Questions I Ask as an Interviewee for Software Engineer Positions

a thread for those like me looking for well-matched role

Q: What does a successful candidate or teammate look like to you?

- really listen here, and assure them that if it doesn’t sound like you, you’ll say so.

- not only do you want to elevate those around you, you want to be successful yourself.

- you are looking for a place to THRIVE not just survive. (I mean, also pls hire me because I need groceries)

pro-tip: use their answers to tell a small story or two about how you ARE those things and compliment them on seeing the value in that 

<3

Q: Are you proud of the work you’re doing? Do you think your peers are proud to work here?

- this one is really telling. don’t judge the hesitation too harshly, it’s a hard question…. AND PEOPLE WILL HESITATE.

- this is a point where you might get a feel that the engs aren’t engaged or are frustrated with mgmt support. 



- side note: I was on an interview where I didn’t even have to ask this - the eng manager was clearly so effin proud of the team and now I really wanna work there

Q: How do you tell the difference between someone who will make a good leader, teammate, and engineer and someone who has a lot of experience in a particular technology?

- this is pretty direct, but as someone less confident in my “technologist” skills and more in my problem solving, collaboration, and engineering skills it's important to ask

- it’s kinda a statement more than a question, but like, you can get a feel for how experienced THEY are in looking for those qualities or if they even value the difference

- i mean it's cool if they are just looking for a technology specialist, but thats probably not the best fit for me. it's leaving so much of my value on the table

Q: Tell me about the team? What are the last successes or last “do it right the second time” lessons y’all had? What did you do to change it?

- you get to learn a lil about team dynamics. information to be able to relate to the team

- opportunity to directly mention ways you can contribute to these hyper-relevant situations (you may have exp with this on a previous team and can share a solution you tried)

- more importantly you want to hear that they *acknowledge* and *address* problems they are having

Q: How do you measure internal success?

- I don’t know why I ask this one, I just like to hear about how they know what they’re doing is hitting marks or not. what even are the marks?

- increased activity is not improvement.

Q: what happens when you realize a team is under supported? (i.e. in consulting when you realize your engineers need a product / project / design help or that you generally oversold or underbid)

- I really just want to hear about how they support

Q: Who are you learning from? How do your engineers learn (slack channels, lunch & learns, PR reviews?)

- you want to level up and level up those around you. some people throw money at this for conference budgets but some places have it more as daily culture

- if you’re talking to a lead and they aren’t learning from anyone… run.

- this can also show how silo'd knowledge and growth might be at the org

Q: how many junior engineers or apprentices do you have? Are there opportunities to pair with them regularly?

- i dunno but I don’t really want to work anywhere that doesn’t hire juniors? 


- mentoring is important to me! I do some of my best work when pairing and teaching

fin

just wanted to put these thoughts out there while I was having them incase they help anyone else find good fits <3

i woulda made it a blog post but I don't really have a blog? maybe that should change soon tho

Oh, another harder one I often ask is...

Q: How do you listen to whether or not engineers are ethically aligned with the projects they are on?