How do you find out in an interview if the company will have a decent working environment?

Question

I see a lot of discussions about what kinds of questions people ask when hiring programmers (eg. see here), but I'm wondering about the reverse: As the interviewee, what kinds of questions do you ask your potential employer to find out if it will be a good place for you, the passionate programmer, to work and grow?

In particular, I'm curious about how you might discretely find out about office politics and how they might hinder development, before you're stuck in the middle of it. (Eg. Suppose your new team lead hates source control and refuses to use it, and everyone has given up fighting him on it.)

Answer 1

I have asked my latest employer if they will rehire me later if I'll decide to leave company by my own decision.

Answer 2

If possible, try to talk with some of the developers and get a feel for what the culture is like. Ask them about their current projects and what the typical day is like. Find out how much money they spent last year on conferences/training etc.. You can also tell a lot from just the attitude of the interviewers on whether that is the kind of person you want to work with.

Answer 3

The Joel Test, by our gracious sponsor:

The Joel Test

Do you use source control?

Can you make a build in one step?

Do you make daily builds?

Do you have a bug database?

Do you fix bugs before writing new code?

Do you have an up-to-date schedule?

Do you have a spec?

Do programmers have quiet working conditions?

Do you use the best tools money can buy?

Do you have testers?

Do new candidates write code during their interview?

Do you do hallway usability testing?

Answer 4

Ask for a tour of the office. Look for people socializing, look for personalized space. The more sanitized the work space, and the less interesting people look, then most likely, it's not a very interesting place to work.

Ask about office social activities to find out if people do things as a group after work, or for lunch some days, etc.

Ask about the company practices regarding development, to include coding policies, source control and build server setups. Ask about bug tracking and documentation standards.

Any good interviewer for any good company would be happy to discuss those points with you.

Answer 5

• How is the leadership structured? Do they have a very strict hierarchy, or do they feel comfortable allowing programmers to work unsupervised?
• What kinds of technology do they use? How do they feel about using emerging technologies?
• If you are being interviewed by a fellow programmer, ask about their last project. Did they enjoy it? What technologies did they use?

In general, most interviewers seem to appreciate honesty. If you want to know, just ask them.

Answer 6

Ask what the development/release cycle is like and how it functions.
Ask how they're trying to improve the process if at all. Ask how long your interviewer has been there and if he has any complaints -- you should expect this to be diplomatic and him/her trying to sell you and working there. If they do actually have any complaints they feel the need to voice to you then RUN!

Answer 7

I would simply suggest politely asking some interview style-questions of your own back to your potential employer. How do they manage disagreement in the office? Can they give you an example of a recent problem or issue that they have dealt with, and how their team(s) reacted? What's the average length of employment in the department? How long has the longest person stayed, and what have they worked on during that time? You could even ask if it would be possible to talk with any of the team and gauge impressions directly.

If you're also concerned about physical environment, you could ask what they like most about their office space, and what they like least; you could also ask for a tour!

Answer 8

Ask for the tour. One guy I know was been given a tour after a good interview when he noticed a sleeping bag tucked away under one of the developer's desks. He politely cut the tour short and never got back to them.

Answer 9

Definitely ask for a tour of the office. You should be able to get a good sense of things through a tour like that, but keep in mind that the day you take the tour could be quite different from a normal work day. Some companies are not used to outsiders coming in, or interviews going on.

Another big thing that you can ask for is to meet some of the team members. I've never seen anyone ask that question that I've interviewed (been doing a LOT of interviews this summer), but it's something that would score a lot of points with me if I saw a candidate ask for that sort of connection.

All of this requires that you try to relax during your interview. It might be something you do during a second or third interview if you're not comfortable early on. I know interviews can make folks nervous, and I try to be understanding of that... that'd be a good question to post here: "How can I relax more during a job interview?".. I have no answers for that.

Answer 10

Do the Joel test first. Also, depending on the size of the company, see if the team will take you out to lunch. At the very least, try to meet your potential team. If you can tell that they are passionate about what they do, that's generally a good sign.