

Ask HN: Which questions do you ask to feel out company culture? - mikemajzoub


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davismwfl
Ask them point blank. What's the culture like here? If I fail, admit it and
fix it is there repercussions? How do you guys help newbee people come up to
speed? What would my first week be like? Are there any company outings? Is it
looked upon bad if I don't go cause I am busy? Are there any normal weekly
events that happen? Is it frowned upon to write code outside of work for
myself or open source? etc.

Visually: What's the environment look like? Do you see anybody laughing and
having a good time, or is everyone's head down into their desk and not looking
up? Are the machines old? Are the work environments nice (even if dated) etc.
Look at how many layers of management there are.

BTW -- any awkward pauses on the questions or doubts on the visual and you
already have an answer.

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mlwarren
Ask them about their vacation policy, and specifically ask your interviewer
when was the last time they took a vacation 1 week or longer.

Ask if they're remote friendly.

Ask what their sick policy is.

Ask what their company does to make the world a better place. It's fine if
they don't have an answer, some entities exist just to make money without any
other "mission", it's just good to know.

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mak4athp
As you may have puzzled out from other responses here, that's a very personal
question. You need to figure out the cultural details that mean something to
you, then ask the questions that reveal them.

For some people that's vacation, for others it's safety nets, and for others
it's engineering processes. Only you know what matters to yourself.

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MichaelCrawford
Ask if they have a coding standard. If it's very picky about how comments are
to be formatted, steer clear.

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seattle_spring
I would say the same question, but for the opposite reason. I can't stand
seeing common things written in 20 different formats.

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MichaelCrawford
I had to contemplate my answer for a while.

I agree that there should be coding standards, but perhaps I should have been
more clear: it is common for shops that care a great deal about code
formatting, not to care - perhaps not to even know - about coding standards
which can avoid bugs.

I had in mind specifically one shop that was very, very picky about its
comments, but no one other than I had so much as heard of a C++ smart pointer.

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kidlogic
In a few words, how would you describe the company culture?

