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Interview questions

interviewing career

Inspiration of questions to ask / to assess in a new organisation
https://franciscomt.medium.com/the-systems-within-a-software-team-dc69d31cf9f9

As an interviewee

For first calls

  • From your perspective, what are the strengths and weaknesses of this firm?
  • How engineering strategy and product strategy work together?

For technical interviewers

  • What is currently slowing down the team's delivery?
  • What process does the team have to identify and improve the system?
  • What do you expect me to accomplish in the first 90 days?
  • What does the shipping look like internally?

For hiring managers or recruiters

  • What are the current goals of the team?
  • How much attention do you pay to reducing friction for the engineering team?
  • How engineering strategy and product strategy work together?
  • What is the largest problem facing the current team that needs to be addressed immediately?
  • What type of personalities generally work well within your team?

As an interviewer or interviewee

  • What do you like most and you dislike most about what you do?

1. How will I fail?
can clue you into whether or not the person who’s interviewing you has truly thought about your success in the role

2. How do you incentivise your team?
tells what is important for the person
Red flags if the incentives are unfair, unattainable, or not well thought through.

3. Can you share an example of something the team did that didn’t go well, and what did you do to course correct?

helps you learn is whether or not the team and leadership have thought about principles and values, how they communicate and uphold those, and how they work to hold a high bar.
The second thing this question can do is help you understand if the team is rewarded for thinking like scientists

Source
https://github.com/readme/guides/technical-interviews

Questions per caterogy

Culture * How engineering strategy and product strategy work together? * From your perspective, what are the strengths and weaknesses of this firm? * How do you balance deadlines with innovation and quality? * What are the key organizational values and principles that I should pay attention to? * How do you choose who to promote?

Impact * What is the largest problem facing the current team that needs to be addressed immediately? * How does this role and project contribute to the firm’s larger goals? * What types of skills and expertise are you looking to fill with a contract engineer? * What are some of the challenges or roadblocks I might encounter? * If you hire me, what would your top priorities be for me? * What behaviors do team members that are the most successful exhibit?
What behaviors do team members who struggle the most exhibit?
What do you think are the best ways to keep an engineering team motivated?

team work * – How can I make sure that I get off on the right foot with my teammates? * – How often does the team meet and how do they prefer to communicate? * – How would you describe the team chemistry and dynamics? Who are the key players? * – With whom will I be working most closely? * – What will be my role on the team? * – What other tips would you offer me?

Ask myself

  1. What is my personality?
  2. What are my values?
  3. What are my strengths vs opportunities for development?
  4. What brings me joy?
  5. What type of work environment do I thrive in?

As an interviewer

Eng manager questions * How do you handle conflict? * How would I monitor team performance from a Product perspective. * Tell me about a time you had an underperforming direct report * What does it mean success to you? How do you measure it? Can you give us some examples? * How you do you measure direct reports performance? Have you managed a low performer individual? * Talk about your teams tech stack and how you picked it. * How do you health-check a team? * How do you health-check a codebase? * Can you tell me about a feedback that had a big impact on your career? Who provided it? What kind of impact did it have on you? * What is your biggest weakness? * Tell me about a time you had to work alongside a difficult co-worker * Describe a time when you failed. How did you overcome this? * You're assigned a task you don't know how to complete. What do you do?

Screening

1: Tell me about the highest-impact project you've done recently.

“Tell me about a time you acted quickly without enough information.” -> If the candidate explains a situation in a way which demonstrates that they have (and understand) bias for action, they are more likely to be hired.

2: What were the goals, and how did you deliver on them?

3: If you replaced yourself with any other PM at the company, how would the outcome of the project have been different?

3 additions from me: 1. Tell me specific moments that you felt celebrating in the PM role? 2. What things do you not like to do? 3. Tell us things didn't go the way you wanted, or a project that didn't turn out how you had hoped.

Great answers: 1: Clearly articulates a high-impact project. 2

: Shares specific milestones and metrics, while giving credit to the team.

3: Cites their specific impact and unique contributions, but does not over-congratulate themselves.

interviewing career
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