I recently relocated from London to the Chicago area so I have been doing interviews. When I interview a potential client or employer I carry this list of questions with me. Most of the questions I have taken from other sources online. I have listed them in roughly the order I ask them.

Understanding the job

• What will I be doing every day (precisely)?
• Why are you hiring? New product? Scaling? Someone quit?
• Who will I report to?
• Who will I be working with? How big are the teams?
• What are my boss’ goals for the next 6 months/year?
• What is the key metric for the company? For my group? For my boss?

Understanding the culture

• How do you build software? Where do requirements and features come from? Is it a very formal process or is there no process?
• What problems does the group have that need to be solved?
• Is there a mandate to fix legacy code and problems that exist?
• What do you wish you had known before starting work here?
• Whats the worst part of this job and whats the coolest thing you have built here, personally?

Tools and best practices

• What tools are being used?
  • bug tracking
  • version control
  • which version of Perl
  • what operating system
  • why were those choices made
• Is there a mandate to use the latest stuff from CPAN?
• Are there tests?
• Are there automated tests?
• What is deployment like?
• Is Moose used? OO?

Miscellaneous

• Is there any allowance for remote work?
• Are there core business hours?
• Will I be oncall?