A daily dose of software engineering wisdom - inspiring, thought provoking, and sometimes just plain dangerous.

Tags: interview
Inspiration: Bruce Eckel and others

Questions to ask a company you are interviewing at:

- If I want to buy something like a book or a tool, how does the process work (how hard is it?). What's the cost limit before the approval must go up the management chain?
- What's the noise level like during the day?
- How many meetings am I expected to attend, and how long do they usually last?
- Is there a dress code?
- Can I work from home sometimes?
- Does it matter when I work, as long as I come to meetings?
- How many projects have succeeded/failed in the last five years? To what do you attribute the failures?
- How does the group communicate ? (What Wiki, bug tracker and version control system do you use ?)
- How does an employee who has an idea for a new product or project present it to someone with the authority to move it forward?
- How, to whom, and how often are you required to report status?
- Can I pick out my own machine/OS? (Mac, Windows, Linux)
- How long does it take to get a development environment setup ? How long does it take to do a complete build, ready to run in debug mode on a developer's machine ?
- Do you maintain regular release cycles? What is the average length of time between releases? How about in the past 3 months?

And most importantly:
- Can we go sit at your machine and look at some code ?

Last published: Wednesday 14th July 2010

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