Evaluating Job Offers: How to Decide If a Company Is Right for You

Researching Enjoyment

Programming languages, minimum supported OSs and time spent in meetings are big items for many developers that are easy to pin down early in the process.

Keep in mind, however, that the company and team culture are just as important — and it’s hard to determine the right fit with just a few questions. You largely have to lean on your impressions of interviewers; asking questions that reveal the personality of the team helps. Interviewers are often stretched thin talking to a lot of candidates between their ‘real’ work, and that may alter the signals you get, especially for remote interviews.

One useful technique is to ask for a post-offer chat with a teammate to get a better understanding of how the team operates. If the recruiter is open to this, it’s a great opportunity to feel out the culture in a more casual atmosphere. This is also your best time to confirm how many foosball tables the office has. :]

During the interview process, you’ll speak to the hiring manager at least once. Be sure to ask questions that give you a good read on whether your working styles mesh. While they’re unlikely to be your manager forever, they’re your best representation of leadership within the company.

If you have a contact that currently or recently worked for the company, they are your best resource for an honest assessment of the culture.

• “Are you empowered to take risks in your work? What’s the response if you fail?”
• “What do you like best about working for this company? What’s something you wish would change?”
• “How is your work-life balance?”

Researching Passion

Your passion might be building beautiful apps, working on a product you’ve always loved or advancing a mission you believe in. It could be all of these or any number of other things. Regardless of what it is, there are a few things to keep in mind when assessing a job.

The bad news: While it can seem like it might, passion for your work can’t erase other deficits. Your dream project might have a toxic team and a schedule that burns you out. You might also find that working on your favorite app looks a lot like working on your least favorite one when you zoom into the day-to-day work. Don’t let your excitement blind you, and be sure to stay true to the rest of your search criteria.

The good news is that people with similar passions are often drawn to the same work. It’s energizing and enjoyable to work towards a shared goal with passionate coworkers. You’ll discover this quickly when you chat with interviewers. True passion for the work will shine through the facade of interview tedium.

Do your research to understand what the company does and what they stand for. This is your best route to having meaningful conversations during interview Q&As that will help you separate the real culture from branding.

• “Is the company’s mission evident in your day-to-day work?”
• “What excites you about your work?”

Researching Compensation Packages

Regardless of where this falls on your list, or how you feel about negotiating, it’s important to understand your value. Some good places to start your research:

• Check out our State of Mobile Jobs Survey 2022 for data on all components of compensation, provided by working developers.
• levels.fyi is a crowdsourced database with lots of developer salaries. They also offer a service to help you negotiate.
• Glassdoor has a huge salary database.
• StackOverflow’s Developer Survey provides salaries by role and geographical area.

Knowing what you’re worth is half the battle. Entire books are written on negotiation, and it takes some skill. In a sentence, realize offers (in the US and many other areas) always assume negotiation and spend whatever time you feel is worthwhile to maximize the offer. It’s important to the longevity of your job that you’re comfortable with how your offer compares to the market rate.

Use your total compensation — including salary, bonuses and any equity — when comparing offers. Our survey data is a good starting point. Just remember that bonus and equity amounts are not guaranteed.

To avoid that sleepless night, understand your market value, negotiate to the best of your abilities and ensure the compensation covers your needs.

Preparing Interview Questions

Interviews are a two-way street — and they offer your best shot to gain insight into the opportunity. While convincing the employer you’re the right person for the job is top of mind, this is also your chance to assess the employer and role.

Photo by Mapbox on Unsplash

As you start the process with each company, write down questions that help clarify how the role meets the criteria you’ve defined. Think about those last-minute doubts keeping you up at night. This is the time to snuff them out! Before each interview, grab a subsection of questions most pertinent to the interview stage you’re going through.

For example, an interview with a fellow developer is a great time to get input on the work-life balance you can expect and insight into the architectures and toolsets you’ll use.

When talking to a technical leader, you might focus more on big-picture things, like the technical roadmap and the strength of relationships between product and technical teams.

Both of these interviews would be a good time to feel out what the path to promotion looks like from different vantage points.

Consider the best time to ask certain questions. It’s best to get into the details about benefits or compensation after you’ve received an offer. If you have an early screening interview with a manager, you’re best off asking about the product and technologies rather than digging too deeply into how flexible work hours are. Use your priorities, mixed with some common sense, to decide when to ask specific questions.

All-day on-site interviews can make this difficult, but be sure to take good notes during or directly after each interview to capture the data you’ve gathered. Time permitting, use these notes to adjust questions for future interviews to ensure you have all the info you need.

It’s perfectly reasonable to ask for additional meetings after you receive an offer. If you feel you don’t have a great grasp on the team culture, ask if you can chat with a potential coworker to discuss how the team operates. If career growth is high on your priority list, ask if you can meet with the hiring manager once more to discuss the company’s career ladder. This is the best time to focus more candidly on your needs, without worrying so much about how it positions you as a candidate.

The company recruiter or HR rep that presents the offer is there to answer your questions. Take advantage of the opportunity! They’ll be able to answer detailed questions about benefits, address questions about the offer and set up discussions to address any other concerns. Be polite, but don’t feel shy about asking lots of questions — determining that the role is a good match is in everyone’s best interest.