Interview Question - What do you like the most and the least?

Goal

During the first part of the interview I usually try to get a feeling on at least 1 of the 3 - company, team, project. This allows me to narrow it down - ideally I get the company details first but if interviewers are happy to talk about the team instead, I’m happy to follow their lead. It’s then easier to steer towards more detailed the pros and cons of the remaining topics.

I would suggest asking about each topic of the trio at least once, so you get a bit of high and low level feedback. This can surface many issues on different levels, something you should get to know before joining a company. The further away from your direct project and team, the higher level questions are more fitting, about strategy of the company and existing relationships. In the context of day-to-day work, you probably care about product-level concerns and planned directions from the CEO, not that much if they like working with company owners or the board.

What to focus on

There are 2 main objectives I focus on here:

• Estimate what issues and opportunities you may experience at your future position.
• What are points of view of your future colleagues - are they looking to work on issues as they arise or follow the status quo? Do they have hope and will to make things better?

For both of those you will want get at least 3 opinions from different people, to reduce personal biases and preferences.

On the other hand, it’s best to get answers from people all over the company org-chart, especially if you get to talk with Software Engineers, Product Owners and Management team members. This will give you an idea on what the company culture is, what roles different teams have and how they collaborate.

Challenges

People may avoid the part about the dislikes.

You may be concerned about this, because during the first part of the interview your interviewers are avoiding the answers to tough questions. In that case, steer further away from the “dislike” and put emphasis on “what do you like, but the least” instead. Also, missing bits in the good parts are also very informative. If the biggest nice thing is that they no longer have unpaid overtime, because next deadline is in 2 months, probably a good hint.

At least a few answers are needed to get a feedback.

The recruitment processes can be very short, so it’s possible to not get enough reliable information picture of the company. If you know you will only have 45 minutes with the Engineering Manager and a Software Engineer, focus more on your biggest concerns instead.

Follow-up questions

It’s important to see at least 1 strong and weak side of the company after you get the answer. If you don’t get it, ask a follow-up question to get more details.

Why is it good that the project is in modern tech stack? Is it an issue the interviewer encountered in the past or is it about the state of rest of the company?

Why is having a large client base is bad? Is there an excessive tech debt issue, are developers responsible for direct customers support or is that a big responsibility so it’s personally stressful? Try to dig in.

It’s an open question - it may be a time hog

If you have a lot of questions, you may not have enough time to ask all of them. This is one of those open questions that may take a lot of time to get a good answer. If the interviewers are on a tight schedule, focus them on the bits you’re most interested in.

Summary

I like to use this question quite a bit, as it lets you just talk with your future colleagues and gives them opportunities to show who they are. If you feel you don’t get what you need, modify or focus on different topics - to each their own.

Hope this helps!

Good luck in your hunt for a new project!