
I talk to a lot of candidates that forget that interviewing is a bi-directional process. In the world of technology companies and startups specifically the candidates are interviewing the company just as much as the company is interviewing them. Over the years I have collected some questions that I believe could help someone understand if the opportunity is right for them. Here are some areas that I believe every candidate should touch through the interview process:
Business
- Who are the customers? What happens if they don’t have your product?
- What are the revenues right now and what are the means of ramping them up?
- What is the financing now and how much runway do you have left?
- When delivering your product/service - how much of the process is digital and how much of the process involves people or hard assets? Are those non-digital parts of your service on your books/payroll?
- What is the current team/department budget? What is included in the budget?
Position Fit
- What is the difference between an OK person in this role and a super star?
- What in my experience stood out as something that will help you "move the needle?"
- What is the technical stack? What are the biggest legacy code problems?
- (For leadership roles) Can you tell me about my direct reports? What is their career plan and their passion?
- Who are the people who failed at this? Why did they fail? What happened when they did?
- What is the expectation for the next 30-90-180 days?
Culture
- What do you love about working here? What keeps you here? What things annoy you?
- How do you evaluate performance?
- What are the metrics that the company is tracking?
I am certain that I "stole" these questions from people and articles. I wish I remembered the sources to give them credit now. If you have some other questions you believe would be helpful - please comment or send them my way.
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