I work as a staff software engineer at a med tec company. We are mainly programming in C++ but my background is also a functional one (Haskell, OCaml).
In the past I did research in program analysis.
Besides the obvious questions on payment, expected working hours, etc.
the questions I try to ask are the following:
My manager:
How often are talks about my personal development and my future planed with my direct manager?
How often do these talks actually happen?
What is the content?
How many people is a technical lead person responsible for?
How many people report to a manager on average?
How many people do report to my manager?
Work environment:
How many hours do the employees work on average per day?
How are the offices structured? (this is typically something you see
if you are shown around. Pay attention to details: do the people look stressed? How much room do they have? Do they have personal decoration on their desks? If not, ask why!)
How high is the fluctuation of people (people starting/leaving per month)? (HR knows that number, if they say they have no clue, ask again. Be stubborn here. A low number is an indicator of a good working environment)
If the number is high: how long are people staying on average?
How many people do have to get sick before you cannot work any more?
(this is a question that is difficult to ask, but gives you an idea
how the responsibilities are distributed)
Planing and working:
Size of the project teams?
How do you distribute knowledge amongst peers?
How do you plan your projects? How do you evaluate whether your planing was good? How often do you plan?
Lynne is the creator of Key Values, a website that helps engineers find teams that share their values. She lives in San Francisco, is an Iron(wo)man, and loves meeting new peeps!
Location
San Francisco
Education
MIT'10 Brain and Cognitive Sciences, UCSF'12 Neuroscience
Besides the obvious questions on payment, expected working hours, etc.
the questions I try to ask are the following:
My manager:
Work environment:
Planing and working:
These are great! 👍 Thank you for sharing!