Developer Interview: “Any Questions?”

One question you can always expect to ask at the end of the interview is, “Do you have any questions for me?” This is a very cunning question. The interviewer hopes to learn more about you personally from the question. For you, the question is a good opportunity to find out more about the company or the job. This is by no means a bad thing. “Any information from a question-and-answer game, as well as the location where the interview takes place, the drinks you are offered, the titles the interviewers have” will give you more insight.

The following questions are presented to help you with your job selection:

Ask a follow-up question to something you've heard before

For example, if you were asked about red-black trees (binary search tree type data structure), ask how the company uses them and why they didn't choose an AVL tree. This shows the interviewer that you were listening. It also helps you better assess his technical ability and whether the question has any real application in the development department. Maybe it was just a “Have a computer science degree” filter if it's not on your resume.

Carefully ask about career paths

Ask how you can develop within the company. Are you interested in a management role, just ask for it. If you are more interested in a purely technical career, ask if there is a non-management technical career. While this won't give you the full picture, it will help you figure out if there's a defined process or things just happen. But be careful, there are wrong ways to ask this question. That said, avoid those questions that come off as if you don't want the position, like, "How long will it be before I can be promoted?" or “What about after this job?”. Show that you want the job and want to stay with the company for a while. The best way to do this is to ask: “Tell me more about the different career paths here”.

Ask about the process

If the company claims they use Agile methods and you will also work on an Agile development team, ask for more details. The development process is often changed and optimized in many companies. Since the process greatly affects the way you work, it's best to ask about it beforehand.

Ask about something that annoyed you at your last job

It's often the little things that add up. Choose a small incident that annoyed you. For example, maybe you didn't like the fact that people sat at stand-ups. Ask how it is lived in this company. If you do ask, don't scold your former employer or say why exactly you're asking.

Ask each interviewer the same question

There may be different interviewers in your application process. The variety of answers given by different interviewees to the same question will be very revealing for you. Any interviewers (who will likely be talking to each other about you) will know you did it and will respect your double checking.