Three questions to turn the table during technical interviews
Debate on the Three Suggested Questions
IC with an amazing idea:
- Seen as a strong question for exposing how ideas flow: is there a healthy path to triage and ship IC ideas, or do they die in PM/executive layers?
- Some say “talk to a PM” as the default path is a red flag (signals “keep your head down”), others argue it’s fine if it means a structured “get buy‑in” process.
- Discussion notes that in many orgs, real product change must be funneled through managers or exec “sponsors,” revealing status-driven cultures.
Last major migration & estimates:
- Critics say this forces interviewers to either admit failure (migrations always slip) or lie, so it yields low-quality or defensive answers.
- Suggested alternatives: ask about challenges, how scope/technical debt was managed, or how the first 6 months for a recent hire went.
“Six months later, what’s different?”:
- Some view this as a bad or self-centered question: impact is primarily the employee’s responsibility.
- Preferred variants: “What would convince you you’d hired the right person in 3–6 months?” or direct questions about onboarding and expectations.
Interviews as a Two-Way Evaluation
- Many endorse using the Q&A portion to seriously vet the team, not just perform.
- Others dislike the pressure to ask “smart” questions, seeing it as selecting for people who rehearse canned questions, especially unfair to desperate or long-term unemployed candidates.
- Some interviewers say candidate questions don’t affect hiring; others admit overall impression and curiosity do matter, even with standardized rubrics.
Alternative Questions People Actually Use
About product and engineering quality:
- How IC ideas have become real features.
- What and how they measure (performance, defects, engagement).
- Build times, test automation, migration frequency, and handling of technical debt.
About culture and team dynamics:
- “What sucks / what are the biggest challenges about this job?” or “If you had a magic wand, what would you change?”
- Average tenure, recent departures, and reasons people leave.
- “Day/week in the life” and “What would you be doing if you weren’t interviewing me today?”
Views on Product Management, Leadership, and Process
- Strong disagreement over PM-heavy orgs: some see them as necessary vision-setters, others as bottlenecks and idea-killers.
- Debate over whether ICs are “leaders”; some emphasize leadership via influence/mentorship even without reports.
- Concerns about standardized hiring reducing bias but also flattening “interesting” candidates and interactions.
Critique of Hiring Culture and Advice Articles
- Several comments deride the interview process as performative, hostile to experienced engineers, and dominated by HR gatekeeping.
- Some see this kind of “turn the tables” advice as shallow social engineering or overfitted to one person’s context.
- Others still find the core idea valuable: use questions to uncover real culture and avoid wasting years in a bad environment.