Interview Questions for a Development Job

written in interview, interviewing, job

Last year I went through the rather exciting process of interviewing for a series of positions in search of a new development job. Having sat down and thought about what I had gained from my previous working environments, I compiled a list of questions that I thought would help me gauge the type of work I would be doing and the environment I would be a part of if I took the position.

In the hope that they may assist others, I have decided to document them here. I do not claim to have come up with them all myself (some are from friends and family, others I ran across somewhere on the web), but most were inspired by my own previous experience.

People & Company

What projects are currently on-going?
What is the current team like?
What sort of working environment do you offer?
How does the company support people of different personality types and empower them to get the best from themselves within your working environment?
How do you meet and communicate information within the company?
How do you share knowledge and resources within the company?
What sort of office hierarchy does the company use? How flexible is it?
What parts about how the office is organised and run are open to suggestions? What things are not?
What sized teams do people work in? How often do those teams change? How are they organised?
How do you invest in and support your developers?
What’s important to the company’s culture?
What is the company’s goals or road map for the next 12 months?
What attracted you to the company?
How do most people choose to get to work each morning?

Job Responsibilities

Does this position involve design as well as development?
How much technical and creative freedom is to be expected?
What would be my role here in the company for the first few weeks and how will it change in 3 months time?
What is your best guess at the relative time spent developing new features and performing maintenance or bug fixing?

Technical

What technology could this role offer me the chance to work with?
What sort of testing and quality management measures do you have in place?
What software do you use in the office for version control, communication, deployment, data storage and bug tracking?
What hardware do you use for development, networking, storage and presenting?

Procedures

How do you plan work, estimate risk and agree on deadlines and milestones?
How involved are clients in the design process and in offering feedback?
What sort of review opportunities do you offer, both technical and performance?
How do you track development progress and allow developers to identify and raise problems early?
How do you handle work that is not going to plan, is late or not going to meet a deadline?
How does the company use data and data analysis in its day-to-day operation?
How flexible are the work hours?
Do you offer the freedom to occasionally work from home?

Feedback

Do you have any concerns with my ability to fulfil this role that I can address right now?