
Ask HN: What questions do you ask during an interview? - yladiz
I&#x27;ve been thinking of applying for a new job, and I have a couple questions in my mind that I should ask to the potential company&#x2F;employer. I&#x27;m curious though: what does the HN community ask during an interview to the interviewer? And, what tips you off to a potential bad fit?
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manoa
Ask the interviewer about who their best current employee is and why they're
the best. Does several things:

-Raises good or bad flags about this potential boss and their leadership values & style. Good: they highlight ownership, learning, creativity, and anything else you wish your boss would see in you. Bad: they highlight the employee is loyal, works hard, is highly productive (this one isn't bad by itself, just bad when it's the top or only thing called out). -Establishes that you care about leadership styles, have confidence, and aspire to be the best yourself. It's subtle self promotion.

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Jemaclus
For the first question, Aline Lerner, leeny on HN and founder of
interviewing.io, wrote an excellent blog post on this very topic:
[http://blog.alinelerner.com/how-to-interview-your-
interviewe...](http://blog.alinelerner.com/how-to-interview-your-
interviewers/)

Regarding bad fits, I could go on about this all day long, but the two obvious
ones I'll offer are this:

1) Assuming you're applying for a software engineering position, if they only
ever ask you programming-related questions and don't try to gauge things like
professionalism, hobbies, communication skills, how you deal under stress,
etc, then they're missing the point. (Being able to program is the MINIMUM
requirement for the job, after all.)

2) If the interview feels like an interrogation and not a conversation, that's
bad. If they spend the entire interview asking questions and then give only
enough time for 1-2 questions of your own, they wasted a lot of your time.
Interviews go both ways: it's an opportunity for you to learn about them just
as much as it's an opportunity for them to learn about you. You should spend
half your time asking your own questions, imo.

These aren't deal-breakers, of course, but they're red flags. Enough red flags
and you won't be a good fit.

Anyway, good luck.

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indescions_2017
"So do you have any questions for us?"

When I get to that final stage of the interview what I'm really asking a
candidate is "Can you tell me something, anything really, that will indicate
to me that you are in fact a human being and not a cyborg?"

At university, I once interviewed for an undergrad research position in a
particle physics facility. I had noticed, among the towers of papers on the
investigator's desk, a single volume of Man Ray photographs. Curiosity got the
better of me and I eventually remarked upon its incongruity. Which led to us
bonding over a shared love of Surrealism as I travelled through Madrid the
summer before and caught a rare exhibit of Salvador Dali's manifestos and
other political works. Despite the repartee, that plum position was bestowed
upon a more worthy acolyte. But the personal connection was such that he
recommended me to another lab, which led to research for a thesis and so on.

And I still remember that interview as a kind of gold standard whenever I
interview people. So do not be afraid to stand out. And let whatever it is
that makes you unique shine through. Good luck!

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chrisbennet
I would tell them that "I like to learn new things and given my resume', what
sort of new things could I learn working for them?"

I started asking this question because I actually wanted to know the answer. I
discovered a side effect: the interviewer would almost always switch to trying
to sell _me_ on the company which tended to change the dynamic.

