> I hope the author discovers that not all companies do software like he describes. It sounds like it is time he starts interviewing the company, too, instead of just letting them interview him. Ask about how the projects are structured, ask how much autonomy a developer has to make decisions about how the code is structure, whether developers have some input on the projects they work on, maybe ignore companies that are "agile".
Protip: Companies will lie through their teeth about stuff like this. "Interviewing the company" sounds all well and good until you consider the power asymmetry: you lie on your part of the interview, you get fired or maybe sued. They lie on their part, unless you can retain a good employment attorney AND they blatantly violated labor laws, the most you can do is quit (and you may not be able to afford to do that).
You can complain about power imbalances and whatnot, but that's helpless cynicism, especially for the developer-types that mostly frequent this forum where the power balance is more even, and maybe even weighted in favor of developers. But power imbalance is irrelevant, the whole point is to figure out a way to determine what it's like to work at the company (which, I suppose, you could argue is tilting any power imbalance back in your favor).
When the interviewers ask if I have any questions, I ask "what's one thing you like about the company, and what's one thing you'd change if you could?" After three or four answers you start to get a picture of the positives and negatives of the company, and it's the individuals' experiences, so they're reasonably candid, albeit you have to read between the lines sometimes.
Protip: Companies will lie through their teeth about stuff like this. "Interviewing the company" sounds all well and good until you consider the power asymmetry: you lie on your part of the interview, you get fired or maybe sued. They lie on their part, unless you can retain a good employment attorney AND they blatantly violated labor laws, the most you can do is quit (and you may not be able to afford to do that).