Always Ask About the Development Environment During an Interview
BlogCoward had a post this week that stated that the version of Microsoft Office that a company runs can tell you a lot about the “sophistication”
of that company.
In the comments, someone commented that the versions of Windows and Internet Explorer they use are also good things to ask about in an interview. I think these are great questions, but I would suggest that you go even further. As I mentioned in my last post you are going to spend 40+ hours a week working in this environment, possibly for years, so the environment you work in and the tools you use matter a lot.
We just finished interviewing and hiring three new developers on our team this last year, and I was surprised that no one asked any questions about the hardware they would be using, the versions of software we used, about access to training, about access to new tools and software, etc. Some of it we covered during our interview questions and the tour of our area, but there was still a lot of questions about our day to day work that were never asked about.
When I have interviewed in the past, I always make sure I know the answers to the following questions:
- What are the specifications for the workstations or laptops you use? How often are they replaced? How easy is it to get more RAM, bigger hard drives, etc? How many monitors do you use?
- What version of Visual Studio and the .NET framework do you use? When do you plan to upgrade? How long after release of a new version do you wait to upgrade?
- How easy is it to get third-party development tools? Do you use Resharper, Photoshop, third-party database tools, etc?
- What application life cycle management (APM) tools do you use? Do you use Team Foundation Server? What is your source control system? What do you use for bug tracking? How do you manage your builds?
- What is the work environment like? Will I have an office, a cubicle, etc? Is the work area quite? Can I have a tour?
- Who supports your applications? Do you rotate an on-call or is there dedicated staff? Do you handle your own deployments or hand off the responsibility?
- What percentage of development is greenfield vs. brownfield?
- What is the job track here? Is there upware mobility? A promotion path? What is the pay and bonus structure?
- What would my first three months look like? What projects will I be working on? Who will I be working with? Who will I be reporting to? What do you expect from me at the end of the first three months?
If a company or development team doesn’t want to or can’t answer these questions, it will say a lot about them.
