Slashdot Mirror
Interviewing Your Future Boss?
crimethinker asks: "I am an embedded systems engineer for a small division of a large company. Up to now, we have managed to get by with little more than a 'team lead' position, but as our division grows, they are looking to hire a full-on engineering manager. I was one of the candidates, with my current boss's favorable recommendation, but I withdrew my resume when they told me the job was all paper and schedules; I'd never touch code or hardware again. Now the VP has a 'short list' of candidates, and has invited me to be one of the interviewers. Yes, you read that correctly: I will be interviewing the person who will become my boss. So, I put the question to you, Slashdot: what questions should I ask my prospective boss?"
Look around. The company let the last secretary for your engineering group retire 5 years ago. You have been doing all the ordering and tracking. A manager of a development group attends all the planning meetings but he or she must also be the clerk and secretary for the group. You do not need to know how the company has changed the PO approval process. Leave that up to the manager.
This is not a technical interview if it is a VP job - make sure they know they business.
I would definately want to know what is the boss's stile of management.
...
... a hands-on type of coach who wants to know day-to-day what you are working on and when are you going to have it completed.
... the hands-off type who enables you to guide your projects and assign completion dates, etc. while always being available for manegement-specific questions.
... a good team-lead?
... going to take the team out for lunch once or twice a year to bond?
Is he/she
A good manager IMHO lets their employees guide their own careers while providing targeted guidance.
When I become an Evil Overlord: My ventilation ducts will be too small to crawl through.
Right, like a woman is ever going to be the boss in a embedded systems team.
Huh? The best manager I've ever had was Sandy Hoag, when she was the VP of Engineering back at MontaVista (MontaVista being, as you may recall, an embedded software company).
Consequently, I can say with certainty that the chauvinistic horseshit in your post is empirically wrong.
1. Inspire growth.
2. Firewall politics.
3. Negotiate resources.
4. Advertise results.
1. How do you resolve conflicts?
2. What is your management style?
3. Methodology that you use to do peer reviews?
4. Are you a boss or leader? Explain and show with examples! Compare answer given here to #2!
5. What was the greatest success you had as part of a team. What didn't work and what did.
6. What was your greatest failure. What worked and what didn't.