What NOT to Say in an Interview
41sThe relatable panic of blanking on questions after an interview is a shared experience, making viewers want to learn the avoidable mistake.
▶ Play Clip"Delivers on the promise of ten questions, though some are common sense and the video is a bit repetitive."
This video provides a list of ten essential questions for software engineering candidates to ask during an interview. The speaker emphasizes that asking thoughtful questions demonstrates interest and helps candidates evaluate whether the company is the right fit for them.
Not having questions makes you seem uninterested and you miss out on learning about the company. It's your responsibility to interview the company as much as they interview you.
Ask about the ratio of junior to senior developers to understand if there are more experienced people to learn from. Team size preference is personal.
Ask why they are hiring for this position. It could be team expansion or backfill for someone leaving, giving insight into company dynamics.
Ask about the actual tech stack used by engineers, not just what's in the job description. This reveals whether they use modern technologies or legacy systems.
Ask how much of the job involves working on legacy applications. Building new apps allows learning new technologies, while legacy maintenance may not.
Ask about the number of regular meetings. Software development needs uninterrupted time, so a clear calendar is important. Some companies have meeting-free days.
Ask why developers like working there. Good answers include culture and openness to suggestions, while free snacks are a weak reason.
Ask what training the company offers, such as access to Udemy or Pluralsight, or budget for courses and conferences.
Ask how often they release to production. Frequent releases indicate good testing frameworks, while infrequent releases suggest manual testing.
Ask how they deal with tech debt. Regular meetings to prioritize tech debt are a good sign, while ignoring it is a red flag.
Ask about the biggest challenge the team is facing. This reveals exciting projects or potential red flags like high turnover.
Asking thoughtful questions at the end of an interview is crucial to show interest and evaluate the company. Tailor your questions to what matters to you, and use this opportunity to demonstrate your passion.
Why is it important to ask questions at the end of an interview?
It shows you're interested and helps you evaluate if the company is a good fit.
00:15
What does asking about the ratio of junior to senior developers reveal?
It reveals if there are more experienced people to learn from.
00:41
What is a potential reason for a company hiring for a position?
Team expansion or backfill for someone leaving.
01:08
Why is it better to ask engineers about the tech stack rather than relying on the job description?
Because the job description may not reflect the actual technologies used.
01:22
What is a downside of working mostly on legacy applications?
You don't get to learn new technologies or design software.
01:50
What is a common practice to ensure uninterrupted work time?
Having a meeting-free day, like a meeting-free Wednesday.
02:29
What does frequent release to production indicate?
Good testing frameworks and automated deployment.
03:25
What is a good sign regarding tech debt?
Teams have regular meetings to discuss and prioritize tech debt.
03:52
What can asking about the biggest challenge reveal?
Exciting projects or red flags like high turnover.
04:18
Interview is a two-way street
Emphasizes that candidates should evaluate the company as much as the company evaluates them.
00:15Legacy work limits learning
Highlights the trade-off between maintaining legacy systems and learning new technologies.
01:50Release frequency as a health metric
Uses release frequency as a proxy for the quality of testing and deployment practices.
03:25Biggest challenge reveals culture
Asking about challenges can uncover both exciting projects and potential red flags.
04:18[00:01] senior Engineers answering all their barrage or questions to your best of your abilities then the interviewer turns around to you and says do you have goes blank and you stare at the interviewer and you just say no I think
[00:15] you answered all my questions thank you the problem is not having any questions seem uninterested and more importantly you miss out on the opportunity to find out what the companies really like it is your responsibility to interview the
[00:28] company as much it is for them to interview you so before you go for that know which questions to ask the first is is a great question to ask as it shows that you're interested in the role and
[00:41] what it would be like to work in that team it also gives you a chance to work out what the ratio is between Junior and senior developers are there going to be other people with more experience than you that you can learn from the size of
[00:54] personally prefer working in smaller teams but it really is a personal preference number two 2. why are you hiring for this position this is a get an honest answer it could be that they're just trying to expand the team
[01:08] vacancy for someone that's left or is leaving if you can get an honest answer some good insights into what it might be like to work for that company number three what does your text act look like when you're applying for a job there's
[01:22] stack on the jobs description but it's always better to ask Engineers that are technologies they are using this is your opportunity to work out whether the they are or whether you will be mostly working on Legacy applications talking
[01:37] about Legacy applications you can just ask outright so number four is how much of the job is working on Legacy applications I personally think the best is to be on the ground level building out new applications that way you get to
[01:50] learn new technologies as well as how to design software however if most of the time you're just making small changes to a legacy application you're not going to get to learn these skills or use any of the new technologies if their systems
[02:03] applications then it's worth asking whether there are plans to upgrade them or migrate them to a new platform number five how many regular meetings do software development generally requires large blocks of uninterrupted time so
[02:17] you can concentrate and get in the zone of course it's hard to do that if you're constantly being interrupted by meetings if you like me and you like a fairly clear calendar then it's worth asking what meetings are scheduled each week so
[02:29] you're actually going to have to do your work even better some companies do offer a whole day without any meetings such as a meeting free Wednesday this can be work but it's worth asking whether a company actually sticks to it as
[02:42] day in their calendar and booking meetings anyway number six is why do you from a developer why they like working for a particular company it could be company is a good culture and they're open to suggestions from developers
[02:58] however if the best they can can think of is the free snacks and drink then seven what training does the company offer many companies give their developers free access to udemy and pluralsight which can really help in you
[03:11] learning all the different concepts that you need to know the top companies also can use for either taking additional courses for certifications or for visiting Tech conferences number eight how often do you do a release finding
[03:25] production can be a great indicator of how good their testing Frameworks are teams that release everyday or multiple times a day generally have a lot of would expect a company to release at least once per Sprint if they're using
[03:39] apple or Microsoft that are known for doing big releases infrequent deployments is generally a sign there's a lot of manual testing going on well to get through to be able to get something into production number nine
[03:52] how do you deal with tech debt Tech debt is inevitable in most places but what's important is how teams deal with it and whether the company Acts give some time to address it it's a good sign if teams have a regular meeting to discuss Tech
[04:04] debt and prioritize it in their Sprint so it could be worked on if a team has a lot of tech debt but no time to address it then this is often a sign that the which isn't necessarily an environment you'd want to work in finally you want
[04:18] challenge this gives you the opportunity to dig a bit deeper and try and find out interested in doing maybe they're splitting up a monolith and they're trying to turn it into microservices or they're trying to move to a new tech
[04:31] there's interesting things that are actually excited about working on their biggest challenge is that the company sucks and everyone is leaving insights by asking this question these are the questions that I would ask but
[04:45] it really depends on what's important to you are you interested in doing company does them or is interested in doing them maybe there's a particular want to know whether they use it too make sure you ask even if you don't use
[04:58] you have a passion about what you do beyond having the right skills employers are generally looking for a passionate interesting people who are going to questions at the end of an interview is your chance to show that you're
[05:11] interested in the job if you have any good questions that you always ask at an comments below I'd love to hear what they are thank you for watching and I'll they are thank you for watching and I'll hopefully see you in the next video
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