Previously, I posted a list of interview questions that I ask job candidates. This post is about the questions that I ask when I am the candidate. (Remember that interviews are two-way – you are interviewing the company to see if you want to work for them just as much as they are interviewing you to see if you will fit in working for them.) I’ve gleaned these questions over the years from several locations, including monster.com – Monster also has an entire section to help interviewees do their best at an interview here.
| Question |
|---|
| “What happened to the person who previously did this job? (If this is a new position, how has this job been performed in the past?)” |
| “Where are your challenges, and where do you see me focusing?” |
| “What is the first problem the person you hire must attend to?” |
| “Can you describe what my first day, week and month would look like?” |
| “What’s your average employee’s work schedule like, including work from home, and after hours?” |
| “Can you describe the ideal candidate for this position?” |
| “How would you describe the company culture?” |
| “Why did you choose to work here, and what keeps you here? (Ask each person involved in interviewing you)” |
| “What don’t you like about working here? (Ask each person – many won’t answer unless they are alone with you)” |
| “What one thing would you change about the company?” |
| “What has surprised you the most about working here?” |
| “What can you tell me about the individual to whom I would report?” |
| “Can you give me a breakdown of the number of physical/virtual / clustered computers running SQL Servers that you have?” |
| “Can you give me a breakdown of the number of SQL Server instances and databases you have installed by environment (Production/QA/Development)?” |
| “What is the size of your largest database? What is the size of the largest table in that database? What is the total size of all databases?” |
| “Do you use any form of Source Control? Do you use Continuous Integration tools? Do you have any issues with these processes?” |
| “Can you give me a birds-eye view of your disaster recovery plan?” |
| “Tell me about your coding and release standards.” |
| “Is your company required to adhere to any regulations, such as Sarbane-Oxley (SOX) / HIPAA / PCI? If so, how do you ensure compliance (separate people assigned to review regulations and set policies, IT staff is responsible, etc.) If not, does your company voluntarily follow any of the regulations?” |
| “What are the company’s five-year sales and profit projections? (Or what are the company’s future plans for new products and services or any planned market expansion?)” |
| “What’s our next step?” |
One question that I have used in the past, which worked very well and was not anticipated by anyone that interviewed me, is “What has surprised you the most about working here?”
Reply
Stephen, I really like that question. Thanks for mentioning it!
Reply