This text is a translation of the viraptor repository. You can offer your questions in English, in the original repository , or in Russian - in my fork , and I will try to translate them and transfer them to the author

Reverse Interview

This is a list of questions that may be of interest to the job seeker. The items are not streamlined and may not apply to a specific position or type of work. At first it was just a list of questions, but over time it began to include those things that I would like to see more, and the “red flags”, that is, things that I want to avoid. I also noticed that many of the people I interviewed did not ask these questions, and, I think, these were missed opportunities.

If you asked questions that are not on this list, please send a pull request!

How to use the list

• Check which questions interest you specifically
• Check which answers you yourself can find on the net.
• Or ask questions in the comments!

It’s definitely not worth asking all the questions on the list.

Remember that many things are very flexible, and reorganizations happen quite often.
The presence of a bug tracker alone does not make work on bugs effective, and the presence of a CI / CD does not mean that the execution and rolling time of features is reduced.

Position

• Is there a duty plan? And what is he like? Does duty and related processing be paid?
• What typical tasks will I have to solve during a normal working day?
• What is the balance of specialists at different levels (junior / senior) in the team now, and are there any plans to change it?
• What is the process of hiring and immersion in work processes?
• How will independent actions and work on specific lists relate in a post?
• What are the expectations for the volume of basic working time?
• What are the success criteria for a specialist in this position.

Technologies

• What technical stack is usually used in the company?
• How do you use version control / source code systems?
• How do you test the code?
• How do you keep track of bugs?
• How do you merge and upload changes? Is this done through CI / CD?
• Is the infrastructure configuration in the version control system? And is it available as a code?
• What is the task path from planning to ending and closing?
• How do you prepare for recovery after an emergency?
• Does the company have a standardized development environment? Is she forced?
• How fast can you bring up a new local test environment for a product? (in minutes / hours / days)
• How quickly do you respond to security issues in your own code and in dependencies?
• Do all developers have local administrator rights on their work computers?

Team

• How is your work organized?
• How do interactions within and between teams usually work?
• How are conflicts of opinion resolved?
• Who sets internal schedules and priorities?
• What happens with sudden breakdowns?
• Will there be any meetings during the week? If so, which ones?
• What is the product release schedule? (Every n weeks / continuous deployment / multiple release channels / something else)
• What happens in the event of an emergency on production? Do you have a culture of incident analysis without blaming specific individuals?
• What problems does the team have yet to solve?

Company

• Is there a separate budget for conferences / working trips, and how can I use it *
• How do promotions happen? How do you agree on the requirements and expectations in this case?
• Are career paths divided in management and development?
• How many days can I skip annually / due to illness / because of children / without pay?
• What are the employer's views on cultural diversity when hiring?
• Does the company have training resources, such as online courses or e-book subscriptions?
• Is there a budget for professional certificates?
• What is the stage of the project? (early, search for directions / work on functionality / support / ...)
• Can I Contribute to Open Source Projects? Do you need permissions for this?
• Will I need to sign non-disclosure or non-competition agreements?

Business

• Is the business profitable?
• If not, how long can you stay stable?
• Where does funding come from, and who influences high-level plans?
• How does a business make money?
• What or who prevents a business from earning even more?

Distant work

• How do the shares of office and remote workers compare?
• Does the company provide hardware, and if so, what is the schedule for updating it?
• Can I buy accessories or furniture through the company? Is there a budget for this?
• How often will you need to visit the office?
• Are chat rooms always ready for video conferencing?

Office work

• What is your office? Open space, cubes, separate rooms?
• Are there support, marketing, or other people who are constantly calling someone next to the team they hire me to?

What else to see

• More ideas for questions are in the Joel Test.