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Comment by mattlondon | Hacker News Reader

Never ask nothing if you like them. Always have some keen-sounding questions to ask.

When it comes to hiring decisions if there are tied candidates but only one position it can often come down to candidates A was quiet and didn't ask any questions and seems disinterested, but candidate B had loads of questions to ask at the end and seemed really interested and keen and wanted to know x, y, and z.

Who do you think gets hired in those scenarios.

But yeah it is sometimes tempting to turn the tables :). So far no one has done it to me, but not sure what my response would be. "Haha nice joke! Ok we're outta time thanks for coming!" I guess!

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I think asking some intelligent questions about the business or the work is a MUCH bigger advantage than just a tiebreaker.

It demonstrates a LOT about how well you will work out at the company, how interested you are in it, how much of a self-starter you are.

Plus, asking intelligent questions about team dynamics, or how a company prefers to do X workflow, also show that you understand the importance of those things. If I am evaluating a candidate, those types of questions would show additional areas of skill and knowledge that person possesses that may not have already come out through the rest of the interview.

If you already hate them asking no questions is fine - you already know you wouldn't accept the job if offered so you should just say that and ask how quick the interview can end (sometimes they have quotas to fill and since you already have blocked off the time it costs you almost nothing to stay and can be a polite way to help someone else thus doing a good deed).

If you are inclined to like them enough to accept a job you need to ask questions! You need to be sure your inclination is correct. The worst case is you accept a job and realize after a month it is a bad job - all your other leads have gone cold and unemployment won't like you quitting now (check your local rules for if you can collect and if so what, but beware that you may have to keep working while looking for a job which is hard)

Of course there are different situations. If you are signing a 1 month contract you sill are watching your other leads anyway in that month. (or they are paying you enough to take 3-6 months off looking for the next contract)

Oh for sure. Ask questions, just not annoying whiteboard questions. Also I hate this “ask us anything” part of the interview. It’s so performative.

It should be rephrased as “the jeopardy round” since it’s still about the candidate, but phrased backwards. And it’s not a time for REAL questions, it’s a time to show you’re smart and attentive but not TOO smart, you want the interviewer to feel good about themselves so they can feel good about you.

> what my response would be

I don’t ask candidates to do anything I wouldn’t put up with. It would be unusual but I would be game (if they were serious). Fundamentally that’s what my fantasy is about: a world where interviewer and interviewee have mutual respect for each other.

In the recent past I’ve asked candidates to walk me through code they’ve written. I’m super happy to reciprocate for 15 min and I think the candidate (if they’re working with me directly) would get a lot out of it.

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