
Ask HN: Interview tomorrow – How to learn whether an org is “healthy”? - mud_dauber
Recall the NYT article describing Google&#x27;s team culture case study. (http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nytimes.com&#x2F;2016&#x2F;02&#x2F;28&#x2F;magazine&#x2F;what-google-learned-from-its-quest-to-build-the-perfect-team.html?_r=0).<p>I am being recruited by a manager &amp; two technical leads for a leadership slot. They want to replace the existing manager for vague, but apparently real, &quot;communication&quot; problems - details forthcoming. 3 teams on 3 continents, perhaps 30 people total.<p>I know &amp; trust the two technical leads, but want to have solid due diligence in place before accepting any offer. What questions can I use to learn whether the dev teams play well together?
======
grandalf
They are conspiring to replace an existing employee. That says enough. If the
organization were "healthy" they would be upfront with the existing manager
and allow him/her to gracefully exit.

That they won't do this suggests that there is a lot of mistrust going on, or
possibly optics with the investors around turnover -- not sure which is worse.

By taking the role, you will be viewed as having taken sides with the people
recruiting you, but if anyone else on the team thinks it was done unfairly,
you'll be dealing with the morale consequences, which you may paradoxically
also be blamed for.

Look at it this way, the people recruiting you are one or more of the
following:

\- Afraid to have a grown up conversation with the manager they want to
replace.

\- Afraid that if they are upfront with the problem manager he/she will leave
and it will take them a long time to find a replacement, during which time
things may deteriorate. If you think this is the case, be sure to increase
your salary/equity requirements substantially.

\- Trying to sneakily get the upper hand on the problem manager by recruiting
you behind his/her back. Anyone on the team you'd inherit who respected the
former manager will likely assume you are part of the problem.

Also, sometimes when a manager is viewed negatively it's because someone on
the team has the ear of higher-ups and is badmouthing the manager. So while
it's possible that you would be getting a role that was inhabited by someone
who couldn't quite pull it off, it's also possible that you're stepping into a
situation with a lot of politics and a mutinous atmosphere. Perhaps ask if
they are considering anyone on the problem manager's team for the role. If
they are that might be a tell.

I'd approach it with caution, especially if considering leaving a role that
you enjoy. At the very least, there are enough warning signs that you should
only accept if you are ready to re-enter the job market if the culture is
truly broken.

~~~
tptacek
This is twice in a week where me and 'grandalf are in enthusiastic agreement.
Something strange is going on.

~~~
grandalf
:) Maybe it's the water as I now live in the Chicago area.

~~~
tptacek
Neato. Hope you like it! You should let me buy you a drink sometime and punch
me in the nose for my HN transgressions.

~~~
grandalf
I'll be in touch!

------
gyardley
Talk to as many people as you can at the company, especially people who aren't
in leadership positions. Ask if you can talk to a couple of the people who'd
be reporting to you. A scheduled interview is like talking to a provided
reference, while an unscheduled interview is like calling up someone not on
the provided reference list - you're more likely to get something interesting
from the latter.

Whether it's a scheduled or unscheduled interview, people generally want to
speak honestly with you - they just might not feel like they have permission
to do so, or feel that airing the company's dirty laundry would be
inappropriate. In my experience, it can be hard to get people to initially
admit things aren't perfect, but once they've done so, the floodgates open.

I tend to ask things like "so, how would you rate working here on a scale of
one to ten?" Unless they're absolutely delighted with their workplace, most
people respond with an eight or a nine, which doesn't mean anything - you'll
get an eight or nine if the company's pretty great, and you'll get an eight or
nine if the company's a total dumpster fire. But then you can say "A nine? Why
not a ten? What would make your experience here a ten?" This doesn't _always_
work, but at this point the interviewee figures they've already admitted the
company isn't 100% ideal and I've usually gotten an unvarnished opinion.

~~~
rudolf0
I don't think this would work on me if I were being asked questions by a
candidate. I would just lie and say everything's fine no matter how much they
insist.

Telling some random stranger "I hate this fucking company and wouldn't be
surprised if it goes bankrupt within a year" gives me no benefits and puts me
at a lot of risk; plus it's just awkward.

~~~
nostrademons
Most people can detect a lie like that. It's not what you say, but how you say
it. Mumbling "Oh, I love working here, it's great" in a level tone of voice
while staring at the floor is very different from exclaiming "Oh, I love
working here, it's great" while looking you in the eye, standing up straight
with your shoulders back and relaxed.

------
devonkim
Having been in a similar position before, here's my questions and
considerations.

1\. Why are they looking externally for a candidate instead of an internal
candidate that is more familiar and has a track record with the company than a
brand new leader?

2\. What were the specific expectations of the incumbent leader and how long
have they been in the position? Someone needs to explain what happened and
realize that this very same dynamic could happen to you. If nobody
communicates with a person that they think their communication is bad, it's a
passive-aggressive culture that won't lead to good outcomes more often than
not, especially long term.

3\. What's the turnover rate for the team? Don't believe whatever they tell
you, but make a note. Then try to assess its veracity based upon Linkedin
stalking of both currently employed and past employees.

4\. What's the highest level of management that is in agreement of replacing
this person? If something came from really high up, I'd ask if there was a
specific incident. I've seen people let go because they made exactly one hot-
headed executive very angry for flippant reasons and while everyone in
management that actually knew these people were fine, their hands were tied.
That kind of leadership style is micromanagement oftentimes and the toxicity
and blame games will eventually make their way down the longer the leader
stays.

~~~
mud_dauber
4 superb questions. You made the list. :)

------
thinkingkong
Communications issues are usually two-sided so I'd lean more heavily towards
figuring out what those could be. 30 people split between 3 timezones is
challenging.

1) Ask why the other person is leaving for real. They should be vulnerable and
tell you the truth. Sometimes they'll hide behind something like "thats
confidential" which you can't really argue with, but I'd dig into it. If they
get nervous walk away.

2) Ask them what systems or processes they want to improve or change and why.
What isn't working? etc.

3) How will you be evaluated in your role. Sometimes there are unclear
expectations from managers or any other "leadership" style role at a company.
This isn't OK because it might just take one person to change their mind about
how you're doing for you to be "not good enough". Again; dig into it.

4) How is the company doing from a financial perspective. Whats the burn?
Whats the revenue? What's the LTV/CAC? If they can't answer or won't, I'd
consider that a red flag.

5) How is the product roadmap set. How far out are they thinking? Make sure it
lines up with your vision of how to organize groups the right way.

~~~
ryandrake
> 3) How will you be evaluated in your role. Sometimes there are unclear
> expectations from managers or any other "leadership" style role at a
> company. This isn't OK because it might just take one person to change their
> mind about how you're doing for you to be "not good enough". Again; dig into
> it.

This one is key. Good answer is: "You will have these N observable, measurable
KPIs. Good performance means meeting them, excellent performance means
exceeding them by P%, etc." Bad answer is if they can't tell you or anything
subjective (Your manager vaguely "evaluates" your performance each year).

> 4) How is the company doing from a financial perspective. Whats the burn?
> Whats the revenue? What's the LTV/CAC? If they can't answer or won't, I'd
> consider that a red flag.

I've seen business owners take great offense to being asked about these
"company health" type questions. Often due to the answer not being pretty. As
if I, as a potential employee, am not a stakeholder. If they get cagey about
this it's definitely a red flag.

------
cabacon
My favorite interviewing question as an IC was "Tell me about someone on your
team you admire". It let me learn about what people valued based on why people
were admired, and gave some depth-of-bench sense whether there were lots of
distinct names, or if everyone was in awe of the one good person on the team.

If you're looking for cross-team health, maybe you could adapt it to "Tell me
about someone on the _other_ team that you admire?"

~~~
veneratio
This is an awesome question. What sort of responses have you seen from this?
Do most folks have a quick answer or do you get some thought? As an
interviewer, I'm not sure I would ever expect a question like this.

~~~
cabacon
Truth be told, I don't think I'm calibrated on the question yet; I've only
used it twice. In one org, there was a shining star who attracted all the
answers. In the other org, someone laughed because of the number of good
answers, and started rattling off names and reasons.

In hindsight, I wish I'd had enough experience with the question and possible
scenarios to ask for a second answer from people in the first org; I suspect
there were more good answers available, but one obvious answer that everyone
snapped to first.

------
sreejithr
I understand you're not looking for a software engineering position. But for
what it's worth, being in a company with an almost toxic work culture right
now, here's some stuff I'll vent out.

Talk to a lot of people in the company. Can't overstate this enough. People
you work with/work under should NOT BE ASSHOLES. Assholes are a pain to deal
with everyday and will take a toll on your emotional health.

I talked with my interviewer, who happens to be my manager, and asked him what
he feels about Docker (not that Docker is the most bleeding edge tech). He
said he didn't like it and would never implement it in <my-company> because
some other dude in his previous firm introduced it there and he doesn't like
that dude. Ouch! I should've taken the hint. Look for people who debate with
you based on knowledge/data and not with emotions.

If your interviewer/founder bathes you in startup buzzword crap, RUN! If they
say, we're "open", "transparent", "humble", "impact", "growth hacking" etc 5+
times in the conversation, he's just faking it to make it sound hipster. I
learned this the hard way.

Boy, I ranted. I should really get a job change. ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

------
ChuckMcM
It is important to separate challenges of "second level" (sometimes called
director level) management from "first level" (sometimes called line level)
management. If you will be managing managers, that requires you to be able to
evaluate their group as a unit much like a line manager needs to evaluate
employees for their effectiveness. Group effectiveness is very biased by
management style and communication.

I wouldn't read too much into the fact that you'd be replacing a manager who
is already working there. One of the "perks" of being a manager is that you
have a big target on your back when it comes to overall organizational goals
and morale. Scott McNealy used to joke "one step up, one step closer to the
door." because directors and executives don't fire individual contributors,
they fire managers when things aren't working out. And there are a ton of
reasons that things might not work out, not the least of which is that the
manager's manager can't effectively communicate "through" them. It can be a
leadership style, it can be mutual respect, it can be different baggage that
each of them are carrying from previous experiences.

What is important for you to understand in the interview is the sort of
communication issues that got this person into trouble, you need to know that
so you can evaluate how likely it is that you're communication style would be
compatible. Some senior managers will say "get it done" and some will be very
prescriptive about how (aka micromanaging) and some will be open to feedback
and others will consider feedback insubordination.

Understand what they expect (both things they expect someone to do, and things
they are expected NOT to do in that role) and how they evaluate what they see.
Then ask yourself if you feel like you can live in that system or not.

------
compiler-guy
I like to ask things like, "If you could change one thing about the company
engineering practices, what would it be?"

The answers can be telling. If they give an answer like, like, "I wish we
would adopt $random_programming_language." That, to me, indicates a fairly
healthy organization, because this is just one guy's technical preference.

If they give an answer like, "We need need to stop thrashing", that gives a
different picture.

If they say, "Nothing at all", you need to run, because they can't think
critically about themselves.

If they use pronouns like "them" and "they" instead of "us" and "we", then the
interviewer doesn't feel like part of the team.

~~~
mikestew
To follow up on the potential acceptable answers vs. bad answers: 1\. "I wish
we'd use git instead of SVN" vs. "I wish we'd use source control instead of
backing up .zip files of the tree." 2\. "I wish we used Jenkins instead of
$OTHER_BUILD_TOOL." vs. "I wish we'd set up a build server instead of pulling
bits of a random dev's machine." 3\. "I wish we we'd use OCMock to eliminate
dependencies in our tests." vs. "I wish we were given time to write unit
tests."

Sure, you might think you're the one to get them fixed up with what they need.
But there are good reasons that things are they way they are, and it's not
always because the ICs are lazy.

------
DelaneyM
Worry less about "organizational health" and more about "organizational fit".

"Healthy" can mean different things to different people. Some employees care
primarily about work/life balance, and being able to sneak out early on
Fridays to hit the slopes. (I'm looking at you, entire state of Colorado.)
Others want a high-pressure, high-reward environment, where their colleagues
live up to the same high standards they expect of themselves. ( _cough_ Amazon
_cough_ )

So rather than trying to find a place which is healthy, find somewhere which
is healthy _for you_ ; with a culture which reflects your values, benefits
which support your lifestyle and leaders who help you grow.

No company is a perfect employer and no person a perfect employee, but that
doesn't mean there doesn't exist perfect relationships.

~~~
mud_dauber
Got it. Added to the list. Thank you!

------
Raphmedia
Observe the employees.

Is the office full after 5 - 6 PM? Is everyone looking at the floor when the
boss walk in? Is everyone's nails bitten to a bloody mess? Are there any
female employees? Are the desk too clean and absent of personal items?

~~~
cobralibre
Do the employees hide their flasks in their desks and sip furtively and alone?
Do they cry in the restroom before or after meetings? Is it a Dilbert cartoon
on the fridge or is it XKCD? Are the only Pokémon to be found Rattatas? What
is going on with the coffee?

~~~
mjevans
How far away is the nearest gym? Are there even any 'stops where you might
meet others for lunch?

Pretty much, what is the density of the tech-aware crowd in that area?

Another good one: are the near by ash trays in use? If you're a non-smoker
(like me) this is a red flag too.

~~~
dajohnson89
Just curious -- why is evidence of tobacco use a red flag to you?

~~~
bsamuels
Have you ever watched silicon valley? It's extremely accurate.

[https://www.quora.com/Is-there-a-strong-anti-smoking-
culture...](https://www.quora.com/Is-there-a-strong-anti-smoking-culture-in-
Palo-Alto-Silicon-Valley)

------
rianjs
So they told you, an external candidate, that they're firing someone, and that
you would take their position?

That's a pretty big red flag with respect to organizational behavior. It seems
incredibly unprofessional.

~~~
kaspm
I would say this is fine, this position will likely inherit the bad juju from
the previous candidate and should go into the position eyes-wide open. What
they need is a person who can acknowledge previous mistakes and make
incremental changes to guide the team to the right operations. They want to
understand what about this candidate will make the situation different from
the last candidate and in order to do that they need to discuss the previous
employees shortcoming.

I actually enjoy replacing someone who is a poor communicator because you have
a real chance to influence direction and growth just by acting like a normal,
decent person.

To answer the original poster's question - if you have to ask this question,
it's very likely there are organizational challenges. In fact, at every
company there are organizational challenges, team challenges, your job as a
leader is to address them. If you want to only work for great teams and never
have to deal with challenges, you should consider not being a manager/leader
at all, then you don't have to worry about them.

I would pay more attention to whether the company itself is financially
stable, growing, hiring and innovating. If not, run.

------
kognate
I would ask them what, specifically, within the organization itself failed
w/r/t the manager being replaced and what has the organization changed to
prevent the same thing from happening in the future.

For example, did they not evaluate the manager before putting them into a
position where they failed? How do they know it was a communication problem?
Remember, this question is not asking the details of what happened (those
don't really matter). This question is asking what the organization did and
how does the organization improve itself over time.

The last thing I'll say is that it's very difficult to establish the 'health'
of a team during a brief interview. 'Health' is often variable in that what I
find healthy and effective you may not. Most teams aren't filled with
psychopaths. Also, if you have the right tools and a willing team you (that's
a plural you) can change and build a team that is healthy and productive.

~~~
pns
It's interesting in these situations to see the outgoing manager's departure
as much as a failure of that manager as of the organization itself. I think
you're exactly right to be diagnosing why the manager didn't work out as an
org issue itself.

------
jarsin
"Communication" issues is a catchall b.s. reason rarely used for legitimate
reasons. Whenever i hear it my b.s. radar sounds and I instantly suspect the
person claiming another has communication problems as trying to undermine
them...throw them under the bus etc.

The reason being is its an abstract issue that is hard to define or fix.

Have them clearly define the "communication" issue that led to the person
getting fired.

~~~
gmarx
It is often used this way similar to the word "unprofessional". But, in the
context of a manager of a muti-continent team could be quite legit and easy to
define in more detail

~~~
jarsin
Yes it can be legitimate but it's my belief that true "Communication" issues
are not that difficult to address.

Such as, the team is all over the place you need to do daily standups to get
everyone on the same page.

Once the actual issue is defined if the person then does not take simple steps
to improve "communication" then at that point they are more in the category of
insubordinate, incompetent etc.

~~~
gmarx
I disagree. I have encountered many managers whose main problem was expecting
that people could read their minds and/or valuing ambiguity so they could
change their minds frequently. One of them referred to this as a positive, the
ability to "operate in the grey zone". I call it the "I don't know WTF I'm
doing zone". The poor communication makes it seem like the fault lies in the
subordinates

------
zer00eyz
There are a lot of things you can ask for that will red flag an organization
as a whole.

Are you being given stock. Ask for a cap table and learn to read it.

Tell them your wiling to sign an NDA, and that you want to look at the
repository. Tell them that you may need to ask follow up "who is who"
questions to pin checkins. Code never lies. Embattled areas of code, and
comments are great targets for your search.

Ask about recent outages and technical issues. Are they having problems
keeping things up and running. Ask about how they were identified and how long
to resolve.

Do they have documents for requirements? Wireframes, PRD's. Ask to see these
as well.

If they raise any objection to any of this, just ask for a reason. It might
set off an alarm for you. It might be reasonable.

Since you have some history with the other team leads, make a personal phone
call. Start the call off that way (that its a personal call) and that you want
to know the truth/history here because you have concerns. If there is
something funny going on in the background one of them might just give you an
honest answer.

~~~
codingdave
But we are talking about interviewing for a leadership position. Judging the
health of a place by how its current tech looks might be valid if you are just
going to be a coder, but as a leader, you will be expected to identify and fix
problems. So it is OK if there are problems.

It is much more important to figure out how people communicate, how they are
treated, how the other leaders think, what they want their culture to be,
etc... If you can believe in a shared future vision, and participate in the
process to move towards that vision, then the details of the status quo are
far less important.

~~~
mud_dauber
My sense of the problem is that it's not so much a tech stack issue and more
of an operational, "keeping the train on the tracks" challenge.

~~~
HelloNurse
Personal problems, communication failures, and organizational issues are often
reflected in code and technical choices. For example:

\- Something gets rewritten because requirements were lost or misunderstood.

\- The same error is repeated after being corrected.

\- A component is revised or eliminated, after having been developed too early
based on guesswork and speculation.

\- Developer A commonly reverts developer B's code changes without explaining
the reasons (or with insults).

\- There has been a messy, error-ridden merge between the clearly independent
developments of two sub-teams.

\- In source code control, commits are allowed to lack a good description;
only a few true believers "waste time" with messages nobody reads.

\- Unit tests for something that is approaching release were last modified,
and left about 15% complete, six months ago.

\- After employee X left the company (or when the project devolved into crunch
mode, or some other excuse) automation of builds, tests, releases etc. started
to rot.

------
sailfast
This flips your question on its head a bit, but are you going into this offer
excited to try and get the teams to work better together, or because you want
a role leading teams that are already working really well?

If you expect to inherit fully functional teams I think you're probably not
going to enjoy the gig. If, however, you're excited about the chance to get a
group of developers firing on all cylinders again then perhaps this is the
right job for you.

If you want to ask a question, I'd ask what challenge they have experienced to
date linking these teams together to get them working well. What specific
things do they expect you to try and fix and improve, etc. I'd also ask how,
as leaders at the company, they stay aware of how things are going,
touchpoints, etc.

Key symptom for a lot of issues at a company tends to be a lack of
transparency (at least this has been my experience). Asking questions that get
to employee engagement, involvement, and feedback processes can be good
signals of transparency or potential issues.

~~~
eric-hu
Honest question, do you know many people who enjoy jumping into dysfunction
and making it better?

~~~
napoleond
I'm not the parent, but yes those people definitely exist. They enjoy
improving human systems the same way hackers enjoy building things. And they
get paid well for it.

~~~
eric-hu
To me, it seems more analogous to coders who go into legacy spaghetti code
repos to clean them up.

I enjoyed establishing process with a team and iterating on it with a mostly
functional team. I don't really care to get between drama and infighting, but
I certainly see the value.

------
smacktoward
Just ask them straight out what the "communications issues" with the existing
manager are.

If you're uncomfortable challenging them, frame it as you trying to be the
best candidate you can be. "If I take this position, I want to make sure I
have a full understanding from day one of what I need to do to contribute the
most to the team. What could I be doing to help you?"

This is a question they really ought to be able to answer; not in terms of why
the current person sucks, but in terms of where the team is breaking down
currently. A good answer to this question means they've thought about the
problems and the personnel change is part of some kind of strategy to solve
them, which is a good sign.

If they won't answer that, odds are their internal culture isn't very
communicative in general, which is bad. And if they _can 't_ answer that, it
means _they don 't know_ where the breakdowns are and are just blaming someone
reflexively, which is even worse.

------
keithflower
Ask permission to talk to the outgoing manager. If they balk at transparency,
you'll know where the "communications" problem lay.

------
mathattack
A few things:

1) Reach out to people who used to work there. You have to discount the
negativity somewhat, but if the response is positive then that's a good sign.

2) Rather than ask "Are there communications problems" you should ask "What
are the biggest communication challenges?" Also ask, "What are the 2-3 most
important managerial areas for me to fix on day one, and the 2-3 most
important areas for me to leave alone"

3) Go to Glassdoor. Again you have to discount the negativity, but that will
give you good areas to probe and it's fair to ask, "I see this on Glassdoor,
what do you say?"

Good luck tomorrow!

~~~
mud_dauber
It's a department within a large company, so the Glassdoor data may not help.
But thank you!

~~~
mathattack
Look for personal networks who can give you the scoop.

At a prior company, the new head of sales reached out to the outgoing head of
sales.

------
ZenoArrow
A question I like to ask at the end of an interview is 'What do you most like
about working here?'. Not only does it end the interview on a positive note,
it also allows you to get a better grasp about what the corporate culture is
like. I'd suggest that you want to look for responses that indicate a strong
team dynamic, interesting work or freedom to manage your own time as long as
you get the work done. However, regardless of what is said, if the responses
don't quite sit right with you I'd suggest you trust your gut.

------
TurboHaskal
Monitors.

Are developers being issued several ones, and of above average quality?

Do people need to stack object oriented design books to place their monitors
at a comfortable level?

Are they using old, low resolution, low refresh rate, 15" TFT monitors?

Is there disparity between monitor quality among employees?

~~~
HelloNurse
Due to underpowered graphics adapters, many laptops allow only one external
screen, even if they have two or three video connectors. Multiple monitors are
typically an option only with fixed computers, which might or might not be a
good sign.

~~~
pravula
Most laptop docking stations have built in video cards. Macbooks can drive 2
monitors easy.

------
bipson
Some people mentioned it already indirectly, but I thought it is worth stating
it clearly:

Don't look for "health" indications, try to establish if the leaders
established a culture you can live with (and how this current situation might
be a result of that culture). I can't think of specific questions, but for me
it is about how people interact, especially across the hierarchy:

\- How are disputes solved?

\- Are people allowed to disagree (especially with higher ups)?

\- Are people allowed to make mistakes? Were people fired because of mistakes?
Is there a (perceived) "goofy" on the team (can't do anything right according
to the team, yet did never really fuck up, thus is still there, but always
blamed)

\- Is the team allowed to relax and pick up debris, hang loose, enjoy some
time together, or is it in constant "sprint mode"?

\- Are the managers able to get the team to rally behind the same goals?

\- Does everyone solve his own problems, or are people actually collaborating
on e.g. features/bugs/ideas?

\- Are there leads or managers on the team known to cause issues, yet not
removed?

\- Is there special treatment for random people?

\- Is stuff openly discussed or everything on a need-to-know-basis?

\- Does everyone in the company have (at leas read) access to all the code?

This is stuff you most certainly cannot change once it was established,
especially if people stick around and even more so if the founders, managers,
leads will still be there. If it does not fit your attitude, you will be in
constant battle against what happens in the company and why.

~~~
mud_dauber
Great list. Thank you!

------
ktRolster
I like to ask, "Do you have a bug tracker?" then follow up with "Is your bug
count increasing or decreasing?" No matter how they answer, it tells you a lot
about the organization.

------
MilnerRoute
A friend of mine once said he asked an interviewer, "so just how screwed up is
this company"? Not because he expected a straight answer, but because he
wanted to watch the interviewer's first reaction -- if their facial expression
showed genuine surprise, or a knowing nod, maybe even an incriminating
smile...

~~~
mjevans
Serious question here: Are there any companies that aren't at least a little
messy? They are run by humans, so if there's NO dirt at all isn't that a tell
as well?

~~~
mud_dauber
Exactly.

------
BurningFrog
For engineering jobs, most future coworkers will tell you pretty honestly
what's going on _if asked directly_.

You don't want to have to be exposed as a liar once the candidate starts,
after all.

For leadership jobs, it might be a bit different.

------
DrNuke
OP is going to talk, have a look, hopefully agree and sign a contract with
people he already knows. It's a good position because, whatever rat he can
smell, there is a chance both parties are willing to deal with through a
written agreement. Good luck!

------
rrecuero
Really good advice here. I would sum it up in 2 points:

\- Observe and engage with the employees. Asks them tough questions, you
specifically want to gauge how passionate are they about the work they are
doing not about working for the company per se. \- Go beyond the shallow layer
(perks, brand, office...) and see whether is a company where people get up in
the morning looking forward to get great stuff done or a company where people
can't stop looking at the clock.

I have been in companies where everything seems to be great surface level:
tons of perks, WFH, free food... But then nobody seems to be excited about the
work itself.

------
titomc
check the coffee machine, general cleanliness of the office especially
breakroom if they are clean and well stocked,look for notices on printers or
washroom's that "xxxxx is not working & repairs has been notified". See if
they have a gym,check the condition of office chairs,are they ergonomic ?. Ask
about appraisal process and career path. If they dont answer well and the
interviewer is not clear on that,it means an unhealthy org structure. Finally
check on glassdoor and a wild card search on google with the email domain of
the org,something interesting might come up.

~~~
scottlilly
Checking the bathroom is a trick I learned a long time ago. If they're messy,
that's almost certainly a sign that your potential co-workers and managers are
disorganized, undisciplined, and/or don't care about their work.

------
lisivka
3 teams on 3 continents is not a problem. Moreover, when teams are separated
strongly, i.e. no video and/or voice communication between teams, it helps to
create healthy team, because non-realtime text-based communication causes
well-written documentation and well-defined goals (just because it is much
faster to write throughout description of goal once, in lengthy email or
ticket, that to iterate with iteration cycle length equal to 1 day). Just use
SCRUM, and follow it fanatically, and it will work. BTW: 2 week sprints are
the best in such case.

------
dccoolgai
Some interesting advice I got from another thread a while back: During your
interview excuse yourself to the restroom at some point. The general
cleanliness there says a lot about how they value employees.

~~~
Havoc
>During your interview excuse yourself to the restroom at some point.

And annoy the hell out of the interviewer because you can't time a toilet
visit to fall outside of a key event? No thanks

~~~
troebr
Usually you're there for a couple hours, it's easy to sneak out in between 2
interviews for 2 minutes.

------
TheMog
I would definitely ask them to elaborate on the communcations issues.

I would also ask how they're currently handling three teams on three
continents - if you as a manager are supposed to deal with all three teams and
at least one of them is "needy", I wouldn't be surprised if the communications
issue is that the current manager is speaking in tongues because he hasn't had
more than an hour's worth of sleep a night for the past year...

------
ydt
There's plenty of good advice in this thread, but ultimately you won't know
until you work there. After 20 years in the business, what I've done and would
advise people to do, is to negotiate a 6 month contract-to-hire arrangement.
This way it's all out in the open that you'll be evaluating each other and
there's less hard feelings if you walk at the end of the contract.

~~~
mud_dauber
That's an interesting angle. I've always assumed that the C-to-H arrangements
were for the benefit of the employer, not necessarily the employee.

~~~
ydt
It can be to the benefit of both. The employer doesn't have to do all the
onboarding until they figure out whether it's going to work. If they employee
doesn't like it they have an easy out at 6 months that doesn't harm your
reputation as much as bailing out shortly after taking the job. That easy out
also prevents you from staying longer for fear of establishing a job-hopper
reputation. At your next interview when asked why you left -'It was a 6 month
contract at the end of which they offered me a full-time position but I didn't
feel it was a good fit'. That's a much better story.

------
mud_dauber
I condensed your suggestions into a simple PasteBin at
[http://pastebin.com/ueLdcVmQ](http://pastebin.com/ueLdcVmQ). Thanks so much -
I am grateful to all of you.

------
wott
Hum... How many managers are there in in this company? I can be wrong because
you don't say it explicitely, but I have the feeling from your writings that
they are numerous, compared to the small numbers of total employees.

------
hiou
Communication problem is the biggest red flag there is in my personal opinion.
I have never had a communication problem and no skilled manager or executive
ever will. Because it only takes one side to have effective communication.

------
ninjakeyboard
I understand what you're looking for and certainly can relate! Here is a
counterpoint:

As a lead, are you not confident that you can bring a circle of health with
you? Influence and change the environment as you see necessary?

~~~
EpicEng
If leadership is hell bent on doing the wrong thing most of the time, you're
not going to be able to change that as a technical lead. It's just a situation
to avoid if possible.

------
0xmohit
> They want to replace the existing manager for vague, but apparently real,
> "communication" problems ...

"Communication" is a two-way process.

As they say: Communicate, it can't make things worse.

------
byoung2
Is this outgoing manager already gone? If not, see if you can talk to him/her.
Take that story, and the story you get from the people hiring you, and average
them.

------
ali_ibrahim
Check out their employees reviews at www.glassdoor.com

------
kevin_thibedeau
Interview them. If they're hiding something a few innocent questions can
expose their ruse.

------
jlebrech
they should really be hiring a few contractors for the overlap, otherwise
they'll get a new guy that can leave because of running into the same problems
the current guy is having.

------
sabman83
See if you know someone on LinkedIn who knows someone in the org.

------
yanilkr
Its a leadership position, Can't you deal with the situation? are you hoping
to find a perfect team to lead?

IMO, Its a negotiation. Ask for autonomy so you can shape the culture the way
you want it to be.

------
okonomiyaki3000
Gosh! I really misread that subject line...

------
whordeley
Listen to this. Tell the interviewer that he has a some shit on his face,
gesturing toward the location on your own face. Observe his reaction very
carefully, it tells you everything you need to know about a person. If he is
genuinely grateful then that is someone who will be a loyal boss and
potentially friend. If he acts defensively or if it puts him off in any way
then he's a phony racist liberal and his company will fail.

------
RomanPushkin
How many tests do you have? More tests is better. For a 3-year old product the
number should be around 10k.

How many of them red? If tests are red - it's bad. For how long they are red?

If there is a need to "fix approximately hundred tests", it's a bad sign.

I found that amount of tests, tests execution time, test coverage is very
important and it answers almost all the questions.

How often did you need to sacrifice test coverage to deliver the software?
There is always a need to release, there is always deadline. It depends how
company react. For example, during Rails 5 release they don't care, just push
deadline. It's a good sign, because folks understand that code quality ==
developer happiness.

