
Questions to ask at the end of a technical interview - wheresvic1
https://smalldata.tech/blog/2017/03/27/questions-to-ask-at-the-end-of-a-technical-interview
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civilian
"If you could change one thing about the company, what would you change?"

It takes people off-guard and sometimes you get a really authentic look at the
problems in the company. I think people are more willing to be frank with the
question because it's asking for their insight, even if it comes at the
expense of the company's reputation.

When my future manager told me that he wished the company was "less tribal", I
should've listened. The politics between teams was insane.

~~~
liberte82
This is a great one and it will also show you how open the communication is
within the company. If you get a very guarded answer or one that doesn't ring
true, it shows a company that isn't willing to talk about its challenges. If
you get a very negative answer, that isn't a good sign either. A good answer
is one that should be honest but said constructively.

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ejcx
My go-to question is: "What technical problems are you solving right now?"

Usually you get good information that you can deduce a lot from. It's simple,
it's polite, it's opens a whole conversation about whatever you want to about
next, etc.

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eganist
> _What does your technology stack look like?_

> This allows your to figure out how up-to-date the firm is with technology.
> Up-to-date here is entirely your definition :)

What? The question is fine, but not at all for that reason. This question
allows you to figure out whether you can provide immediate value, whether
it'll present a challenge you wish to embrace, or whether it'll present a
challenge you wish not to embrace. It'll also tell you whether you think their
stack was chosen based on whether it helps address the problems at hand or
based on whether it's the "new hotness" or, as this write-up puts it, "up-to-
date"

The obvious corollary would be to ask why that stack was chosen for the
products and services the firm offers or for those which you'll be working on.

~~~
GrinningFool
> This allows your to figure out how up-to-date the firm is with technology.
> Up-to-date here is entirely your definition :)

It could be that final bit was meant literally:

If your definition of "up to date" is "patched to the latest security levels
throughout the stack" \- then that's what your questions should drive towards.

If you care about experiencing the latest toys, then your questions should get
you that information instead.

So if it was intended literally (smiley-face instead of winking one...?) , he
has a good point.

~~~
wheresvic1
Yes it was definitely meant literally!

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liberte82
Good questions but frankly not all that original. I get all of these from
recruits on a regular basis.

I am more impressed when people ask about overall company direction and
current challenges. It demonstrates to me that they're interested in the
company as a whole, where it is going, and how they see themselves fitting in
and contributing.

~~~
xelxebar
This just gets me thinking.

Optimizing for originality seems the wrong criteria as an interviewee if you
are genuinely trying to feel out the company and what working there might be
like.

As an interviewer don't you think it's more telling to see how an interviewer
responds to the answers you give? I mean, asking a prepared question is kind
of low effort regardless, but using a question to initiate discussion, that
shows real engagement.

Dunno. Just thinking out loud here.

~~~
liberte82
Fair criticism. Thinking about it more, on a very very general level, I guess
that all of the questions in the article ring to me as the type: "What can
this company do for me? Does it meet all the criteria of somewhere I want to
work?"

The second type of question that I mentioned above is more of the type: "What
can I bring to this role and how I can I contribute to this company?"

As an interviewer, if I don't get any of the second type of question it makes
me question their passion and ownership a bit.

~~~
ryandrake
Why does "passion" always come up as a requirement? Isn't enough that the
candidate is smart, competent, professional, and motivated? Do they really
have to pretend that they have a deep and burning passion for CRUD apps and
SQLite? Do they need to profess their love for the accounting web portal
they're going to be tasked with maintaining? You're not looking for a spouse,
you're looking for an employee.

~~~
skray
This, 100%. My company is jumping on the 'engaged employee' bandwagon, and
it's frankly pretty patronizing. No, I do not give a shit about your marketing
app. However, I enjoy my coworkers and the interesting technical problems
we're tasked with solving. Just embrace the fact that you're not Google and
you can still hire good people.

------
mrlyc
Having been burned more than once, the questions I now ask are:

"Do you conduct regular peer reviews of code and documentation?"

"Do you have a bug tracking system?"

~~~
mikestew
_" Do you have a bug tracking system?"_

At one time I would argue that this is a fair question to ask. But in 2017?
I'm appalled at the experience you must have had to deem this a valid question
in an interview today. Today I'd just assume...and according to you, wrongly
so.

Dare I even ask about whether they use source control?

~~~
ryandrake
I took a job once where they:

1\. Had no bug tracking

2\. Had no source control (the official code was whatever was on one of the
engineer's laptops)

3\. Had no dedicated build machines (builds were done on that engineer's
laptop)

4\. Had no release process (build that went out was--you guessed it--copied
from that engineer's laptop to a CD)

5\. Had no formal QA

6\. Had no documentation (either comments in the code, a spec, or a user
manual)

7\. Had no project management or roadmap planning (the CEO would just drop in
and said we should do XYZ, and then a few weeks later "is it done yet?")

They thought their software problem was just that they didn't have enough
smart engineers. Yea. You have to ask about these basic "hygiene" things.

~~~
js2
OTOH, if you enjoy being a jack-of-all-trades, look at all the value you can
add right out of the gate.

~~~
ryandrake
Definitely. The job was a terrific learning experience, and I've never had to
wear as many hats as I did there. It was excellent experience and I saw it as
a once-in-a-lifetime turnaround opportunity. The point is, you need to ask
about the basics so you understand what you're getting into.

~~~
wheresvic1
I think that it's the attitude of the people whom you would be working with
which matters the most in this scenario.

If they were not open to change and improvement then you would be stuck
burning CDs as well!

------
MegaButts
The question I always ask is "do you like working here?" You can immediately
tell by their reaction how they feel - if they hesitate that's a bad sign.
Obviously this works for any interview, not just technical roles.

~~~
NikolaNovak
Depends HUGELY on a person.

I hesitate (i.e. take time to consider) for ALL questions I intend to provide
an honest, as opposed to obvious answer.

I hesitate for "Do these jeans make my behind look fat" and I hesitate for "Do
you like working here" (and myriad other questions in between).

I want to provide a considered, accurate, detailed and granular answer.

If anything, if they answer with immediate and resounding "Yes!!!", I'd think
it was a fake, canned answer rather than one they gave genuine thought to...

~~~
MegaButts
Honest question: you have to think about whether or not you like your job? I
can understand wanting to give consideration to most questions, but that seems
like something you should immediately know, and answer emotionally rather than
rationally.

~~~
skray
Some days I love my job, and some days I can't wait to get out of the office.
Just because you caught someone on a bad day doesn't mean you've discovered a
toxic culture, it just means you're talking to real people.

------
fizwhiz
"What's the most fulfilling project you've worked on in the last 6-12 months?"

I like this because "fulfilling" means different things to different people.
Some folks would deem the opportunity to work on hard technical challenges as
fulfilling, whereas for some it's simply a positive impact on the customer
and/or other developers (agnostic of whether the solution was simple or
complex.)

This also helps you gauge the quality of problems the team is working on, and
how _they_ gauge said problems. With the added dimension of time (i.e. 6-12
months) you get a sense of how recent or old are the projects that they're
about to discuss. I wouldn't put much stock in something too recent (ex:
something they started 2 weeks ago) but would also be suspicious if they
mention projects that are 1yr+ old. More than once in my career have I run
into issues when my definition of "fun/fulfilling/cool" was _widely_ different
from my boss's. Getting a heads up on this for me is critical when it comes to
evaluating which team to join.

------
sidlls
I have sometimes asked the hiring manager to describe when and why he gave a
report a negative review about something. This usually causes a long pause.

It isn't at the end, but a few times I've asked mid-interview for one of the
team members to give me feedback as though it were for a peer review.

I've been known to ask what an interviewer's favorite NPR show is. It's great
if the interview is at a location I'd have to relocate to and they answer with
a show carried locally I've never heard. That's how I learned about "Says You"
(which is the correct answer to my question, with points for effort if it's
"Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me" or "Prairie Home Companion").

~~~
AnimalMuppet
> I have sometimes asked the hiring manager to describe when and why he gave a
> report a negative review about something. This usually causes a long pause.

As well it should. First, they do they not want to look bad. Second, the
person that they gave the negative review to _may be in the room with you_ (if
they do group interviews). Third, even without the first two, there may be
legal issues with them telling you the truth. (Even if there are no legal
issues, it is almost certainly against HR policy, and rightly so.)

~~~
rgovind
If it is ok for managers to ask "Describe a time when you failed", it is fair
game for interviewee to ask tough questions.

~~~
AnimalMuppet
I can answer "describe a time when you failed" without getting sued or fired.
So, no, it's not equivalently fair. Ask tough questions, sure. Feel free.
_This_ question passes beyond "tough", though, clear to "out of bounds".

~~~
sidlls
The questions is easily answered without getting sued or fired. Candidates are
asked to describe projects they've worked on. If my question is out of bounds
so is that one. After all a candidate might be sued by his employer for
divulging too much about the company's internal knowledge.

One doesn't ask "name a person you reviewed negatively," of course. That would
be out of bounds.

------
bjornlouser
How many toilets per person on this floor?

~~~
liberte82
Ha. One of my first startups I worked in was basically a warehouse and the
only washroom was just walled off in a big open area. You could hear everyone
using it and smells drifted into the main area. It was a non-zero factor in me
getting out of there.

------
jaboutboul
Wasn't this supposed to be questions for the end of the technical interview?

To get a half decent answer on some of these would eat a lot of time. I tend
to ask these DURING the interview and like to spend the end of the interview
trying to get the know the developer on a personal level to establish how they
fit into the culture of the team.

~~~
wheresvic1
If you can somehow weave all this into the interview itself that is excellent.

I have usually found it difficult to steer the conversation towards general
items when I'm getting whiteboarded :S

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GauntletWizard
The question I always ask is "What did you talk about at your last team
lunch?" This gives me a sense for what the team's values are; Is it all
social? All business? Is there a common thread or interest they were talking
about? Were they talking tech or toys or sports? A whole lot of observations
you can draw from the anecdote, and most interviewers will expound on team
dynamic from that question.

~~~
sokoloff
That's so random though. If our last team lunch was the Monday after the super
bowl, we probably talked about the ridiculous come from behind win, even
though we're not a particularly sports-crazed team.

If it was the week after Re-invent, we probably talked about AWS. If it was
the week after Switch came out, it was probably about Zelda... If it was the
week after a major internal announcement, it was probably about that...

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tootie
My #1 question is to ask the status of the tech department within the company.
In particular are is it considered a cost center or a profit center.

~~~
wheresvic1
Correct me if I'm wrong but usually you know where the tech department stands
if you look at what the company is doing.

The exceptions would be if the company is looking to pivot to an "e" solution,
i.e. from Retailer to eTailer...

~~~
tootie
No, not really. If it's a prominent tech company like Microsoft or Google,
sure. If it's an IT department at a retailer or finance firm, then you don't
really know. They may hire consultants for everything, they may cut budgets
and squeeze hours, they may keep tech out of upper management. I work at a
design & tech agency and we do some high-end stuff, but I can already see the
direction shifting away from tech and onto design from when I started.

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jlas
See also: [http://jvns.ca/blog/2013/12/30/questions-im-asking-in-
interv...](http://jvns.ca/blog/2013/12/30/questions-im-asking-in-interviews/)

------
yitchelle
"What has the company done or are doing to keep you here?"

This will get their personal insight on how they see the company. However, I
am not too sure if the answer is always 100% truthful.

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bjornlouser
How do you determine how many developers to hire?

