I was wondering if anyone else had any questions they always asked the interviewer in the “we’ll give you five minutes at the end to ask us questions” bit in interviews.
Personally I always ask what the staff turnover rate is. Mainly because in my first dev job I was one of four people who started on the same day. One of the other guys left after two days, I left after six weeks, and another guy left after two months.
Another I’ll be asking after my current job is if they have a mainframe. I’ve now worked at three companies with mainframes and they all were old corporations where they were outsourcing loads of stuff to unhelpful companies (often IBM) which generally meant lots of headaches.
I’m not a manager but sometimes get roped into interviewing candidates, I really like when they ask the following because it opens up a discussion about “pace” of the team and organization of the department. It also sets the expectations.
In fact, I like this question so much that I’ll answer it at the end of the interview even if not asked, I just feel more awkward doing so inorganically. Sometimes we are back-filling a position and the new hire needs to own features by 6 months. Other times we are hiring to expand, in which case there is more runway. Bottom line is, we can discuss if both parties are comfortable with expectations because we want our candidates to succeed. And I as a candidate want to draw boundaries if I am not comfortable.
I actually really like this question too and I like to ask it (when I remember). I personally aim for roles that put me to the fire quicker. I’ve had friends who sat and did minimal work their first year and sitting idle for too long would drive me nuts.