Skip to content
master
Go to file
Code
This branch is 13 commits ahead of dlovitch:master.

Files

Permalink
Failed to load latest commit information.
Type
Name
Latest commit message
Commit time

README.md

employer-test

A list of questions to ask potential employers.

Work Style

Ownership

  • Does one single person own a unit of work (task, project, product, etc)?
  • Can that single person's manager override the decisions made by that person on that unit of work?

Culture

  • How are goals communicated throughout the organization?
  • How is mentorship approached?
  • What does a week look like when the stars align and everything goes the very best it can?
  • What does a bad week for your team look like?
  • Tell me about your last vacation
    • Looking for more about how detached did they get, and did they take a vacation at all more than the details
  • How many weeks over 40-50 hours have you put in in the last year?
  • How much turnover has your team/org/company had in the last year?
  • When you think about your company, what fills you with gratitude? Optimism? Concern?
  • What do you enjoy about your job?
  • If you were to leave this company, what is the most likely cause of your departure?
  • Do you like your job? Why or why not?

Values

  • What are your organization's values?
  • What characteristics to you look for in employees to exemplify those values?
  • Tell me about a time where values were considered as part of making a tough decision. How did values affect the outcome?

Leadership / Management

  • Do managers regularly meet 1-1 with their reports?
  • How responsive is your management to your questions and concerns?
  • What does success look like for a manager here? How about failure?
  • What sort of training do you give managers? Even if not interviewing for a manager role
  • What does organizational leadership do well?
  • How could organizational leadership improve?

Other teams

  • How does this role relate to other teams?
  • Do people regularly interact across departments?

Defining Success and Failure

  • How might this role help with the organization's challenges and opportunities?
  • Imagine it's a year from now, and you're thinking "I'm so glad we hired Your Name Here". What are the top 3 things I did that made you glad you hired me?
  • Who is currently making important contributions to your organization? What qualities do they have that are adding such value?
  • Who has gotten ahead in your org? To what do you attribute their advancement?
  • What 3 things differentiate someone who is really great in this org from someone who is merely good?
  • What does success look like in this position?
  • Imagine it's a year from now, and you're thinking to yourself "We made a poor choice in hiring for this role". What are the things the person you hired did that make you regret the hire?
  • What concerns do you have about my suitability for this role?

Employee Health and Fatigue

Work Hours

  • How many days do employees work over the standard working hours?
  • What are the standard working hours?

Locations

  • Can employees work outside of the office ("work from home")?
  • Are there any restrictions on when employees can work outside the office?
  • Do employees each have their own office?
  • Are there partitions or space between each employee's workspace?

Time Off

  • How much time off is given per employee?
  • Do different employees get a different amount of time off?
  • Is there a minimum amount of time off required/expected of each employee?
  • Is sick leave counted as time off?

Parental leave

  • Who is eligible for parental leave?
  • How much parental leave is given?
  • How much parental leave is taken?
  • How do other employees view someone who takes parental leave?

On Call

  • Are employees expected to be on call?
  • If employees are expected to be on call, is a device provided or compensated?
  • How often do on-call employees get notified?
  • What sorts of tasks does your team do to reduce the number of on-call incidents?

Future

Growth

  • How much room for growth do you feel people here have on average?
  • How much room for growth do you individually feel you have?
  • Do you have a clear understanding of your career ladder?
  • Tell me about a new idea that someone brought to you that was a surprise, either because you hadn't thought of that solution or hadn't even considered the problem they solved.
  • What do you see as the most challenging aspects of this role?

Challenges and Opportunities

  • What are the biggest challenges facing the team/org/company?
  • Where are the biggest opportunities right now?
  • If you had a magic wand and could change anything about your org, what would you change?
    • Variant: If you had an infinite amount of money & the CTO's job, what would you do?
    • Variant: If you could improve 3 things about your org, what would you improve?
  • What challenges and opportunities will the person you hire for this role encounter in their first year?

Compensation and Benefits

How is compensation calculated?

  • Are pay bands used to determine compensation?
  • Is compensation negotiable?

How transparent is your compensation?

  • Is all employee compensation public knowledge?
  • Is all employee compensation known within the company?
  • Is employee compensation shared within the team?

What kind of meals are compensations?

  • Is breakfast provided?
  • Is lunch provided?
  • Is dinner available and provided?
  • Is there non-meal time food available?

Organizational Structure

Who do people report to?

  • Does every individual have one single manager they report to?

Distributed teams

  • How do you approach distributed teams?
  • Are managers and reports co-located?
  • Are teams co-located?
  • How are decisions handed off between time zones and locations?

Tech / Tools

How are devices supported?

  • Are personal devices allowed to connect to the company network?
  • BYOD? BYOA?

Diversity

How is diversity approached?

  • Composition of team you will be joining?
  • Does your company have an active diversity policy/program?
  • How do you define diversity?
  • Does this company value diversity? If so, how do employees individually and the organization broadly demonstrate this?
  • What are you doing to ensure diverse teams?
  • What resources are available to provide safe spaces for people in the organization?

"Org smells"

Finance

  • What is the customer churn and/or renewal rate?
    • Whether they know the rates is a good indicator, separate from what it is.
  • (If a startup) What is your runway? How many employees do you have?

See also

About

No description, website, or topics provided.

Resources

Releases

No releases published

Packages

No packages published
You can’t perform that action at this time.