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What to ask on a interview?

Pachi 🥑 on August 25, 2020

What to ask on a interview?

You are on a phone interview and here is their last question: Do you have any question for us?
My brain seems to be incapable of forming questions.
So, what do YOU ask?

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rafaacioly profile image
Rafael Acioly • Edited

There's this repo. called "Reversed interview", it has a bunch of nice questions to ask in many different languages, e.g:

  • What are the tasks I would do on a usual day?
  • Are there any specific goals for me?
  • Do you have any concerns about my application? <--- this is gold!
  • How will you evaluate my performance at the end of the trial period?

Tech:

  • How do you monitor projects?
  • Do you have some higher level documentation? (ER diagrams, database schema)

Team:

  • Who sets the priorities / schedule?
  • Walk me through a typical sprint on this team
  • How big are the teams?

The repository link: github.com/viraptor/reverse-interview

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Josh Ellis

⭐️ Starred, thanks for sharing!

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MertSenel • Edited

I usually ask for the team structure/geolocation , day to day activities, scope of responsibility/ownership. I think you need experience to figure out what you really do not want in a job, your red flags, and ask if they are present, better if you have a list of must haves for your success, ask if they can provide them. Forgot to mention the most important, be prepared. Interviews are not sth we experience too often in our careers, so no matter what, its exciting. You are on the podium, but if you do this preparation beforehand after you did it couple of times and you have confidence in your skills interviews really becomes two way conversations. At the very least you can always approach it systematically and ask for what you dont know already and what you are curious about the role/company/interviewer. Good luck.

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Yechiel Kalmenson

Usually there are issues that are important to me around work/life balance and the company culture, so that's what I'll ask.

Also, if the company was in the news recently (an acquisition, a round of funding, some new launch, etc.) I'll ask about that as well to show that I'm familiar with the company and interested in them as a company.

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Doug

Is this a new position? If not, what happened to the last person who had the position? (Be on the lookout for churn, unreasonable expectations).

What's your development process? (Try to get a sense that they have some rigor, and don't rely on heroic effort).

How many hours a week do you work? (Watch out for > 50).

What kind of machine will I have? (If you must have a Mac, be sure to find out).

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fullstackcoder

Although I can list you some questions, I see that the other people already covered me.
I will point you to this article so you can see the things from the other side:
dev.to/georgedel/this-is-how-i-eva...

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peledzohar profile image
Zohar Peled

"My brain seems to be incapable of forming questions."

This is one more thing to prepare for when preparing to an interview - Apart from going over the tech stuff and the company's website, you should attend the interview after you've already figured out what's important for you to know before signing the contract.

There's no "one size fits all" here - everybody cares about different things - but most will want to know what their daily routine should look like, who will the report to, who they should ask questions, things like that.

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fullstackcoder • Edited

Although I can list you some questions, I see that other people already covered me.
I will point you to this article though, so you can see the things from the other side:

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Nia McCash

A few of my favorites:

  • What does success look like in this position, and how do you measure it?
  • What are your expectations for this role during the first 30 days, 60 days, year? In 6 months? 1 year?
  • What do you see as the most challenging aspects of this job?

I can't take credit for thinking of these because I found them elsewhere but have since lost the source.

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Devashish Datt Mamgain

Depending on your interview performance, here are the things you can ask:

  • Good performance:
    Be confident of your selection, and ask for next steps:
    - What should i prepare for the next round?
    - What will be my role in the company?

    - Which team or project I will be working with?
    - Is there anything that i need to learn before my joining data.
    - What are the company goals for this year?

  • Moderate or bad performance
    - Which areas should I improve upon?
    - Based on my interview performance, could you suggest me any book to read?

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Leira Sánchez

My favorite question to ask is: what do you dislike or that you wish you could change about working at this company?

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Gabriel Antunes

The last enterview i've atended, i asked some questions:
The size of the team; the workflow; how the team is divided...
things like this :)

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Alvaro Saburido • Edited

I always ask about company position regarding:

  • Time Flexibility
  • Remote working policies
  • Formation
  • Event Support