What to Ask Your Next Potential Software Developer Boss?
You’ve landed that great job, but in hindsight, there were a few more questions that you should have asked before taking the job. As a future reminder for myself and as a reference for you, here’s my list of questions to ask your potential future employer (for a software developer of course) before taking your next job.
Do you have a Scrum Master and what’s there experience?
This is probably the more obscure one that I took for granted. You practice scrum right? So surely the team works great?
I made this assumption and I regretted it two sprints into the new team. Now I have a new appreciation for Scrum Masters!
Who is regulating what ticket’s we take into the sprint? Are we creating duplicate tickets half way through the sprint? What’s the quality of details and analysis that we are putting into the tickets? Are we doing the Backlog Refinement and following Scrum correctly?
Scrum Masters impact such a significant portion of the team, and on a day to day basis, that I would honestly consider them to be the most important member of your team. If you don’t have one of these, then y’all got a problem, and it ain’t small…
Edit
WIth a bit more experience I’ve realised that I actually prefer KANBAN. It removes all the fluf from scoring tickets and removes the hard time limitations on doing a Jira. Developers can get right into it without the pressure of the sprint retro looming around the corner.
Are your product owners actively involved in Sprint Planning?
Do you want the work you do to add value to business and have purpose? Well this is how. Make sure they are getting involved throughout the sprint if necessary, but mostly during planning. They will ensure that the correct tickets are taken into the sprint and that the tickets represent work that they actually want and that they will gain value out of.
Do you have a CI/CD Pipeline?
A popular one I'm sure, but not everyone prioritises this. It can practically eliminate an entire chain of responsibility and really enable the developers. I’ve had the privilege of seeing a fully functional one and its beautiful… Also deploying during business hours, cause no developer wants to stay after hours.
A good example is TeamCity and Octopus. Unfortunately Octopus requires a license. A company that is willing to spend on this tells you they have their priorities right!
Who’s going to be my manager/s and can we please arrange a meeting?
Alright this is a generic one, but its now happened to me twice where my line management has changed. “People don’t quit a job, the saying goes — they quit a boss.”
You need to, at the very least, have a pre-employment meeting with your potential manager/s and (try to) get a feel for whether or not you will be compatible in a working environment. It’s also essential for you to ask if they are happy in their roles and if they expect any changes in the near future that would potential impact you e.g. are they moving to a new company or changing their roles.
Apologies but I don’t accept verbal offers (obviously?). Could you please send me a written one at your earliest convenience and we go from there?
Yeah its not related to the interview, but it was important for me.
This legit caused a great deal of issues and miscommunication between my job offers, holy crap... A company even started the onboarding process before I had even signed anything!
Y’all, I don’t care if this is a ‘1st world country’!? I want to see all the details written down on a piece of goddamn paper! Apparently you also need to ask for this. Make sure you do, once you've landed the job, that is.
Who’s left in the last year and why?
This could potentially offer you an insight into the health of the company and potential management issues.
How is team culture being maintained during post pandemic work-from-home?
Since the pandemic, those foruntate enough have started working from home. This came at the cost of face-to-face interaction, office culure and interpersonal relationships.
Companies now have to mitigate these while finding a balance against their employees’ freedom and flexibility.
Is there a clear plan for handling legacy systems?
We all have them. Whats important is how are we dealing with them? Are there enough resources to chip away at it and not just leave it behind?
And That's It!
This is your chance to find out if your potential employee is a right fit for you. Don’t waste this opportunity!
