Bristol Interview

The position was a C# Developer in a company called ALD Automotive, the job description said they’d provide training on for people who knew Java. So this Friday I travelled by train to Bristol for the interview. The interviews were in 2 stages, the initial interview which I was going to and then a follow-up technical interview the next week.

I didn’t get asked back for the second stage interview. The reasons given were that I was narrowly beaten by candidates that were already local. The upside is that I got some feedback from the recruiter I was dealing with on why and he also mentioned that I interviewed very well, this I attribute mostly to me preparing for awkward questions beforehand and possibly some to my sugar rush caused by me eating a 500ml tub of caramel ice cream for breakfast (it’s not worth having a birthday if you can’t celebrate like a 6yr old by having ice cream for breakfast).

I also had quite a few questions for my interviewers too because I believe it’s important for both sides of the employer/employee relationship to be happy with who they could be working with.

Some I thought up, some I didn’t ask because they could be found out from the answers to other questions

• What is the culture like in your company?
  Would you describe the atmosphere as competitive? (i don’t mind competitive, it’s the political, back-stabbing recognition grabbing I hate)
• What is the main motivation for an employee to do a good job? (if a company answers ‘not being fired’, for a laugh say to the interviewer ‘then could I get the job on the basis that if I do, I won’t punch you?’)
  Do you reward employees who do really well with bonuses or recognition?
• Which is most likely to get a person promoted?
  A) Being good at what they do
  B) Being a good at the role they are being promoted into
  (some companies like to promote good programmers into management positions that they aren’t suitable for)
• Is it more important for an employee to?
  A) Be completely honest
  B) Tell the customers what they want to hear
• Which is more like your company?
  A) Going ahead with a project so customers can see results
  B) Carefully planning so we get it right the first time
• How important is it for employees to socialise with each other?
  How does the company encourage team building?
• What do you like about working for this company? (more than just ‘they pay well’ is good)
  What do you like about the job?
  What do you dislike about the job?
• How open is the company to suggestions of improvement?
  Do you reward employees whose ideas help the company with bonuses or recognition?
• Who gets to decide how projects are implemented in the company?
  Does upper management ever choose a specific platform/technology without consulting those who have more technical expertise?
  How much control does each employee get over project implementations?
• Does the company often run late or over deadline on projects?
  Does the company expect employees to work more hours to meet targets?
  How does the company compensate employees for extra hours worked?

Perhaps using a detailed set of questions we could find a company behaviour type like there are human personality types that matches people better to environments where they work well

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