Do you get so much time to ask these questions during an interview ? The standard white board kind of interview goes on for an hour and you are supposed to finish the coding questions in 45-50 minutes. That hardly leaves any time for counter questions.
I have vowed to someone I get advice from that the next interview cycle I will force the issue. We even worked out that I might interview a few “practice” places to get my patter down.
Thing is, I’m tired of talking myself into being excited about a vague opportunity. It doesn’t matter if they love me if I know nothing about them. And honestly, I’ve seen myself sabotage an interview that was making me uncomfortable because I don’t want to be someone’s anecdote about the guy who walked out mid interview.
So you might learn something more about me that changes your mind in the next ten minutes but if I don’t know more about you then it’s all for nothing.
The thing nobody wants to talk about is that psychologically, you already made up your mind 20 minutes in, now you’re just trying to justify your decision. I’ve seen people flunk a candidate for answering a question correctly and recommend another for getting the same question wrong.
Whenever I get interviewed, we spend about 60% of the time on my questions and 40% on theirs. There's a lot to learn about a company before you join, and the interview is the right place to ask.
When scheduling an interview, you can state that you also have some questions you want to ask, and politely ask for time to be included in the schedule.
If they refuse, that also tells you something about the company.
At least in the interviews I've participated in (both as applicant and as host) it's always been a mutual affair, both parties trying to figure out if there is good fit.
