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Interview Your Next Employer

Interview Your Next Employer

Sitting across the table from you, your interviewer just asked you to implement quick sort. You're a hot stuff hipster hacker so you bust out that tired algorithm in 4 lines of Go. Impressed, the interviewer wraps up by asking the same question everyone asks at the end of an interview: "Do you have any questions for me?" Is this some kind of a trick? Should you ask about 401K's, stock options, or health insurance? Nonsense, this is your chance to turn the tables.

In 2000, Joel Spolsky, noted software blogger and .Net luminary, created the Joel Test. 12 yes or no questions whose answers were intended to reveal just how awesome a software team is. For 12 years, I used the Joel Test as my litmus test to judge an employers worth. But after a dozen years good ol' Joel's test is showing its age.

Join me as I tear down the Joel test to rebuild it for 2013. Which questions are worthless today, which can be salvaged, and which stand the test of time? Armed with your own impressive set of questions your next interviewer will be the one left sweating, wondering if he did well enough.

Dusty Burwell

March 16, 2013
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  1. THE JOEL TEST 1. Do you use source control? 2.

    Can you make a build in one step? 3. Do you make daily builds? 4. Do you have a bug database? 5. Do you fix bugs before writing new code? 6. Do you have an up-to-date schedule? 7. Do you have a spec? 8. Do programmers have quiet working conditions? 9. Do you use the best tools money can buy? 10. Do you have testers? 11. Do new candidates write code during their interview? 12. Do you do hallway usability testing?