Asking your prospective boss questions

“And now, do you have any questions for us?”

“Ehhhhhmmmmmm……. yeah…. Do you guys have a ping pong table?”

“….. No.”

These situations can be way too common. Often when you’re hunting for a job you get so caught up in making sure that you can nail everything that they throw at you that you often forget that you can ask them questions. As a developer you are as much interviewing the company as they are interviewing you. There are two questions being answered when you interview. Do they want me in their team and do I want to be on their team. You’re career can often be viewed as a series of decisions and accomplishments. You need to put some serious weight into those decisions and asking good questions to your potential boss can help you make better choices.

I recently changed jobs and as a result I had to go through several different interview processes. I realized during this adventure that I wasn’t really asking very good questions. The responses I received would never really sway me in either direction. This made these questions irrelevant. Not to mention that asking ineffectual questions can make you seem like an ineffectual person. People want to work with people who are concise and inquisitive, not meandering and passive.

When I realized what I was doing I started to ask some of my more senior colleagues for advice. With the preamble done. Here is the wisdom that I have captured.

What makes a good question

The big feedback I got was that you are looking for red flags. If you have reached the point in the interview process where you are asking a manager or a developer questions you are probably ok with the salary, location and project type. They have already waxed lyrical about the great benefits of working at the company they represent. It is time for you to turn cynical and start asking the awkward questions that reveal flaws. You are essentially looking for a reason not to take the job.

Good questions should have quantifiable answers. An example of a bad question is “What’s the work life balance like?”. A much better question would be, “How many times in the last month did someone on the team get woken up by a pager?” or “How often do you or another developer have to stay in late?”. These questions have much more concrete answers. They do not provide much wiggle room. If the interviewer does not give you numbers then push for some. If they still don’t then that is a red flag! Vague questions will lead to vague answers which ultimately are not answers at all.

Examples of good questions to ask

Now without further ado here are some examples with some nice explanations of why they might be insightful questions.

How many items are in your backlog? A short backlog indicates little foresight, a long one indicates lots of bugs or a lack of backlog grooming. Both situations can be really bad.

A short backlog indicates little foresight, a long one indicates lots of bugs or a lack of backlog grooming. Both situations can be really bad. How much time does it take from idea to implementation? This can be a great indicator of bureaucracy and/or politics. Either way, a long time is gonna be a bad time.

This can be a great indicator of bureaucracy and/or politics. Either way, a long time is gonna be a bad time. Lead time from code change to being in production. Nothing frustrates me more than the feeling that I have no impact and taking forever to release a small bug fix will breed that emotion quickly.

Nothing frustrates me more than the feeling that I have no impact and taking forever to release a small bug fix will breed that emotion quickly. Does your team have stand-ups / sprint plannings / retrospectives? Generally an indicator of how organized a team is.

Generally an indicator of how organized a team is. How many people attend the teams standup / sprint planning / retrospective? Too many cooks spoil the broth. If you have ever been in a team where there’s more managers than developers you’ll know what I mean.

This is by no means an exhaustive list but it’s something that I wish someone could have given me before I started doing job interviews. Once you have seen good questions it becomes easier to formulate your own.

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