 6y ago

In “Culture’s Consequences”, Hofstede mentions five key aspects of culture based on extensive research. 1. Individualism (IDV) 2. Masculinity (MAS) 3. Power Distance (PDI) 4. Uncertainty Avoidance (UAI) 5. Long-Term Orientation (LTO) Furthermore, there is a distinction made between values and practices. Practices are comprised of symbols, heroes, and rituals. Whereas values refer to the meaning to people of their practices. People can thus have the same practices (watching same TV shows, dressing similarly, leisure activities) while have drastically different values. Values and practices together define key aspects of the organization. Values are more important as you move towards national identities whereas practices tend to dominate at the organizational level. Furthermore, values tend to be instilled earlier in life through family and community while practices are learned later in life, for instance, once one enters the workforce itself. Some factors of practice include professionalism, distance from management, trust in colleagues, orderliness, hostility, and integration. Likewise, some factors in values include personal need for achievement, need for supportive environment, machismo, workaholism, alienation, and authoritarianism. The main thesis of this comment is that if one understands the factors that go into culture, one can be better equipped to actually probe the organization thoughtfully and develop their own questions in order to do so.

celticninja 6y ago

This may be relevant in a small section of workers. The number 1 answer for most people when asked "why do you want to work for this company/ get this position/job?" Is in most cases, because you pay me. If the culture sucks I will find out in time and decide if I can bear it or not. You are not going to get a real feel for it in an interview situation

29athrowaway 6y ago

My questions are directed towards screening out tech debt mills. You do not want to work at a place where you are consistently told to do the wrong thing.

conductr 6y ago

I actually lean on my network of recruiters a few I call friends. They see all the churn and hear the unfiltered stories. While they’re not on the inside, I feel like they have the best view of what the inside is like. I don’t know if this works for software. But in corporate finance it’s a pretty good way. Recruiting is largely outsourced (so recruiters know everything). Also, it’s extremely possible that the company as a whole has a great culture but the finance team is a shit show. And really, that’s my top concern.