Reverse interview

Fond this online but cannot remember where… when I find I’ll add ref. here

Expected usage

  • Check which questions are interesting for you specifically
  • Check which answers you can find yourself online
  • Otherwise ask

Definitely don’t try to ask everything from the list.

Remember that things tend to be fluid, re-organizations happens often. Having a bug tracking system doesn’t make bug handling efficient and CI/CD doesn’t mean your time to deliver is necessarily short.

The Role

  • What’s the on-call plan/schedule? (what’s the pay for standby and call-out)
  • What are the tasks I would do on a usual day?
  • What’s the junior/senior balance of the team? (and are there plans to change it)
  • What does the onboarding look like?
  • How much independent action vs working off a provided list is expected?
  • What are the expected/core work hours?

Tech

  • What are the usual stacks used at the company?
  • How do you use source control?
  • How do you test code?
  • How do you track bugs?
  • How do you integrate and deploy changes? Is it CI/CD?
  • Is your infrastructure setup under version control / available as code?
  • What’s the workflow from the planning to the finished task?
  • How do you prepare for disaster recovery?
  • Is there a standardised development environment? Is it enforced?
  • How quickly can you setup a new local test environment for the product? (minutes / hours / days)
  • How quickly can you respond to security issues in the code or dependencies?
  • Are all developers allowed to have local admin access of their computers?

The Team

  • How is the work organised?
  • How does the intra/inter-team communication typically work?
  • How are differences of opinions resolved?
  • Who sets the priorities / schedule?
  • What happens after pushback? (“this can’t be done in the projected time”)
  • What kind of meetings happen every week?
  • What’s the product/service schedule? (n-weekly releases / continuous deployment / multiple release streams / …)

The Company

  • Is there a conference/travel budget and what are the rules to use it?
  • What’s the promotion process? How are requirements / expectations communicated?
  • Is there a separate tech and management career path?
  • How much annual / personal / sick / parental / unpaid leave is available?
  • What’s the status of / view on diverse hiring?
  • Are there any company-wide resources for learning available, like ebooks subscriptions, or online courses?
  • Is there a budget for getting certifications?
  • What’s the maturity stage? (early finding direction / feature work / maintenance / …)
  • Can I contribute to FOSS projects? Are there any approvals needed?

The Business

  • Are you profitable?
  • If not, how long is your runway?
  • Where does the funding come from and who influences the high level plan/direction?
  • How do you make money?
  • What’s preventing you from making more money?

Remote Work

  • What’s the ratio of remote to office workers?
  • Does the company provide hardware and what’s the refresh schedule?
  • Are extra accessories/furniture possible to buy through the company? Is there a budget for them?
  • How often are office visits expected?
  • Are the office meeting rooms always prepared for video conferences?

Office Work

  • What’s the office layout? (open plan / cubicles / offices)
  • Is there a support / marketing / other call-heavy team close to my new team?

Other resources

  • Find more inspiration for questions in the Joel Test