When the recruiter or HM opens up for questions, are you inclined towards asking them tough questions related to the organisation?
Lately I've started asking:
- How were people who were impacted in the latest lay-offs decided?
- Do you believe the team is at risk of lay-offs? In the overall org, where would you place this team in terms of business criticality.
- In case of downsizing how will you ensure that your team is going to be least impacted.
- Questions on talent being fungible, coding practices, knowledge organisation and sharing (hoarding/individual level, team level, org level)
- How does the manager ensure equity in workloads (especially useful for startups).
- Team agreements like stand-up timings, in-out timings, and most importantly, how often were these changed in the last 6m-1y.
Folks, feel free to add to the list! Would love to hear your thoughts.
Managers are supposed to manage teams and be technically competent. Everyone is a champ when times are easy. The true colors are shown only when the going gets tough.
Most of the answers are gonna be template/standardizations. The key is to read between the lines.
If the manager is clueless or the body language doesn't inspire any confidence, then it's a red flag.
