Hipsnip

Turning the interview around

Turning the situation around in an interview can be a very empowering experience. In fact, it can make you a much more attractive candidate. Many people advise you to research the company at which you are interviewing, or to try to find out as much as possible about the people you will meet. I suggest that, in addition, you go into that interview with a number of questions for them.

Informational Questions

These questions are just so you can get more information. Remember, they’re looking at your life in point-form; and you’re looking at their company in the same way. Try to dig for those things that really make a difference to you. Keep this type of question geared towards measurable things.

Is your company public or private? If it is private, who is the majority stakeholder? If it is public, what was the starting price of shares?

Note that we ask for a combination of publically available and obscure information. It is unlikely they will know the starting price of the shares, but you should be asking something about the background of the company: who is in control?

Could you please describe the reporting structure in the company?

If they can’t explain this, or things are very confused, you may want to steer clear of this particular place. This is one that you can be firm about: if the company refuses to divulge this or says “we’ll get back to you”, run - don’t walk - away from the interview.

How many new clients do you acquire per year (on average)?

What is the average amount of time clients have been doing business with you? I mean, do clients tend to do a lot of repeat business with you?

Here you’re trying to figure out whether they are dedicated to the clients they have or whether their goal is just to amass a huge number of clients and write off the ones that are dissatisfied. You will be a lot happier in your job if you are working for a company that actually cares about it’s clients. If it doesn’t it won’t allow you to do your job as well as you could. I’ve worked for companies where I was told point-blank to not support a given client before the end of the month.

What is the average budget for projects? I’m just looking for a ball-park: do you consider a $10,000 budget to be “a project” or is it more like $100,000 is “a project”?

These are slightly touchier but, asked correctly, shouldn’t be a problem. You’re not asking for hard facts or numbers, just trying to get an idea. Imagine they asked you “how many new programming languages do you learn per year” or “how many new articles do you write in a year” or whatever. You’re both gauging how the other does business.

Once you know the size of projects, you can ask about lifecycle and scheduling as well as how the work breaks down.

What is the average frequency of releases?

A low frequency will tend to indicate a project where the requirements shift a lot with low visibility and very delayed communication channels. A high release frequency often indicates projects that are well-planned and where communication and follow-up are very important.

What is the average defect rate of your releases?

A high defect rate will imply that the team rushes to put too much into each release. Instead of making sure everything works, they cram in a bunch of functionality and fix it later.

This can also be indicative of a deeper problem in the company. Sometimes internal groups will push to have features added to a release even though they know that the feature will be broken at release time. Why? Well, many teams have policies regarding bug fixes; usually, bugs are high priority and get dealt with in “operational time” whereas features are usually lower priority and need to be scheduled, estimated and (hopefully) prioritized. Once the broken feature is “in”, any breakage is considered a bug! Yay! Now the development of that feature is actually high priority.

Watch out for high defect rates (as if they’ll tell you).

Second only to high defect rates (in terms of scariness) is companies that have 10,002 bugs logged against the current version of their product that they have accumulated over the last 4 years.

What is the average age of bugs in your bug database?

I don’t want to know how many. I want to know how long. If you never close bugs, I will feel that I am performing some sisyphean task that will never end. Conversely, a well-maintained bug database with young bugs in it can be challenging and exciting.

Please describe a project lifecycle.
How many people provide the vision for each project?
How often do you cancel projects?

This should be pretty simple. You just want an idea of who touches what and at which point in the process. You also want to get a feel for the way roles interact: figure out if project management is confused or clear and whether or not the company is actually committed to the projects it starts.

When was the last time you fired somebody because they were incompetent? I don’t mean that’s what you put on the slip, I mean that the real reason was incompetence?

This one takes a bit of stones to ask. But it’s important: I have found myself in situations where a company’s culture of “family loyalty” was protecting individuals who clearly were no longer pulling their weight.

Do you have any employees that work more than 60 hours a week? If so, what percentage of the company works those hours?

How frequently do you expect me to do overtime? How much overtime would be required in those scenarios?

Employees working lots of overtime implies poorly planned projects, overworked (and probably frustrated) managers and deadlines that will walk all over the rest of your life as you while away the hours burning the midnight oil on the latest release. If more than 15% of the employees work overtime on a regular basis, you should think twice before accepting a position. Make sure to check about the compensation structure for overtime. Some companies will demand overtime frequently and still only pay “time” instead of “time and a half”. Usually this will be phrased as “you bank the hours”; if so, ask how often the bank is paid off.

With regards to the frequency and duration/amount of overtime, make sure that this company is willing to set limits on how much it asks employees to pay for management’s mistakes. A company that requires OT “as needed to complete the project for the deadline” will drive you into the ground.

All of these questions should have given you a nice idea of how the company runs and works on an operational level. You should have a relatively clear picture of the business model as well as how that model is actually executed.

Equipment/Tools/Environment Questions

Next you should ask a series of questions about the tools available to you in the work environment as well as the environment itself.

Is there natural light where I would be sitting?
Is it noisy where I would be sitting?

You may want to check the area out for yourself. Make sure you are not getting stuck in a small area surrounded by the sales agents’ bullpen. Make sure you are not sitting right next to the main door everybody troops in and out of. Check that you are not assigned a tiny cubicle with cork-board ceilings and neon lights.

Can you describe the specs of a standard workstation?

What kinds of regulations/restrictions do you have in terms of the configuration of existing machines? Do you have a web proxy? Can I stream internet radio? What software can I install to customize the machine?

Can I bring in my own “extra” work-station (laptop, netbook, etc.)? If not, can I bring my own USB drive with my preferred tools and plug it in?

In order for you to do your job, you need the right tools. Make it clear from the get-go that you don’t want to skimp in this area. Ask if you can get more RAM; ask if you can get a second monitor. These are important considerations: you wouldn’t ask somebody to chop wood all day with a blunt axe.

Similarly, arbitrary restrictions on installing software or on network configuration can lead to huge delays in your work on a daily basis. One place I worked had a web proxy in place and insisted that we (the developers) go through it. When a rush project showed up that required us to access sites normally blocked for other users, it took days to get our workstation configurations changed. Make sure that this company is not hobbling you arbitrarily from day one.

Bringing in your own laptop or drive can often be a good compromise. You can have all your stuff set up the way you like and you can transfer files using a USB stick or bluetooth dongle or whatever.

Is there a whiteboard or other similar collaboration tool available to us? Similarly is there a conference room available for meeting?

Make sure the company understands that developers do not work only in cyberspace. There should be an area where you can spitball; a water cooler or coffee machine as well as a whiteboard or at least standing giant notepads (you can get them from 3M). It is very important to have a secluded area that can be booked for up to half a day at a time. If you can never get the time to brainstorm in a proper forum, your work will suffer.

Is it possible to adjust the height of desks, chairs and monitors?

How about temperature and air quality control? Who handles that?

If it isn’t possible to adjust your environment, or if it is very difficult, you may be uncomfortable for weeks or months while you wait for a “technician”.

What was the most recent technological innovation brought into the company from outside (ie. new language, new server type, new technology, etc.); who brought it in? Why was it brought it?

Some companies are still chugging along with the same tech as in 2000. Try to find out what changes this company makes. Who is making those changes and why? This will tell you a lot about how this company evolves. A company whose changes were all driven by the same person who left two months ago may not be such a great prospect after all.

How many hours a week do you expect me to be in the office?
Do you encourage remote working? Is it possible?

Note that we are not talking about how many hours you are paid to work. Just how many of them need to be spent in the office. More and more jobs are allowing people some degree of flexibility with remote working. You can mention that you enjoy taking a tough problem home to work on it; you may be surprised at the positive reactions you get.

Will you expect to be able to call me if a problem occurs in a production environment? Do you expect me to answer the phone in the middle of the night? Will you provide me with a phone for this purpose?

Most companies expect to be able to call you, off-hours, every once in a while. This is perfectly acceptable. On the other hand, it should be clear that if they want to be able to depend on the fact that you will answer the phone, they need to compensate you for that. The easiest way is to ensure that they have a policy that allows you to “bill” for off-hours work properly.

If the company provides you with a phone, check what times they expect you to monitor the phone. 24/7 coverage should cost them something. Oh, and make sure you don’t need to pay for inbound or outbound local calls. It should be clear to the company that you will use the phone for personal, local, use. If they refuse, do not accept the phone.

If they will not provide you with a phone, make sure to specify that you will communicate only via landline and will not accept “expense account” stuff for your cellphone bill. This means that you will not answer the phone while at the country or at the grocery store. It also means you will not spend time chasing the finance department for the $11.87 in daytime minute charges you paid last month.

Soft Questions

These are what are normally referred to as “HR Questions” during the interview.

Imagine an employee comes to you to report that they are being psychologically harassed; how do you handle it?

Describe a time that an employee filed a grievance against another employee.

It’s important to get a feeling for whether or not this HR department has ever had to deal with “real” issues. Role-play this one with them a little and make sure that you are comfortable with their answers.

The second bit is asking for concrete “proof”. Get them to explain exactly how the situation went down.

How often do you have social events?

Are there any initiatives in the company that promote extra-curricular activities? (Company hockey team, debate team, etc.)

A company that won’t at least lie about having social events is no fun. Boo-urns.

Is there a provision for training? Could you describe what a year’s worth of training would look like for somebody in my role?

Could you describe the training of a single employee last year?

A lot of companies talk a big line about training but are surprisingly lacking in follow-up. Getting them to describe an actual employee’s training schedule will give you an idea of what kind of training actually takes place in this company.

Describe a time when two employees disagreed on how to accomplish a task; how was the situation resolved?

Again, you can do a little role-playing. You want to make sure that there are conflict management tools in place to help you in the (hopefully unlikely) event that you have problems yourself.

Do you use Open Source software? Have you released changes to any projects?

Check for stuff that you, personally, like or believe in. You may not take a $10,000 pay cut to get this stuff, but it’s a good thing to know about it because it might just make the difference ceteris paribus.

Do you do work for the [military, goverment, communists, whatever]?

You probably already avoid applying to companies the make porn sites unless that’s what your portfolio is specifically geared towards. But what about the other, less obvious philosophical mismatches? I have a friend who refuses to work on military projects. Make sure this company is not engaged in any behaviours that will cause you to lose sleep at night.

What local charities are you involved with? Do you do any community work?

If these things are important to you, check to see who this company supports. Previous employers of mine have worked with homeless shelters, breast cancer research fund-raisers and other non-profit organizations.

Conclusion

Interviewers often have a way of making the candidate feel like they are on the spot. They make you feel like you’re lucky if you get an interview, much less a job offer, from them. They poke and pry into your professional life and often will even ask inappropriate questions about your personal life.

It’s the nature of the beast.

Remember that you are the one that does the work that they sell. They will charge their clients at least twice what you charge them. They will blame you for failures and keep the accolades for themselves.

It’s time to turn the tables.

There are a thousand companies out there that are doing cooler stuff than these guys. There are tons of places to work. You are not some fungible human resource. Don’t act like it.