What should I look for during my interview? Part 1
Great, you’ve done a lot of research into companies you’d like to work for, sent off an application or three, and gotten an interview. Have confidence in yourself and your skills and have a good conversation with the interviewers. Don’t worry, you will get an offer. The real question is whether you should accept it. How do you know whether this will be a good place to spend half of your waking life? That, my friend, is a mystery and one never covered by career councilors. I’ve now gone through the process twice, which isn’t nearly enough to make me an expert, but I will pass on what little knowledge I have. In Part 1 I’ll look at how to evaluate the people you see outside of the interview and the equipment you use, in Part 2 I’ll look at questions you should ask your interviewers, and in Part 3 I’ll look at software and development tools/methods.
First things first, pay attention to everyone you meet. You are looking for signs of stress. Usually stress manifests in facial expressions, overall body tension, and weight gain. Do people look generally happy? Are there smiling faces around and maybe a couple of people conversing in a break room or at a desk (note I said “conversing” and not “having a meeting”)? Do people who are actively working look slightly frantic? Make sure you see the people you will be working with are included in the assessment, there are countless cases where it is only one project that is on a Death March while the rest of the company is doing great.
Look at how everyone is dressed, they should look clean but comfortable. If the programmers are dressed as well as you are during your interview you need to turn and run. If you’ve read Peopleware (see my review) you’ll know that this is a sign that either the management doesn’t know how to manage knowledge workers or things are not going well at the company and they are trying to fix things by making company-wide “professionalism” policies. Both are very bad signs. Of course the opposite is almost as bad. If people are in ratty jeans and don’t look like they’ve showered in the last week they either haven’t had time to go home to shower and change, they really don’t care about their job, or they are the reason for the dirty computer hacker/nerd stereotype.
The next thing to look at while walking around is the equipment the programmers are using. Does everyone have two monitors (hopefully at least 17″ LCDs)? Studies have shown that the one surefire way to improve productivity in programmers is to give them more monitor space. Even if it only saves 5 minutes in a day that second monitor will pay for itself in two months at a programmer’s salary. If every programmer does not have two LCD monitors it’s time to turn and run. Is everyone using fairly new computers with lots of RAM? Try and see if you can get the exact specs of someone’s machine. 64 bit and multicore are nice, RAM is essential. At least 1 gig is a must for anything that isn’t running Vista and 2 gigs for a Vista machine. Make a note of the software the developers are using. Is it up to date? We’ll cover the software in detail in Part 3. Take a look at the chairs. Are there quite a few chairs that were self-bought or have extra pads and lumbar supports added on? You’re going to be sitting on your butt for most of the day, a good, comfortable chair is essential. Just like with formal dress if you are not comfortable you will not be able to concentrate and you will be in the zone much less often leading to reduced productivity and a literal pain in your butt.
Finally take a look at the noise level around where you would be sitting. Would you have an office with a door that closes? If not, are you near enough to sales/support/marketing/anyone else that’s constantly on the phone or otherwise talking? Are the cube walls tall enough to provide a sound barrier? Do phones ring constantly or is there a paging system that hasn’t been turned off and burned? Extra noise is distracting and keeps you out of the zone more often than not. Will you have a window within view or at least something in the distance you can focus your eyes on? Staring at a screen 2 feet away for 8 hours at a time will cause eye strain unless you have something at a distance you can focus on periodically.
I hope this has given you a good idea about what you should be looking for as you interview. Don’t forget to check out Part 2 and Part 3.
