Hiring Technical People

In Part 1, you thought about your culture, and built your lists. In part 2, you developed your questions, and thought about the data you wanted to gather. You started with closed or behavior-description questions, so you had a place to start the conversation.

Now, in part 3, you’re going to think about when to ask the questions, so you learn the most about the culture in this potential job.

When Can You Ask Questions About Culture?

You have opportunities to ask questions about culture in the phone screen and in the in-person interview. You can try to learn the about the culture from the ad, but that’s a little more difficult. There is no guarantee that the hiring manager or team wrote the ad, or that the ad represents the culture.

During the interview, you have the opportunity to learn about the culture in these ways:

• When you meet the receptionist, or whether there is a receptionist
• When you meet each interviewer, and definitely at the end of the interview with each person. See Ask Questions of the Hiring Manager and the Interview Team.
• If you have a meal with anyone, during the meal
• When you meet the HR person

After the interview, you have more opportunities:

• When they call to set up another interview
• When someone calls to check references

Let’s look at each of these.

Before the Interview

During the phone screen, if you have great rapport with the interviewer, consider asking one or two questions. I would not ask more than one or two questions. And, only about something that has burned me more than once. If you thought you were working for an agile organization, and the last two were not agile, you might ask, “Do you do standups every day? Maybe we can schedule my interview so I can see your standup.”

Notice how I framed that question. If the interviewer notices that you are not taking anything for granted, you can explain that you have noticed that some so-called agile organizations don’t have standups every day, and you want to make sure they do.

Whatever you do, do not pass judgement before you get in the door. You have no idea what these people have tried to accomplish what they have. You can choose to take the interview or not. Please make this a judgement-free zone.

At the Interview

Now you have many more options. You can ask the receptionist questions. Maybe you noticed there are assigned parking spaces for “employee of the month.” Ask how those are assigned. I bet the receptionist will tell you. This is how people are rewarded, a big part of culture.

When you meet with people, have your questions ready. If you must, have them on a piece of paper, that you can pull out of your pocket. When you meet with different people, ask each one a different question, at the end of your allotted time. Again, make this a judgement-free zone. You are asking out of curiousity, not putting people on the spot. You want to know why they like working here.

If you have a chance to eat a meal with people, this is great. I like to ask this question, “What is great about working here?” a meta-question. People fall over themselves, answering this question. You will hear all kinds of things. And, you get to eat your meal, which is great.

If you meet with the HR person, you can ask other questions. It really depends on how savvy the HR person is. Some HR people don’t know much about the group you will be working with. They know about the corporation. So, they can’t tell you much about the group’s culture, which is what you really want to know. Remember, every team and every manager puts its stamp on the corporate culture. Ask questions. And, use your judgement about which questions to ask.

After the First Interview

If you didn’t advantage of asking too many questions at the first interview, you should at any second-round or other interview. Remember, the interview is for both you and the hiring manager/team. Don’t interrogate people. Do take advantage of your greater rapport with the hiring manager to ask questions.

After all the Interviews

When the hiring manager calls for your references, provide the references. This is late to be asking questions. You should not have any doubts left. And, if you do, ask your questions. Taking a new job is a big commitment. If you have questions, ask.

Make sure to ask your questions from a sense of curiosity. Don’t judge your potential hiring manager and team. Not without obtaining the facts. Use follow-up questions to learn the facts.

Start with closed questions to learn about data. Use behavior-description questions to learn about recent projects. Try meta-questions to learn about the question, about the organization.

Do you have any questions for me, about how to learn about the culture while interviewing?

You have your lists from What Culture Do You Want in a New Job, Part 1. That means you have six lists:

• Three things you enjoyed talking about at work
• Three things you shook your head about, or made you say, “Huh, what is going on here?”
• Three things that you enjoyed about how the organization/managers treated you
• Three things that about how the organization that made you crazy, that drove you away from the organization
• Three things about rewards or recognition that attracted you to the organization
• Three things about rewards or recognition that turned you off

Now, remember when I said you should Ask Questions of the Hiring Manager and the Interview Team? This is your chance to craft questions and ask them.

Select Your Questions

You can’t just ask all of the questions, all in a row. You need think, “What’s going to make the most difference to me?” You might want to rank these items in these lists. Not everything makes the same difference to you.

Do not go down the list of questions of things drive you crazy. NO. Do NOT do that. You need to craft these questions and ask them carefully.

I’m not big on paternal organizations, as opposed to you, who might like them. This is about how the organization treats you. I hate mandatory fun. I’m okay with holiday parties, but I don’t like summer picnics. I don’t like Halloween parties where the managers have to dress up. I don’t like having to shill for any charities. That is not my thing. So, I am going to ask questions about that. Is it a make-or-break thing in the culture? Maybe not. But it’s something I want to know about.

Here’s how I’ll craft the question. First, I’ll use a closed question to see what the organization does, and if the answer is yes, ask for more data:

Do you have company parties for holidays?… Under what circumstances?

I once had to dress up for a Halloween party. Do you do that here?

Notice that I leave my emotional reaction out of it. I am asking for data. Just ask for data. No leading questions. If the answer is yes, I’ll let the interviewer lead, and go where the interview takes me.

Now, I feel very strongly about not collecting for charity or pushing political organizations at work. I’ll ask the same kind of questions:

Do you have a United Way or other charitable campaign here?

We had a really active political season in 2011. Do you have a policy on politics at the office?

I was consulting to a bank in one of the election years when Bush-the-younger was running. A very senior manager was wearing a Bankers-for-Bush button, and Bush paraphernalia was all over his office. He asked me point-blank if I was voting for Bush. I told him it was none of his business. He told me Bush was good for banks. I told him I was voting for the good of the country. I asked him if he was using his position to tell his people how to vote. He said, “Heck, yes!” I explained that was not a good use of his managerial power and might be illegal.

Your questions might be about meetings (how many) or continuous integration (how do you do it here) or testing (tell me how you do testing here).

When you ask questions about the things that make you crazy, you want to ask for data first. When you ask questions such as “Tell me how you do continuous integration here,” you are making an assumption that people know what CI is. This gives them the benefit of the doubt, which is a nice thing to do. You have also turned this into a behavior-description question. You can then ask, “How did CI work on your most recent project?” Same thing with testing, or any other practice that you’ve noticed makes you crazy at your current job.

Do you see how asking for data, these closed questions, start a conversation? They often get you just enough information. Especially if you have your list of questions.

In Part 3, I’ll discuss when to ask which questions.

One of the things I suggest in Manage Your Job Search is to think about your culture when or before you start interviewing. How do you do that?

An organization’s culture is made of these three things:

• What’s okay to talk about?
• How do you treat people?
• What do you reward?

You can’t just ask these things of yourself. But you can start setting boundaries about what you do want.

Set Boundaries About Discussions

Start with your most recent job. Think back to some conversations you had that made you happy with your boss and with your colleagues that were about work. What did those conversations have in common? List three things. Those are three things that were great. You want to keep them in mind. Those are things you want to be able to talk about at work.

Think back to some conversations that made you uncomfortable or made you say, “Huh?” or “What is going on here?” List three things either in the content of the conversation or about the conversation. Now you have three things that are okay to talk about and three things that are not okay to talk about. Those things you weren’t comfortable talking about? Those might lead into how people are treated at work, too.

Set Boundaries About How the Organization Treats You

Now, how have you been treated at your past job? Did you have one-on-ones with your manager? Did you received feedback and career guidance every week? Did you have collegial relationships with people you worked closely with? Are those things important to you? What else might be important to you? Take your time and list at least three other things that are important to you. Take your time. I know I said that. This is an important step. You don’t have to rush.

Now, list three things that are anti-patterns for you, things that will drive you away from a culture. I don’t mean the paint on the walls, I mean things that will drive you away from an organization. Is it a manager canceling a one-on-one? Is it someone who doesn’t understand continuous integration and won’t learn? (Gee, guess what’s important to me?)

Set Boundaries About Rewards

The reward step is next. Once we are paid enough to get money off the table, we don’t work for money. (See Dan Pink’s Drive.) Many of us in software work for recognition by our peers, but not all of us. Some of us work for a promotion. Some work to accumulate people “under” us. If you want a paternal organization, you want to find someone like that. Me, I ran away from people like that. What do you work for? Again, take your time and list three things that are important to you.

Now, list three things that the company might have done to reward people that just made you nuts. One of my companies a long time ago had an Engineer-of-the-Year award. They only gave it to developers. I was a tester. They only gave it to men. I was (and still am) a woman. They only gave it to single men. I was (and still am) married. Did they think I wouldn’t notice? They gave it at the company Christmas party. It was so noticeably one-sided that I wasn’t the only one who noticed. Several people thought I was going to be rewarded because of my efforts on a particular release. It looked like I had been snubbed.

Here I am, almost 30 years later, and I still feel the anger. Wow. That’s a lot of emotion about a job long gone. That company didn’t recognize me for my efforts. And, I liked working there!

So, list the kind of recognition/reward efforts the company has made that doesn’t fit your style. I’m not saying you will find the perfect company. I am saying that with your lists you can find something that fits you more, rather than less.

Sum Up the Culture For You

Now, you have six lists, three lists of good cultural fit, and three lists of things that don’t fit you so well. Now you get to create questions for the good and bad cultural fit. That’s in  Part 2.