On Game Design: asking questions of the interviewer

Here is a perfect example of a man who fails to get enough information before embarking on a course of action:



Other than trying to mess with Bruce Lee, this man's biggest mistake was not only failing to ask the right questions, but not pursuing the right answer. "Wash your shtyle?" provided him with only a vague answer which he then turned into another question which garnered no further information.

At the tail end of every interview I conduct, I ask the candidate, "do you have any questions for me?" Very few candidates take the opportunity to ask me any questions and fewer still ask questions that are little more than formalities. In my experience, the worst projects i've been on are the ones where I had the least information walking in. With the right questions, a candidate can learn a lot about an individual (the interviewer), a project, a position, and a company. Any one of these questions, in turn, can provide invaluable information that can help determine whether the project or company is the right fit. Don't leave it all up to the interviewer to automatially provide all this information. Be proactive! Here's some examples:

“What is your toolset like?” – show some curiosity about the tools that are going to be used to develop the project: modeling packages, scripting languages, level editors, etc. If the toolset is in a transitional phase, ask what steps are being taken to fix the toolset or get it ready for production. A friend of mine went on an interview recently where the project only had 8 months left in development and there weren't any tools for design! How is that supposed to work?!

“Who’s in charge?” – ask about the project / company's management structure, team hierarchy, etc. If you interview with somebody who's going to be in charge of you, make sure you get a good vibe from them. If you have past history with somebody on the team, make sure you get to talk to them to see where you stand. I've had two jobs where I've had to work with somebody I didn't get along with before. In one case, the individual drove the project into the ground while in the other case, the person was a real asset to the team and helped us out immensely. Some people change, others don't.

“What are the working conditions like?” – you should always get a good idea of what sort of time you're going to be putting into a project. Ask about overtime, crunch mode, weekend hours, general daily hours, etc.

“What is the schedule like on the project?” - this is a critical question with a simple answer. Follow it up with “how far along is the project?” Does the amount of time measure up with the project? Does it seem like enough time? Too much? Too little? If a project is on a tight schedule, there are going to be issues with the amount of hours you will have to work as well as the overall quality of the project. People and money can always be provided. Time is generally static.

There are a ton of other questions you could ask, but these are the prime candidates for raising red flags.