How to ask questions as an interviewee

Every time a candidate asks “Can you tell me about the company’s culture?” I cringe and get frustrated. It’s not that it’s a bad question (bad would be not asking any questions at all), but there are so many better questions to ask.

What is the point of asking good questions as an interviewee? It can:

• Show that you’re prepared, and this level of attention to detail is something that people tend to carry in all parts of their work, hence why it’s important in an interview.
• Speed up the onboarding process. When you’re onboarding, you’re learning about the work and your coworkers, and along with that comes with learning about how to work with your new coworkers. If you can ask good questions that give you a sense of how you’re going to work together, you’re off to a great start.
• Let you know if you want to work there. Not everyone is in a position to pick and choose their opportunities, but asking the right questions will give you a sense of whether you’re going to be happy there. This also requires a high level of self-awareness; how do you communicate, and does this fit with the people you’ll be working with? Are you flexible enough to adapt to this company’s processes?

To be clear, good questions can’t salvage a bad interview, but for me they can turn a yes into a strong yes. DM me for examples.

So there are a few things wrong with asking about “a company’s culture”:

• A company’s culture does not carry through the entire company. Every department, team and manager will handle things differently. It’s much more important to know how your specific team values something that you find important. For example, does your manager care about creating an equitable environment for all your teammates? Do your teammates respect different working styles? Even if the CEO says something, they’re not at every meeting enforcing the rules. Get to know your team.
• It’s not specific. The answer you’ll get for this question is typically about a perception of how people interact by the water cooler, but it doesn’t answer what happens when prod is taken down. Is the person responsible fired? Is there finger-pointing? Do people learn from their mistakes?

Not a lot of people know this, but here I am announcing it on the internet, last year I interviewed for a product management position at my current company. I didn’t get the job, but I was able to prepare for the final round, which was several panels with people from other departments, like design, data and sales. I had been at the company for two years already, and I knew, if not worked with, most of the people on the panel, so there was really no point in asking about the company’s culture, and questions like that should’ve given my interviewers a wtf moment. Instead, I took the opportunity to learn about these departments from a different angle. How could I advocate for them? What are their priorities? THESE are the right questions to ask.

Long story short, I decided that I wanted to remain an engineer because it is literally the most fun job in the world. Earlier this month I interviewed for another company, and when I was preparing my questions for my interviewers I decided these questions need to answer, what do we need to know about each other for us to have an effective working relationship? Below, I’ll show some of the questions and my thought process behind asking them.

“Based on what you’ve seen from me today, what are some things you would recommend me to work on?” — to engineers after a live-coding interview

Regardless of whether you get the job or not, take the opportunity to get some feedback! You’ll learn things about yourself that maybe your existing coworkers are already used to, but are areas of growth. You’ll also see if there is any gap between how you perceived your performance and what your interviewers observed. This is also insight into how your interviewers, who often will become your direct coworkers and teammates, give feedback. Are they diplomatic? Do they give it to you straight? Are these the kind of people who can help you grow?

“What is a compromise you will not make for the sake of the engineers? — to engineering managers

It’s really important to get to know how your manager sees their role, because the role of “management” varies so much depending on the organization, department and individual. Are they protective of your time? Will they shield you from BS? How will they advocate for you?

“What are some compromises you won’t make for the sake of the user, business objectives, or your own team, and how can I best advocate for your teams?” — to designers and product managers

As an engineer, a large part of my role is to work with product and design to arrive at an optimal solution that takes into user experience, developer effort and business priority, and it’s important to know what factors I’ll need to consider when making decisions. The way in which they answer also sets the precedent for figuring out our communication style, and this is highly dependent of their experience working with engineers. Some PMs were engineers in a past life and you’ll be able to develop shorthand with them. Some designers have never worked in a product development role and need an empathetic, communicative engineer to tell them why something will take too much effort, and when something is simply not possible.

Your interview time is PRECIOUS. We all moan about long interviews, but this is the little time you have to ask the targeted questions you need to make a big life decision. New jobs are big life decisions!

Speaking of which, later this month I’ll be starting a new job! I’m sad to be leaving The Zebra but if you’re looking for a new opportunity, I recommend checking them out: https://www.thezebra.com/about/careers/. You’re going to meet some extraordinarily smart people and have so much fun talking about the weather.

Good luck!