I believe that as much as a company needs to access a candidate, the candidate needs to access the company based on culture, product and people.
As a candidate, I would feel uncomfortable if:
- One or more team members quit after I join (and I don’t know about it).
- Job scope given to me is not what I actually do due to various reasons: no engineer, change in direction,… But this is arguable.
- Your direct boss is not helpful. This is on me to access as much as he/she can during interviewing process
Below are few aspects that can help access a company during interview process (Note: This is just my thought and I’m sure there could be better way):
- Request to talk to: Direct manager, CEO (if it’s a startup), 1–2 team members, and 1 relevant stakeholder (if a job requires to coordinate across teams)
2. For each person, get their perspectives on the following items:
- Why a person is STILL working here: Apart from welfare and compensation, what do you get from this company?
- Why the product needs to exist: (1) What do you think about product ABC? (2) Why do we need it now?
- How does the company operate (freestyle or KPI) / Leadership style: What is your team KPIs for last month?
- Reflection capability: What mistake did you make that affect the team in the past 3 months and how you handled it?
I created a more comprehensive list of what is a GOOD company from my point of view here.
