Sounds like you've had some rough interviews. I think you're also right, though; it is generally rough out there these days.
At the same time, the "candidate asking questions" portion is 10 minutes if you're lucky, and it's between two strangers who've known each other for maybe 45 minutes up to that point. It's understandable why the interviewer might give canned answers.
I think it's still worth asking the questions. The Joel Test [1] may be older than many candidates these days, but a large number of companies still fail most questions.
For the trickier questions, I think you have to read between the lines and look at what's not said. If you ask about work-life balance and the interviewer gives a little "hah" before answering — well, there's your answer. If you ask about the build system or deploy process and they keep hand-waving — well, they're still telling you something very important about the engineering culture.
I haven't seen that list for a while and it's a good one. Looking at it now it's even better because point 1 is: Do you use source control?
I wouldn't even bother asking because the answer is obvious. Everyone has it. Until I started at my current place. They don't and they're not interested in getting it. Idiots.
Next interview I'll brush up on those 12 questions. Thanks.
At the same time, the "candidate asking questions" portion is 10 minutes if you're lucky, and it's between two strangers who've known each other for maybe 45 minutes up to that point. It's understandable why the interviewer might give canned answers.
I think it's still worth asking the questions. The Joel Test [1] may be older than many candidates these days, but a large number of companies still fail most questions.
For the trickier questions, I think you have to read between the lines and look at what's not said. If you ask about work-life balance and the interviewer gives a little "hah" before answering — well, there's your answer. If you ask about the build system or deploy process and they keep hand-waving — well, they're still telling you something very important about the engineering culture.
[1]: https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2000/08/09/the-joel-test-12-s...