Interviewing is always very stressful for me, but one thing that's helped me is framing it as a mutual interview. You're interviewing the company as much as they're interviewing you. After interviews I often think of a bunch of questions that I forgot to ask or should have asked. Thus I compiled this list of questions from a lot of great resources across the web!
What does success look like in this role?
This question lets you know what the company really needs. As a newer developer it can be harder to know if you're doing a good job.
How many people have joined or left your company in the last year?
It's important to get an idea of how much the company is growing and if people are leaving frequently.
If you could change one thing about the company, what would it be?
This question is one of my favorites to ask because a lot of the time you get to hear peoples' honest answers.
What are you most proud of at work?
I like this question a lot because I get to see the personality of the interviewer a bit. Hearing people excitedly talk about their work helps give me impression of what they'd be like to work with as well.
How big is the team?
It's important to get a feel of how many people you could be working with and the structure of the team.
How often are one-on-ones?
I love to have one-on-ones to know how I'm doing and what I could be doing better. One-on-ones with your manager can also help you reach your job and developer goals.
How do you onboard engineers?
Onboarding is a really important aspect of a job and bad onboarding can be a miserable experience to go through. Getting an idea of what you're expected to do in the beginning and how long of a ramp up you'll get can help with expectations.
How do you support the growth of your engineers?
Engineers are constantly learning and knowing that the company supports that and actively wants you to grow is important to me. Companies can have budgets for books, speakers, conferences, and courses to help you keep learning and growing.
What actions have you taken to build an inclusive organization?
Companies often talk about wanting inclusive environments but if they don't have anything in place to foster and create them I'm going to assume it's more PR bs.
How do you help employees achieve work/life balance?
Do they encourage you to take time off, use your PTO? Do they have mental health days and a flexible work schedule? I want to make sure I won't burn out at this job.
Do senior engineers pair with junior engineers in the ramp-up process?
Seniors and juniors working together is extremely important. It helps juniors get a feel for the code and can help foster a safe environment where juniors feel comfortable failing and learning. It's also a great way to learn a lot about the company organizes their code. Seniors can also learn a lot from juniors. Asking why things are done in a specific or giving your thoughts as a new engineer is valuable.
What are some tasks I would do on a typical day?
It's important to understand the range of work you might be asked to do and might help you learn more about the development lifecycle at the company.
Do you have developer documentation for your code?
Old documentation is a red flag for me. Having update to date and easy to use documenation is important for onboarding new engineers and also helps keep code consistent.
Are there any Hackathons conducted internally?
For me this is a fun question I like to ask. I really enjoy hackathons and they help me meet know people I might not get to work with. They also give you time to work on a small fun feature that isn't high enough priority for sprint work.