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Ask HN: Types of questions to ask team members before accepting role?

219 points by 0x01030307 ↗ HN
What kinds of questions would you ask coworkers before you begin working with them and accepting a role?

Disclaimer: my role will be in info sec.

Thanks

75 comments

[ 3.8 ms ] story [ 142 ms ] thread
666lumberjack
"How much overtime have you worked in the past year?"
TheBiv
“How does the company reward tenure?”
[deleted]
(comment deleted)
fl_dev
"What would you change right now in this team/company if you could?"
chhs
"How would you describe the code quality of the project you work on?"
viraptor
What's the on-call system/expectations. What's the overtime pay/expectation. What's the career progression system. How many meetings a week do you have. Who controls requirements / work organisation. Remote work possibilities.
[dead] dockthis
When is the last time you took vacation? Do you have any vacations planned for this year or next?

This should give you some insight into how taking time off is viewed. You didn't say in your original question, however, if this would be a new company or an existing one where you're just switching roles.

montenegrohugo
1. "What is your biggest gripe with the company?" -- For me, at my current company, this would be exaggerated over-rigidness and glacially slow moving processes (because of checks and emails and re-checks and approvals and and and) when a fast answer/development is required.

2. "How many levels are there in the management hierarchy?" (deep vs flat) -- I tend to prefer flatter hierarchies, which plays into 3:

3. "How much personal freedom do you get?" -- Having more freedom means being more responsible for your work, but also enables you to produce better, faster, more creative stuff. The flatter the company management structure, the better (usually).

majewsky
A flat hierarchy is not always strongly correlated to personal freedom. I'm 6 or 7 levels below the CEO, but I have a lot of personal freedom because of the management style of my direct manager.
KineticLensman
Flat, flexible hierarchies can mask hidden power structures where responsibilities and accountabilities are vague / closed to outsiders. Not always, but something to be aware of...
stephengillie
1. Who is the most difficult person here to work with, and why? (Who should I watch out for - do they have a bad temper or goto management every disagreement?)

2. What's the biggest technical thorn in the company's side? (This is almost always something basic - like convincing management to buy more storage, or getting everyone to migrate to the newest version of something, or an underperforming vendor with a long contract.)

Both of these tell you about the company, and also about the person's perspective from their role and expected duration.

benburleson
I would never honestly answer #1. In my head I know my honest answer today, but out of context I would never attempt to explain the history with a candidate. If the candidate joins the team, then what? Are some offices so impersonal that this doesn't become an issue?
xellisx
"You've been here for a while, what keeps you here?"
jacknews
It's a difficult one to ask (and/or get an honest answer to), but something like "how much do you trust the boss, and the company". If they don't have integrity, other answers might not matter.
bspn
This is important as the rot almost inevitably starts at the top, but in my experience it is rare for an underling to badmouth their boss to someone who they don't know (I say this as someone who should have, but didn't due to fear of being fired). Instead you have to eek out a general vibe by asking less pointed questions like:

* How often do you interact with the CEO/insert title?

* How comfortable are you with the level of transparency and your understanding of the company's overall health?

* Do you have input into wider strategic decisions or is that handled by a smaller group?

* What does the X year roadmap/vision for the company look like?

* How does senior management interact with the team? Is everyone together during the day so it's a natural flow or is the management team in their office/meetings most of the time?

etc, etc. Ask enough of these types of questions and eventually you'll wear through the polish and get a better feel for how people really think about the boss.

ht85
They might not bad mouth, but generally a bad leader will get you neutral "fine", "great" opinions.

People under someone they respect and like will tell stories and use superlatives.

fifteen3
Describe how you work as a team.
humanrebar
Also, specifically: How are big decisions made? When two individuals disagree about a technical choice, how is the conflict resolved?
jimduk
What have you learnt in the last year and how did that come about? Dig down to see the situation or person or self-motivation that lead to this? Variations can include 'what has the team learnt?'

This is useful at an individual level for your expectations, and it's a company flag if people respond negatively.

lapnitnelav
"How would run the business / team / org differently?"

Should let you know what's wrong without asking directly.

thrrrrow
If you have a family, verify if some of team members and manager also...
xivzgrev
This. To ensure incentives are aligned. To add to this you want to ask what the manager values. At my current job the mgr straight up said he believes you come first, then family, then work. Woohoo!
boffinism
"What's the worst part of your job?"
JulianRaphael
I've been asking the following two questions for many years now and they have always been a great tool for me: "Can you tell me why I should NOT work here?" "If you had a magic stick, what would you change about this company?"
mooreds
At my current job, they actively try to talk candidates out of taking the job, just to make the warts/issues known beforehand.
teekert
Personally I'd never take a job that my future colleagues try to talk me out of... Does this approach have any success?
JulianRaphael
In my case the question has often unearthed things about the team culture that may work well for some and not so well for others. One example: a person I had an interview with told me that he wouldn't recommend a candidate to join the team if said candidate e.g. wouldn't get along with the typical "tech bros" team culture, which obviously wasn't something mentioned in the job description. For me that was clearly a no-go, for others this wouldn't be much a problem because the job in general was a very interesting one and very well compensated, too. OTOH, I've also heard non-trivial things in other interviews which were not mentioned in the job description but weren't a show stopper for me.

I also use the questions to learn more about the person and culture: if all people say "there is NOTHING I would change, this is a dream job" there is a very high likelihood that this is an environment where you don't speak openly about ways to improve and where individuals keep their criticism for themselves.

mooreds
Success in what way?

This tends to take place at the very end of the process and discusses some of the flaws of the workplace and/or goals of the candidate ("you mentioned wanting to do compiler design, but as a webdev shop, it's unlikely we'll ever do that. Are you ok with that").

I think it establishes a tone of trust ("hey, we aren't perfect, but we think this is a good fit anyway").

bradknowles
It’s funny. Back when I was a senior in college, interviewing for what would be my first “real” job after graduation, I interviewed with every major defense contractor and computer company that came on campus. All the recruiters had only the best things to say about the company they were recruiting for. Not a single one of them contacted me for a second interview.

But during that same time, I also interviewed with a guy from the Defense Communications Agency. He told me that he knew I had interviewed with a lot of other companies, and that I could assume all the things those recruiters said were also true of working for the government. He then followed by saying he wanted to focus on the disadvantages of working for the government.

He really impresssed me with his honesty and forthrightness. When the call came for a second (phone) interview, I didn’t hesitate. When the tentative job offer came, I didn’t hesitate to take it. They took more than a year to complete the initial background investigation, so I also got a chance to squeeze in an internship that summer before starting to work there in August of 1989, while they continued to finish the investigation which would result in my TS/SCI clearance and the rocket-fueled start to my career.

I still remember Mr. Brewer’s name, and am grateful to him to this day, for helping me get my start in this business.

nfRfqX5n
-what are your typical hours? remote flexibility, etc

-is this a new headcount or am i replacing someone

joezydeco
is this a new headcount or am i replacing someone

In my experience, you never get an honest answer on this one. If there is a vacancy because someone quit, they're not going to say why they quit. They probably don't know themselves since HR never shares exit interviews with others - if they happen at all.

If it's not an open seat and they're replacing someone, they're not going to say that either to avoid tipping off the current employees that someone is about to be sacked.

I'm always amazed by the % of people that work for large companies and never monitor the open jobs page on the website. They seem shocked when told that there are open reqs in their own group.

3pt14159
These types of questions never get good answers because everyone feels like they're an expert and very few people read through the other comments or vote on them. You're better off reaching out to successful people you respect and asking them for advice instead.
KineticLensman
“If you work on multiple projects simultaneously, is it clear who would resolve conflicts between the projects that affect you?”

E.g. if two different project managers are giving you tasks that exceed your capacity

cryptozeus
IMO Some of the questions here are opinion based , you may not get right answer and you may set a red flag for yourself. For example if someone asks me what are working hours, do you work on weekends ? I take that as a sign that interviewee may be looking for easy job role and not committed.

I would suggest to ask process related questions i.e what is the build/deployment process? What happens when you take down site in production due to bug? Etc.

cooervo
WTF. That might be in your country but in Europe this is pretty normal question. If you are going to be hired you have the right to know these.

You seem like an exploiter.

tomca32
Couldn't disagree more. The fact that the company doesn't like those questions would be a massive red flag to me that they indeed expect me to work weekends.

Times are great to be a software engineer. Don't squander that opportunity working for a place that won't respect you especially when there are so many wonderful places to work at where you will be respected.

throwawaymath
You really should not be using basic questions concerning things like work life balance as a hiring heuristic for candidates. If nothing else, from a purely pragmatic standpoint you do not receive any new information from a question about work life balance other than, "This candidate has a question about work life balance."

Your interpretation of that question is going to be noisy, subjective, unreliable and intrinsically incomplete. That makes it an exceptionally poor hiring signal. The idea that you can divine interesting insights about a candidate's employability or character based on mundane interview questions is fundamentally flawed.

mi_lk
If asking working hours means being flagged as not committed, I would seriously question the quality of the interviewee and subsequently the company.
francisofascii
For many, weekend work is a deal breaker. There should be full transparency about the frequency of weekend work or work hours above 40. It should be in the job ad.
Nebasuke
I asked a few questions (working from home due to a long commute) like this during an interview and had my potential manager react like you. This was a great way for me to know I will never work there, until that culture element is changed.

A candidate is also testing you, and if you do not respect a candidate's concerns you're making it clear you're not committed to ensuring the potential employee gets the most out of the role.

cryptozeus
Thanks, Good replies ! Should remind myself to also think from other point of view.
mbrodersen
Completely disagree. If asking about work/life balance this is a red flag for the company then I definitely do not want to work for them.
INTPenis
What is a team? I know we're on HN but there are many different types of teams.

I work in sort of devops teams and I've helped conduct the technical part of a few interviews so I made some questions for that reason.

1. Some technical questions but they're not that important.

2. More important is what they do in their off time. I always try to figure out how nerdy they are.

One person when asked the 2nd type of question brought out their mobile phone and showed us how they could control their entire home with an open source automation system and a homemade app they made themselves.

They were hired and they were very good.

jowiar
Re #2: Ugh. This sort of thing is a selector for plenty that is negative about the tech industry — selects for young single men without a family.

Frankly, I want to go home at night and do anything but code. Music, art, explore the city, have friends. And I want to work with others who value the same.

throwawaymath
> One person when asked the 2nd type of question brought out their mobile phone and showed us how they could control their entire home with an open source automation system and a homemade app they made themselves.

They were hired and they were very good.

They would have been an equally capable hire if they did not have the time or inclination to complete that project. Moreover you can acquire all the skills a capable software engineer has without having personal projects. That means this is a poor heuristic for hiring criteria and candidate assessment.

edw519 

  1. % time spent programming, % time spent not programming?
  2. On a scale of 1 to 10, how much do you love your job?
  3. The biggest thing that would raise answer to last question?
  4. On a scale of 1 to 10, the quality of the business requirements you receive?
  5. The biggest thing that would raise answer to last question?
  6. On a scale of 1 to 10, the quality of the technical specs you receive?
  7. The biggest thing that would raise answer to last question?
  8. On a scale of 1 to 10, the quality of the dev environment?
  9. The biggest thing that would raise answer to last question?
  10. Avg length of time from dev complete to deployed into production?
  11. If you had not picked this, what would you have picked? Why?
  12. Biggest regret from this job?
  13. Biggest success from this job?
  14. How much longer to you see yourself working here?
  15. On a scale of 1 to 10, the quality of the existing code base?
  16. How far to closest Chinese buffet?
Jeremy1026
#16, never asked that one, but absolutely should. Next time.
miduil
I'd be disappointed getting such a not funny joke question asked.
Kagerjay
Chinese buffets are nasty though... once you've seen mop bucket chicken you don't come back
GFischer
Ok, for infosec I'm not sure.

For dev work, I'd ask the questions in the Joel test.

Some questions do apply (I wouldn't expect a 100% YES answer, but hopefully most of them):

  Do you have two monitors (or more)
  Do you get a fast PC
  Do you get your choice of mouse and keyboard
  Do you have a comfortable chair
  Do you have a fast (and unfiltered) internet connection
  Do you have quiet working conditions
  Do you use the best tools money can buy? 
  Do you support developer education by attending conferences, purchasing books, or something of that nature?
pawelwentpawel
"Do you have quiet working conditions" < this.

Apart from asking just questions it's a good practice to have a look at the office that you are to work from (especially if no remote/wfh is allowed). I learned that the hard way - signed a contract without checking what office I would be working from. A couple days in and I had to use earplugs in tandem with noise cancelling headphones.