如何面試面試官 (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.

在過去的幾個學期中，我非常高興地為客戶講授MIT要求的計算機科學專業技術交流課程。

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?

我的演講非常著重于技術職業中最重要的兩個交流挑戰：面試和談判。我要談的另一件事，主要是因為這是學生一遍又一遍地問的問題： 在面試過程中，我該如何審核正在與之交談的公司……并確保將自己放在正確的位置？

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).

我做這個講座的最喜歡的事情之一就是拉開帷幕，以便學生在招聘時可以看到公司內部真正發生的事情(破壞者：隨著我們的前進，我們都在編造，這主要是隨便的老鼠巢與口香糖和訂書釘一起固定)。

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，我認為為您提供一些相同的工具將很酷。可以幫助您脫穎而出的工具，并可以通過與您評估公司相同的方式評估您正在與之交談的公司。

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.

現在，很難在面試過程中獲得有關公司的有意義的信息。時間不多了。您不會覺得自己有很多力量。人們傾向于以排練的陳詞回答您的問題。

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.

為了使事情變得簡單，我逐字列出了您可以提出的問題清單。這些問題的目的是針對具體情況，以便您可以快速擺脫陳詞濫調并追逐目標。

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:

在瀏覽以下列表時，請注意以下幾點：

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?”
請注意，許多問題都是特定的。這是故意的。問“昨天你今天怎么樣？” 比“典型的一天是什么樣？”將為您提供更多的信息。
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.
最好向部分訪調員詢問相同的問題，以查看他們的答案有何不同。因為魔鬼在三角洲。
Don’t waste precious time talking about benefits/salary/vacations/process during interviews — you can get those answers later from HR or somewhere else.
不要浪費寶貴的時間在面試中談論福利/薪水/假期/流程-您可以稍后從人力資源部門或其他地方獲得這些答案。
Bolded questions are ones I particularly enjoy or find non-obvious.
粗體的問題是我特別喜歡或不明顯的問題。
Italicized notes, where applicable, are my thoughts on how or why to ask the question.
斜體注釋(如果適用)是我對如何或為什么提出問題的看法。

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!

事不宜遲，以下是按主題細分的問題列表。請在閑暇時使用它們，并告訴我它們是否對您有所幫助！

團隊素質/文化 (Team caliber/culture)

How long have you been here?
你來這里多久了
When you were last interviewing, what were some of your other options, and what made you choose this company?
上一次面試時，您還有哪些其他選擇？是什么讓您選擇這家公司？
What is the most fulfilling/exciting/technically complex project that you’ve worked on here so far?
到目前為止，您在這里完成過的最令人滿意/最激動人心/技術上最復雜的項目是什么？
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?
您多久更換一次團隊？ 是什么讓您加入現在的團隊？ 如果您想移動團隊，那會發生什么？
(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?
(如果公司是一家初創公司)您上次與創始人互動是什么時候？這是關于什么的？一般而言，創始人在日常工作中的參與度如何？

工程 (Engineering)

What did your day look like yesterday? Was that pretty typical? If not, what was different about it?
你昨天的日子怎么樣？那很典型嗎？如果沒有，那有什么不同？
What is your stack?
你的籌碼是多少？
What is the rationale for/story behind this specific stack?
該特定堆棧背后的故事/依據是什么？
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?
您傾向于更頻繁地推出自己的解決方案還是依賴第三方工具？在特定情況下的理由是什么？
What kind of test coverage do you have?
您有什么樣的考試范圍？
Would you describe your engineering culture as more pragmatic or more theoretical?
您是否將您的工程文化描述為更務實或更理論化？
What portion of your time is spent working on new stuff rather than iterating on existing stuff?
您有什么時間花在處理新內容上而不是迭代現有內容上？
How long are your release cycles?
您的發布周期多長時間？
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?
最近發生的最糟糕的技術升級是什么？你們是如何處理的？之后執行了哪些更改以確保不再發生？
What is the most costly technical decision made early on that the company is living with now?
公司現在賴以生存的最昂貴的技術決定是什么？
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.
我可以查看源代碼嗎？ 這可能很棘手，因為它可能涉及簽署法律協議。 盡管您可能最終無法查看源，但詢問也無妨。 如果可以的話，最好的事情就是花幾天的時間在現場作為承包商。 很難抽出時間，但是男孩確實給了您寶貴的見解。 在看到日常/代碼庫/團隊動態與他們預期的情況不同之后，我已經有候選人即將接受報價。 我有一些根本沒被賣掉的人最終愛上了一個地方，因為他們不得不花一些時間在團隊中。

產品語音/業務方面的可見性 (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?
您現在在做什么？為什么/如何使它成為您最終從事的工作？
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東西，那么該怎么做才能實現？
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鮮為人知的新東西？ 該功能的創意源自何處？ 產品創意通常來自哪里？
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.
這個領域的其他主要參與者是誰？ 他們沒有什么我們有什么？ 該問題的答案對于了解市場情況以及所涉公司可能具有的吸引力可能很有用。 不過，最重要的是，它可以使您洞悉公司的人員是否關心產品和事物的業務方面，以及他們對這些問題有多大的考慮。

減員 (Attrition)

How long does the average engineer stay at the company?
一般工程師在公司呆多長時間？
Why have the last few people left?
為什么最后幾個人離開了？

創業精神 (Entrepreneurship)

How many former employees have gone on to found startups?
有多少前雇員繼續創辦初創公司？
Was their leaving to found a startup generally looked on favorably?
他們離開一家初創公司是否普遍受到青睞？
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)?
創始人或經理最后一次鼓勵某人去嘗試全新的事物(它是否與當前的核心產品相吻合)？

Want to become awesome at technical interviews and land your next job in the process? Join interviewing.io!

想要在技術面試中變得很棒，并在此過程中找到下一份工作嗎？ 參加訪談吧！