Interview Questions for Applicants

2014/01

I recently graduated from university and finished my big job hunt so my memories are quite recent. Fortunately, the IT industry is in dire need of qualified and motivated people so it is not particular difficult to get invited to an interview. However, it is difficult to find a company that actually cares about you and which does not want to burn you out and throw you away. A good way is to consult a rating website like Kununu for German-speaking countries or to ask the right questions during an interview, but what are the right questions? Therefore, I would like to present you a list of questions, which I used to find a good job in a good company. Keep in mind that some of these questions do not apply to certain positions or are answered right away.

General Questions

1. How is the interview process structured?

2. Why is this position open?

3. Does this position require travel and if so, how often?

4. How much vacation do you get?

5. Is it possible to take unpaid vacations?

6. How many hours do people work in an average week?

7. How variable is the work schedule and location?

Technical Questions

1. Which version control system, issue tracker and collaboration tools do you use?

2. Which software methodology do you use?

• If they use agile development: Why and when do you use it? Whose idea was it?
• If they do not use test-driven development: Do you write tests? How and when?

3. Do you review your code?

4. How do developers talk to the customers?

5. Can I see some source code your team has written?

6. Do you use open source and contribute to the community?

Environment Questions

1. What is the experience level of your team members?

2. How long do they work for you?

3. How is the office space organized?

4. How is the team structured?

5. Do you have a mentorship program or something similar for new employees?

6. How do you prevent burn-outs?

7. How hard is it to switch projects or even locations?

8. How do you communicate internally?

Career Questions

1. How do you support career development?

2. Do you encourage conference visits?

3. Do you support advanced education and training?

4. What are the possibilities to advance within the company?

5. How do you balance work and personal development?

6. Can you give me an example of an employee whose role changed?

Management Questions

1. How do you handle technical debt?

2. How do you assign a project to someone?

3. How long is the downtime between projects?

4. What do your employees do inbetween projects?

5. What is currently the biggest issue you are facing?

6. How do you handle ethical or privacy concerns?

7. How are decisions made?

8. How do you solve disagreements?

9. How do you evaluate personal performance?

10. How are project emergencies handled?

Company Questions

1. How do you make money?

2. What is your revenue?

3. Are you profitable? If they are not: What do you plan to be profitable?

4. Are your financials transparent?

5. How many people do you employ?

6. How many people did you hire this year?

7. How many people left you this year?

8. How many people do you plan to hire this year?

9. Do you have a roadmap for the future?