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by Eric Wise.
Original Post: Interviewing your employer
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I had a post a while back that discussed my personal interviewing techniques, and how to identify "dead wood" developers in your organization. I received a lot of positive feedback on this topic and it seems many young developers were particularily interested in the application of the topic to better position themselves to impress an interviewer and get a job. Because of the success of the post, I've decided to flip the situation around and teach you how to interview an employer. Over my career, I have rarely had any difficulties finding contract or perm work, mostly because I strive to meet all the attributes of a good candidate (see previous post). Because I have confidence in finding work, I find myself being rather picky as to who I work for and so a while back I compiled a list of questions that I like to ask my interviewers to gage if they're really the type of company I want to work for, or if they're just blowing smoke up my ass.
Without further ado:
What types of tools do you provide your developers?
You can tell a lot about how a company feels about their IT staff by the quality of their systems. Do they provide laptops or desktops? If they provide laptops that's a good sign that you will be expected to work outside the office more. Laptops aren't necessarily a bad sign though, they can be a sign of a company that doesn't mind you leaving the office on time every day and taking any extra work with you.
Are their machines reasonably powerful? Working on a crappy machine is one of those small frustrations that when added to other frustrations can become quite miserable.
Do they provide the latest tools? How do they feel about 3rd party tools? Are developers involved in the decision making process about what tools to buy?
All of these questions can give you a general feel for how much respect developers get in the organization and the kind of budget a department receives.
Tell me about the average workday of a developer of my level.
This question is designed to probe how much time you really will be spending in development versus meetings, training, mentoring etc. Obviously if you're not much of a people person or thrilled about spending hours in meetings then you'll want to avoid companies that have a high percentage of that going on. I am generally wary about companies that tell me more than 95% of my time will be spent coding. That generally points to a weak planning process or worse, a planning process that doesn't involve the people actually doing the work. Keep in mind I'm a more senior level person though, for a junior developer 95% may be ok, although I personally prefer to involve my junior developers in some meetings just to give them a taste of planning and design.
How many hours per week do your developers realistically work?
Yeah, it's advertised as a full time (40 hours) position. This is rarely the reality of the situation, try to find out how much time is really being worked. If it's a lot more, ask for more money unless they pay for overtime. Think of it this way, if you make $30/hr ($60k/yr) and you work 10 hours unpaid overtime per week, your hourly rate just dropped to $24/hr, a 17% paycut. Kick that up to 20 hours extra per week like many of my developer friends work and suddenly you're at 34% paycut, which is like paying double taxes if you think about it.
Do you have a VPN? What is your work from home policy?
This is a very important question for family men like me. I would have to be pretty hard up for a job to take a position that required me to spend more than 50 hours a week in the office. The stress on my family life just isn't worth it.
Do you compensate for overtime?
Yes, we are salaried for the most part. Yes, sometimes you go into "crunch mode" and you will have to put in extra hours. If you find out in the question above that developers work frequent overtime then unless you really don't value your time I suggest that you avoid companies that do not give compensation for overtime.
** Interview Ending Sin ** For me, an interview is over if the company is in a position where they bill their customers for my time and don't compensate me for overtime. If your company bills for your hours, makes a profit from your time, and does not give you a cut... I suggest you find a new position because that's just rape, plain and simple.
Do you have a documented process for rewarding extraordinary work?
This is a great question to ask, you should ask it in all your interviews. Companies that don't have a process in place to reward outstanding effort or achievements are companies that either:
A) Don't ever perform at a high level.
or
B) Don't make employee morale a priority.
Do you have any education benefits?
Very important! With this innocent question you can determine how committed a company is to helping you reach your long term goals. Companies that aren't willing to invest in your education and skillset are companies that aren't showing an interest in keeping you challenged and growing over time.
Interviewees! Remember that it just isn't worth taking a job that you will be miserable at. It will have a negative impact on your attitude, your performance, and your lifestyle. It's just not worth it.
Employers! Happy, well rested developers are far more productive and customer oriented than overworked abused ones. Looking at the list above, there isn't much on there that is unreasonable for an employer to provide. The sad thing is how few do...
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