<aside> <img src="/icons/info-alternate_gray.svg" alt="/icons/info-alternate_gray.svg" width="40px" /> I wrote this when I was unhappy with my current job and was about to start interviewing with other companies. I did some refactoring to make it presentable. You can use this as a template and find out your questions.

</aside>

I have made bad choices in the past when choosing companies I got offers from. It happened because the criteria for selecting the company were wrong. As I will spend around 50% of my waking time on my job for 5 days a week, I should have better parameters for selecting my next company.

Do the company and I align with each other?

What do I want from the company?

• Good culture.
• Challenging work, get to learn stuff. Become a broader engineer.
• My teammates should be good human beings.
• Some of my teammates should know more than me.
• A place
  • where I know what is expected from me to be/do/know
  • that can tell me my weaknesses and my strengths
  • that can tell me what the spec for a sound engineer is and where I stand currently according to that spec
• A place that can give answers to the questions
  • What is the value of a software engineer?
    • his ability to code?
    • hard skills?
    • soft skills?
    • getting things done?
  • A sound engineer is someone making solutions that are
    • elegant?
    • simple?
    • performant?
    • maintainable?
    • who can convert problem spec to code?
    • who can iterate on the problem spec by talking to the consumers and then make a solution keeping them in the loop?
    • or a mix of some or all of these? and something else? in what proportions?
  • What should a software engineer be focusing on while growing in his profession?
  • How do you say one engineer is better than the other? What are the criteria?

The areas I want to be better in

• I want to become a better engineer who can convert a problem spec into a solution.****

The questions

1. What will be my role there?
2. What time zones the team works in?
3. How do you measure the progress of an employee?
   1. Do you have a yearly/quarterly requirement spec that the engineer should satisfy?
   2. How will you judge me, or what will you judge me against in my appraisal?
4. How invested are you in the growth of your engineers?
5. Are there any feedback/1-on-1 sessions of managers with the engineers?
6. How do I raise a red flag or raise a complaint?