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What Questions Should a Prospective Employee Ask?
Mortimer.CA writes "Even though things aren't great in the economy, it's prudent to plan ahead to when things (hopefully) pick up. In light of that, I'd like to update a previously asked question in case things have changed over the last four years: What do you ask every new (prospective) employer? When you're sitting in the interview room after they've finished grilling you, there's usually an opportunity to reciprocate. There will be some niche questions for specializations (sys admin, programming, PM, QA, etc.), but there are some generic ones that come to mind, such as: what is the (official) dress code?"
Similarly, what questions should you avoid? Read on for the rest of Mortimer.CA's thoughts.
He continues with these suggestions:
"What about my resume caught your eye? What hardware/software am I expected to use at my desktop (e-mail, OS, editor, source control, etc.)? Are there team lunches or get-togethers? What are your goals for the next six months, one year, three years? What ticket/issue tracking system do you use? Do you have separate build/stage/QA/etc. environments? How do you keep track of documentation? What are your full names (so I can Google them)? What are the typical hours of the team members? Those are some of the ones I've thought of after some digging around. Are there the generic ones that you ask? What are some question for various niches? (e.g., for sysadmins: what config mgmt software do you use?)"
"What about my resume caught your eye? What hardware/software am I expected to use at my desktop (e-mail, OS, editor, source control, etc.)? Are there team lunches or get-togethers? What are your goals for the next six months, one year, three years? What ticket/issue tracking system do you use? Do you have separate build/stage/QA/etc. environments? How do you keep track of documentation? What are your full names (so I can Google them)? What are the typical hours of the team members? Those are some of the ones I've thought of after some digging around. Are there the generic ones that you ask? What are some question for various niches? (e.g., for sysadmins: what config mgmt software do you use?)"
Do you have manditory drug testing?
"I've worked in England and the policy on assault is pretty strict there. If you hit somone, immediate dismissal. What's your policy here? [cracks knuckles]"
Legendary question in by a candidate for a job in Sweden.
echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
Where do we eat?
If you want to know how much overtime you're going to work, and how family-friendly a workplace is, find out what the demographics of the company are. If you are single, you may find that an overly family-oriented workplace is going to put extra pressure on you to stay late due to parents needing to take time off to be with their family (doctor visits, holidays, etc). On the other hand, if you have a family, a family-friendly workplace may afford you more time to spend with your family.
Another good question is to ask your interviewer how many times a week he talks to customers. It will give you a good idea of how insulated you will be from customers, and that can give you an idea of whether you want the job or not. A non-customer centric position will probably be slower in promotion, but much lower pressure. A customer centric position will be higher pressure, but the opportunity for professional growth (even if all you want to be is a developer) is enormous.
I got a new job about 10 months ago.. during the interview, I asked about their benefits, and was told they were "pretty standard". Now, I learn how dishonest they were... health insurance is $850/month for family plan, and we only get 4 vacation days off a year (and only 5 paid holidays). No certification reimbursement, and they want to be able to call me on my personal cell phone after-hours. Lesson learned: get DETAILS.
Just how [in]competent is the management here?
No, that makes it sound like you already don't like the job you haven't even been offered yet. Instead, ask about career paths, ask where your co-workers came from (internal new-hires, transfers/promotions, etc.), and where former group members are now. Asking how often people get promoted makes you sound like a civil servant "wannabe", probably not your best interview tactic.
Ken
'Can I see an example of your code or documentation?'
If they don't keep documentation or their code tends to be messy and undocumented then you're going to spend half your time trying to figure stuff out rather than doing productive (and thus interesting) work. If a company's business is in a complex field (finance for instance) and the code/system has built up over many years there is a fair chance that both will be pretty incomprehensible to start with and if they haven't got reasonably documentation the your job is going to be harder and there is a chance that you'll never feel you full have a grasp on *everything* that is going on.
Apart from that, it will show that you give a damn about documentation and are organised.
"The goal of the interview is to get the offer"
It is not, unless you really want *any* job they could offer (flipping burgers included). If that's not the case, the goal of the interview is not to get the offer but to get the offer *if* it fits both parties. If you can naturally get the questions you are interested in rised during the interview, good, if not, directly question them shows professionality and that you are really interested on the job, not only the paycheck.
You want your question to demonstrate your ability to do the job as well as allow you to assess your future bosses and coworkers. So technical questions like "What version control system do you use?" or "What kind of backup system would I be expected to maintain?" are good for talking to technically-oriented managers. For non-technical managers, some good questions might be "How does my work get tested before getting sent out to the users?" and "How are project schedules determined, and what approaches are typically used to keep projects on schedule?".
I am officially gone from
I recently returned to school to complete my degree and was able to hear a very intresting presentation from one of the instructors last year. Being that I have applied for many jobs in the past year (and currently working full-time while going to school in the evening), a lot of these made sense. Here are some of the points I found most interesting to take into account during an interview.
- There are only two things that the employer wants to know during the interview: "Can you do the job?" and "Are you going to cause trouble?". The information on your resume will answer the first. Your answers and attitude during the interview will answer the second.
- During the interview, focus on proving you are able to do the job and that you will not cause trouble. Trouble would be absenteeism, incompatibility with co-workers, etc. Keep your personal life personal and your special interests and hobbies to yourself unless they directly pertain to the job. If you interests require you to take time off from work, that should come up during the negotiation period and not during the interview. Also, do not bring up money, pay, vacation, training, "team lunches or get-togethers", hours, or other trivial items. This should all be addressed after the job offer has been extended, while you negotiate, and before you start.
- Once the employer has gone through the process of interviewing all of the candidates and decided that you are the best candidate, you should have already prepared a list of priorities for what you want. If you need six weeks of paid vacation per year, if you need to make a certain salary, or if you need to work a certain schedule, that is all negotiable at this point before the job is accepted. For all of the effort they have put into posting a job opening, sorting through all of the applications, spending all that time interviewing, and somehow still decided that you are the best candidate, it is not in the employer's best interest to start the whole process over because you want six weeks of vacation time instead of the normal four. Everything is negotiable.
- If you are asked during the interview how much you are expecting to make at the new position, a correct answer is "I earn $XXXX at my current job and I am certain you will be fair, but I would like to lean more about the company". It does not ignore the question, but it does not put either party in a tight spot or make either party feel guilty. Again, pay is part of negotiation and not part of the interview.
- One item that should be addressed during the interview is asking about company culture: military (directives from management), team (groups work together to solve problems), competitive (individuals work "against" each other), artistic (try to create the best product), etc.
- Another item that should be asked is what the interviewer sees in the job. Each interview may give a different answer from HR, the department head, the department manager, and the team leader. Taking each of those into account will give a better impression of what is expected.
- I suspect that developers and other specialized positions would want to know what type of systems would be used and the development tools required. This, however, should already be answered to the employer by what is listed on the resume. If the tools required are not listed there and the candidate was still being considered, the tools must not matter very much to the employer and they may be willing to offer training on that system. I am not sure asking about what type of hardware, email, ticket tracking, system environment (Dev/QA/UAT/Prod), or documentation system would be used, since those are basically universal and two companies with the same system may use them in different ways and a new hire will need to become oriented with how the company wants to handle details. Also, if questions about dress code, hours worked, overtime availability, weekend catch-up time, or anything else not normally covered in an interview are important to you, s
"Mostly harmless."
Maybe not that, but "What keeps you up at night?" - obviously not asking about scary movies or a noisy neighbor, but about issues within the organization. I have found that this way of asking the question (as opposed to "What are the biggest problems?") seems pretty disarming and I've heard prospective employers divulge more than they probably originally wanted to.
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur.
What if the answer is an overly active sex life and a lack of commitment to one particular women?
"So that i don't dirty my lips when i kiss them!"
Interviewer scribbles: Not a team player.
What if the answer is an overly active sex life and a lack of commitment to one particular women?
Then you've just made a new friend\wingman "giggity giggity goo, alright". You should then follow up with questions about company health care coverage for illegitimate children. Don't judge us! Swingers are people too!
I like: "What's the staff turnover rate like? How about in the dept I'd be joining?"
Yes, though personally I tend to be more direct than euphemistic: "How many people have left the company/department in the past year? Why did they leave?"
The thing about "dangerous" questions like these, and asking about realistic working hours, and asking about IP clauses in the contract, is that good employers will usually be more than happy to have chance to explain why they're not like the bad employers. Most will enthusiastically tell you that they have low staff turnover. In terms of copyrights, particularly at the young companies looking for good people, I've had a senior interviewer tell me immediately that he himself had got the contract adjusted to clarify that, and it certainly wouldn't be a problem. For working hours, I've had a much wider range of answers, but usually pretty honest.
I have never, to my knowledge, missed out on an offer that I would have accepted because I asked such questions. I may have lost at least two offers, but in both cases I already knew I wouldn't accept anyway after evasive or outright damning answers to the working hours question, so the question served its purpose.
Clearly YMMV, particularly if you're desperate for a job or if you're happy working for corporate behemoths that tend to have less flexibility in their contracts (and whose HR people may black flag anyone who asks too many questions).
The other thing I always like to ask, though it's probably best to leave it until after the first interview, is to see a sample of their code and documentation. Just as they can tell a lot about me from my solution to a coding problem, so I can tell a lot about them by seeing what kind of code they actually write. I have never been refused this request, though most places ask you to wait until the next visit, so it might be worth mentioning it in advance if you're going back for a second interview and know it's likely to be the last one.
My experience is that once you're past any HR goons and you're dealing with techie folks you might actually be working with, good people will be quite enthusiastic to show you something they consider good code and happy to accommodate your request. It puts them on familiar territory, and makes for a more interesting (and memorable) interview for them than the other ten they've done this week. As a convenient side effect, as well as giving you chance to see their code, it also gives them a chance to show off and creates an atmosphere of fellowship and professional respect--a good discussion about their code can make them start to think of you as one of them before you've even left the interview.
Again, I'm not aware that I've ever missed out on an offer I would have accepted because of asking this question, though again there have been a couple of places whose offers I would probably have turned down if I'd received them after seeing the sort of code I'd be working with.
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
Instead of asking how often people are promoted, I ask what percentage of their management comes from people promoted within the company. I think it mitigates the idea that you're just using a position as a stepping stone while still getting you the answer you want.
Plus, I think it's important to know that there's a good possibility that your manager was at one point capable of doing the job you're applying for. Honestly, knowing my potential manager doesn't have unrealistic expectations is a lot more important to me than hypotheticals about whether I'm getting his job when he moves up or on.
If I'm set up for failure, I'm not going to get his job either way. Effective schmoozers might, but I'm not one of them.
-- It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.