3 ms·
Ask HN: What should I ask companies during interviews?
Here are the questions I currently ask when I am interviewing at companies. What should I ask?
1. Do you write unit tests? Do you use test-driven development?
2. What source control do you use?
3. What is the most pressing problem you are working on this week or today?
- ErrantX 17y agoOne of the best questions (he is one of our project leads now :D) asked by an interviewee of ours was: If I get a really great idea how quickly and by what path does that get to someone who can make a decision on it? And can I do the pitch myself?
- stonemetal 17y agoMostly you should ask about what is important to you, if they haven't covered it already. I would add their stance on side projects, and power of developers(to say hold up a release because of show stoppers) to the list you have.
- Tangurena 17y agoGenerally, you should ask questions to help YOU decide if the place is a good (or not) place to work at. Many people use the Joel Test as a guideline. As time goes by, you'll add your own questions to find things that went wrong/right at previous places. http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000043.html http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000043.html Since some questions aren't approprite, such as "do you have any psychopaths working here?" then you'll have to find some proxy questions that will help you decide if you're going to end up in a mental wood chipper at this place. http://www.amazon.com/Snakes-Suits-When-Psychopaths-Work/dp/0060837721 http://www.amazon.com/Snakes-Suits-When-Psychopaths-Work/dp/...
- asimjalis 17y agoI agree that the Joel Test is a guideline. Some questions on it might only work for everybody. Consider, "Do you have a spec?" Some of the neatest teams I have worked on used index cards instead of a static spec and it worked really well.
- asimjalis 17y agoIf a team does not have source control or an automated build system is that a deal breaker? Or is that an opportunity? I have noticed that the thing that makes some teams magical to work on is an undefinable quality that they have a kind of indescribable vibe.
- icey 17y agoI've done a lot of candidate interviews in the past, and your #3 question is killer - Almost nobody asks that question during interviews; the ones that have asked it have almost always gotten an offer. (In that they have almost always been the highest quality candidates anyways.) Beyond that, I like to ask about the longevity of the people that I'll be working with; i.e. "What is your turn-over rate like?" or "What is the average number of years people on this team have worked here?" I've found that turnover is a pretty decent indicator of employee happiness. The lower the better, of course.
- aaronbrethorst 17y ago"Are you happy?"