如何面试面试官 (How to interview your interviewers)

For the last few semesters, I’ve had the distinct pleasure of guest-lecturing MIT’s required technical communication class for computer science majors.

在过去的几个学期中，我非常高兴地为客户讲授MIT要求的计算机科学专业技术交流课程。

My lecture focuses pretty heavily on two of the most important (and daunting) communication challenges of one’s technical career: interviewing and negotiating. I cover one other thing, largely because it’s something students ask about over and over again: How do I vet the companies I’m talking to during the interview process… and make sure that I end up in the right place?

我的演讲非常着重于技术职业中最重要的两个交流挑战：面试和谈判。我要谈的另一件事，主要是因为这是学生一遍又一遍地问的问题： 在面试过程中，我该如何审核正在与之交谈的公司……并确保将自己放在正确的位置？

One of my favorite things about giving this lecture is peeling back the curtain so students can see what really happens inside of companies when they’re hiring (spoiler: we’re all making it up as we go along, and it’s mostly a haphazard rat’s nest held together with chewing gum and staples).

我做这个讲座的最喜欢的事情之一就是拉开帷幕，以便学生在招聘时可以看到公司内部真正发生的事情(破坏者：随着我们的前进，我们都在编造，这主要是随便的老鼠巢与口香糖和订书钉一起固定)。

And, as such, I thought it’d be cool to give you some of the same tools. Tools that will help you peak behind the curtain and evaluate companies you’re talking to in the same way they’re evaluating you.

而且，因此，我认为为您提供一些相同的工具将很酷。可以帮助您脱颖而出的工具，并可以通过与您评估公司相同的方式评估您正在与之交谈的公司。

Now, getting meaningful information about a company during the interview process is hard. There’s not much time. You don’t feel like you have much power. And people tend to respond to your questions with rehearsed platitudes.

现在，很难在面试过程中获得有关公司的有意义的信息。时间不多了。您不会觉得自己有很多力量。人们倾向于以排练的陈词回答您的问题。

So to make things easier, I’ve compiled a list of questions you can ask, verbatim. The purpose of these questions is to be specific/situational so you can quickly get past the platitudes and cut to the chase.

为了使事情变得简单，我逐字列出了您可以提出的问题清单。这些问题的目的是针对具体情况，以便您可以快速摆脱陈词滥调并追逐目标。

如何最有效地使用此列表 (How to best consume this list)

A few things to keep in mind as you go through the list below:

在浏览以下列表时，请注意以下几点：

Note that a lot of the questions skew specific. This is on purpose. Asking “What did your day look like yesterday?” will get you much more rich info than “What does a typical day look like?”
请注意，许多问题都是特定的。这是故意的。问“昨天你今天怎么样？” 比“典型的一天是什么样？”将为您提供更多的信息。
It’s a good idea to ask some subset of your interviewers the same questions to see how their answers differ. Because the devil is in the deltas.
最好向部分访调员询问相同的问题，以查看他们的答案有何不同。因为魔鬼在三角洲。
Don’t waste precious time talking about benefits/salary/vacations/process during interviews — you can get those answers later from HR or somewhere else.
不要浪费宝贵的时间在面试中谈论福利/薪水/假期/流程-您可以稍后从人力资源部门或其他地方获得这些答案。
Bolded questions are ones I particularly enjoy or find non-obvious.
粗体的问题是我特别喜欢或不明显的问题。
Italicized notes, where applicable, are my thoughts on how or why to ask the question.
斜体注释(如果适用)是我对如何或为什么提出问题的看法。

Without further ado, the list of questions, broken up by topic, is below. Please use them at your leisure, and tell me if they helped you!

事不宜迟，以下是按主题细分的问题列表。请在闲暇时使用它们，并告诉我它们是否对您有所帮助！

团队素质/文化 (Team caliber/culture)

How long have you been here?
你来这里多久了
When you were last interviewing, what were some of your other options, and what made you choose this company?
上一次面试时，您还有哪些其他选择？是什么让您选择这家公司？
What is the most fulfilling/exciting/technically complex project that you’ve worked on here so far?
到目前为止，您在这里完成过的最令人满意/最激动人心/技术上最复杂的项目是什么？
What is something you wish were different about your job?
您希望您的工作有什么不同？
How often have you moved teams? What made you join the team you’re on right now? If you wanted to move teams, what would need to happen?
您多久更换一次团队？ 是什么让您加入现在的团队？ 如果您想移动团队，那会发生什么？
(If the company is a startup) When’s the last time you interacted with a founder? What was it regarding? Generally how involved are the founders in the day-to-day?
(如果公司是一家初创公司)您上次与创始人互动是什么时候？这是关于什么的？一般而言，创始人在日常工作中的参与度如何？

工程 (Engineering)

What did your day look like yesterday? Was that pretty typical? If not, what was different about it?
你昨天的日子怎么样？那很典型吗？如果没有，那有什么不同？
What is your stack?
你的筹码是多少？
What is the rationale for/story behind this specific stack?
该特定堆栈背后的故事/依据是什么？
How often do you add new tools to the mix?
您多久添加一次新工具？
Do you tend to roll your own solutions more often or rely on third party tools? What’s the rationale in a specific case?
您倾向于更频繁地推出自己的解决方案还是依赖第三方工具？在特定情况下的理由是什么？
What kind of test coverage do you have?
您有什么样的考试范围？
Would you describe your engineering culture as more pragmatic or more theoretical?
您是否将您的工程文化描述为更务实或更理论化？
What portion of your time is spent working on new stuff rather than iterating on existing stuff?
您有什么时间花在处理新内容上而不是迭代现有内容上？
How long are your release cycles?
您的发布周期多长时间？
What’s been the worst technical screw up that’s happened in the recent past? How did you guys deal with it? What changes were implemented afterwards to make sure it didn’t happen again?
最近发生的最糟糕的技术升级是什么？你们是如何处理的？之后执行了哪些更改以确保不再发生？
What is the most costly technical decision made early on that the company is living with now?
公司现在赖以生存的最昂贵的技术决定是什么？
Can I view the source code? This may be tricky because it may involve signing legal agreements. While you may not be able to be view the source in the end, it doesn’t hurt to ask. The best thing, if you can, is to just spend a few days working onsite as a contractor. It’s hard to make time, but boy does that give you valuable perspective. I’ve had candidates on the brink of accepting offers rapidly drop out after seeing that the day-to-day/codebase/team dynamic was nothing like they expected. And I’ve had people who weren’t sold at all end up loving a place because they got to spend some time with the team.
我可以查看源代码吗？ 这可能很棘手，因为它可能涉及签署法律协议。 尽管您可能最终无法查看源，但询问也无妨。 如果可以的话，最好的事情就是花几天的时间在现场作为承包商。 很难抽出时间，但是男孩确实给了您宝贵的见解。 在看到日常/代码库/团队动态与他们预期的情况不同之后，我已经有候选人即将接受报价。 我有一些根本没被卖掉的人最终爱上了一个地方，因为他们不得不花一些时间在团队中。

产品语音/业务方面的可见性 (Product voice/visibility into business side)

What are you working on right now? Why/how did that become the thing that you ended up working on?
您现在在做什么？为什么/如何使它成为您最终从事的工作？
If you had an idea for something new to build, what would you have to do to make it happen?
如果您有想法要建造一些新东西，那么该怎么做才能实现？
What is some of the more meaty new stuff that got pushed in the last release? Where did the idea for that feature originate? Where do product ideas generally come from?
在上一版中推出了哪些更鲜为人知的新东西？ 该功能的创意源自何处？ 产品创意通常来自哪里？
Who are the other major players in this space? What do we have that they don’t? The answer to this question can be useful for getting an idea of what the market looks like and what traction the company in question might have. Most importantly, though, it’ll give you insight into whether the people at the company care about the product and the business side of things or not and how much they’ve thought about such matters.
这个领域的其他主要参与者是谁？ 他们没有什么我们有什么？ 该问题的答案对于了解市场情况以及所涉公司可能具有的吸引力可能很有用。 不过，最重要的是，它可以使您洞悉公司的人员是否关心产品和事物的业务方面，以及他们对这些问题有多大的考虑。

减员 (Attrition)

How long does the average engineer stay at the company?
一般工程师在公司呆多长时间？
Why have the last few people left?
为什么最后几个人离开了？

创业精神 (Entrepreneurship)

How many former employees have gone on to found startups?
有多少前雇员继续创办初创公司？
Was their leaving to found a startup generally looked on favorably?
他们离开一家初创公司是否普遍受到青睐？
When’s the last time a founder or manager encouraged someone to go try something entirely new (whether it fit in well with the current core product or not)?
创始人或经理最后一次鼓励某人去尝试全新的事物(它是否与当前的核心产品相吻合)？

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