In my previous post, I wrote about what to expect as a candidate during an interview for a VP of Engineering position. This post covers what you, as a candidate, should be asking during the interview.
An interview is a two-way street, the company is trying to assess if you are a good fit and similarly, you are also trying to assess if the company and position are aligned with your goals. Much like the previous article, the below is based on my own experience.
There are two areas I try to assess during an interview for a VPE position. The first is specific to the job. The second is more general to the company. The intent of my assessment is to answer two questions. First, Is the job aligned with my skills and goals? Second, is this a company I want to work at?
Job specific questions
The VP of Engineering job is entirely dependent on the stage of the company. A pre-seed startup seeking a VP of Engineering, which is highly unlikely, will have very different expectations on the role versus a pre-IPO startup. Therefore, one of the more important aspects during the interview, and arguably before you start interviewing, is to level-set on the expectations for the role. I mentioned in the previous article being asked the following question by the CTO of a startup I was interviewing at:
If someone on your team were to guess what it is you do on any given day, what would they say?
The intent of this question is to find the commonality between what the CTO, and the company needs from the VPE and what I am able to offer. You should ask the inverse of this question. I ask the following question to the CTO, CPO and CEO:
What
problemsdo you want to solve by hiring me
I recommend that you ask this question during every one of these interviews. The ideal outcome is that they all express the same motivations for wanting to fill the role, and that you are able and wanting to do what they have in mind. There have been numerous cases, in which I discovered disparate reasons for making this hire. This in of itself isn’t really an issue, except if the motivations of each are so divergent that it signals misalignment at the topmost levels of the company. I also recommend you ask the same question to Board members, if they are part of your interview cycle.
One other important way for you to explore the needs for this role is through members of the engineering team. It might be unlikely that you are interviewed by members of the team, which is why I always request that I interview a few members of the team. I do so, to understand what the and the team at large want out of this role. Again, you’d be surprised at the disconnect between what a CEO wants from this role versus what the engineers need. Below are some of the questions that I ask often times to more than one person on the team
What are the challenges facing you and the team?
Describe a day in your life, what do you spend your time on?
What areas should I focus on to help you and the team?
A few other questions I tend to ask the CTO/CPO and CEO are below:
Describe the ideal candidate for this role? I am seeking to understand fit
Why hasn’t this role been filled from within?
Your goal during these interviews is to fill in the Venn diagram below, and hopefully find that the answer to all three questions occurs at the intersection.
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