The question you should ask at your next interview...

[Duncan Edwards Jones]

You know the bit where the interviewer(s) turn to the candidate and ask "Do you have any questions for us?" I think next time I'm going to ask to see some code. You see - as a developer the application source code is a very significant component of my working environment and if it is like the aftermath of an explosion in a Scrabble(tm) factory I'd rather not get involved.

[Pualee]

Where will I sit? Do I get dual monitors? If they answer those correctly your already home.

[PIEBALDconsult]

Indeed. One place I interviewed at asked me to see if I could find a bug in their code -- everything was a Singleton(!) -- one job I was glad to not get.

You'll never get very far if all you do is follow instructions.

[OriginalGriff]

"Which one did you mean?" Should do that... ;)

Those who fail to learn history are doomed to repeat it. --- George Santayana (December 16, 1863 – September 26, 1952) Those who fail to clear history are doomed to explain it. --- OriginalGriff (February 24, 1959 – ∞)

[R Giskard Reventlov]

Haha: that is an excellent question. :thumbsup:

"If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." Red Adair. Those who seek perfection will only find imperfection nils illegitimus carborundum me, me, me me, in pictures

[S Houghtelin]

Problem is, they might let you look at some of their code, but they won't you the code you're being hired to deal with.

It was broke, so I fixed it.

[PIEBALDconsult]

Could be interesting to sit in on a code review. :cool:

You'll never get very far if all you do is follow instructions.

[PIEBALDconsult]

They had a list and asked me to pick one to track down.

You'll never get very far if all you do is follow instructions.

[Marc Clifton]

Besides the typical employment questions, I ask: What source control system do you use? Is your database schema normalized? What's the spec's on the dev's workstations? Who does your testing? Do you even do testing? What's your code coverage? (I love the "well, that's really hard to measure" dance) How do I work from home? And then for the real fun question: I'd like to see an example of some specification / requirements documents. And one more: Do you pay for your employees to go to training seminars or to take online courses? Marc

[charlieg]

Oh Marc, Marc... I wish I had this list a few years ago. I'm in a very nice arrangement now, but I would have loved to see this interviewer prick squirm.

Charlie Gilley You're going to tell me what I want to know, or I'm going to beat you to death in your own house. "Where liberty dwells, there is my country." B. Franklin, 1783 “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759

[dandy72]

"When can I start?"

[Nemanja Trifunovic]

Duncan Edwards Jones wrote:

I think next time I'm going to ask to see some code.

If I was asking that question, I don't think I would have accepted any job offer.

utf8-cpp

[Mycroft Holmes]

I've been on the other side of the desk for some years now (I'm not a good interviewer, I think it is pure luck we have a quality team) and have never heard these type of questions. I've even had a few who have no questions at all. I hate interviewing, from either side of the desk.

Never underestimate the power of human stupidity RAH

[Lost User]

I have done that before, when I was gainfully employed and just looking for alternatives - but when I've 'needed' a job, the only questions are "how much" and "how often" ;)

[ed welch]

"the aftermath of an explosion in a Scrabble factory" That's actually a good discription of the stl template library source code and also their error messages... so don't go for an interview with that company, whoeve they are ;)

[Lost User]

I actually ask to take a closer look at the workspace. I'm not interested in the nice office of the boss. One of my last pointy hairs used to sit at a desk right before rows of desks like a teacher before a school class. And guess what, spying on his people was one of his dirty little hobbies. A good look at the way the team works and their little specialties tells me far more than they would ever tell me voluntarily. If I get to see some code, that's also nice and well. I hope for the best, expect the worst and am rarely disappointed.

The language is JavaScript. that of Mordor, which I will not utter here
I hold an A-7 computer expert classification, Commodore. I'm well acquainted with Dr. Daystrom's theories and discoveries. The basic design of all our ship's computers are JavaScript.

[Leo Muller Rap]

This is an interesting topic, seeing that I interview a lot of candidates. Obviously asking annoying questions will mark you as being a troublesome characters which most developer teams prefer to avoid. But beyond being polite, and beyond checking if the candidate took actual interest into our workplace, this question does come up, and I am wondering what I would ask if I was to be interviewed myself. I think I would ask: "Can I spend a few minutes with one of the developers who is working now, to see what kind of environment you are working in"? This would give you a chance to look at the work environment (hardware), and to ask some 'none formal' questions (QA, testing, dev software, procedures, etc), and of course check out the people where you may find yourself spending an incredible amount of time with in the near future.

[Argonia]

Do you really think that your shoes go well with this blouse you are wearing? :laugh:

Microsoft ... the only place where VARIANT_TRUE != true

[Rage]

Back then, I've always used the Joel Test[^].

~RaGE();

I think words like 'destiny' are a way of trying to find order where none exists. - Christian Graus Entropy isn't what it used to.

[Gary Wheeler]

That's an excellent idea.

Software Zen: delete this;