I went through months of interviews recently. And one question that I got asked repeatedly was “what do you look for in a company?” or “what are you looking for in your next role?“. For some of these interviews, I gave some pretty generic answers:
“I’d like to work on challenging problems” “I’m looking for a company with an inclusive culture” “I want a team where I can learn and grow”
A few times I had to stop myself saying:
“I dunno, money I guess?”
Of course, I want to work in an inclusive company, where I’m growing and working on fun, challenging problems. And of course I want to get paid but reflecting on this question. I’m realizing I had more answers to that question.
I have green flags, what will make me say yes to more interviews or yes to an offer. And red flags, what will make me say hell no!
Red Flags
- Messy, unorganized recruiting process
- Recruiters that take weeks to respond to your emails. Or send you roles that don’t match at all with your skill set.
- Interviewers show up uninterested, late, derail you from completing the interview, or are taking Slack messages during your interview.
- When recruiters / interviewers don’t know the answer to questions about the company like with profitability, market fit, road map, cash runway, etc. Approximate answers are okay, but if they won’t tell you outright or don’t know the answer to these questions, then red flag.
- Microservices IF the dev tooling is subpar or non-existent. Also, cookie cutter answers to why use microservices.
- Long deployment cycle. I want to deploy at any time of the day every day.
- If they don’t support fully remote work, ESPECIALLY if their team is distributed
- If the team doesn’t have a spread of developer levels, is mainly top (senior+) heavy, and doesn’t have a plan for hiring devs across levels.
- Crypto companies
- Non-AI companies talking about integrating some AI being the next big thing they’re working on.
Green Flags
- When salary ranges are shared ahead of time before recruiter calls. I.e. in the job posting.
- Coding questions aren’t hacker rank / leet code style questions. And they feel more like pair programming.
- When developers talk about the product with excitement. And are proud of what they’ve released.
- When recruiters send you tips and what to expect before an interview. Or hop on a call to prep you for that interview.
- Humour. If I can joke with my interviewer, and we share a laugh, green flag.
- If the company has contributed to open source or open sources their own projects. If they give developers time to contribute to open source as well.
- If benefits like learning and development exist. Is it formalized and part of company culture (green flag)? Or is it an afterthought (red flag)?
These flags are pretty personal to me. What do you agree or disagree with? What are your red / green flags?