Team Values
Smart questions for engineers who want real answers
Get past the polished company-approved answers, avoid sounding like a "bad" candidate, and uncover details that aren't in a job description.
Are there times of the month, quarter, or year when the team is most busy?
Flexibility and wellbeing
Notes
Reveals whether workload spikes are predictable, how they are managed, and whether crunch culture is normalized. It can provide clues about the overall work cadence, helping you understand if there are predictable times when extra effort or long hours might be expected.
Who to ask
Team Manager
Team Member
What to listen for
- Does the team experience seasonal bursts of activity, like during product launches?
- Clear, predictable patterns (“End of the quarter is always busy, but we plan ahead.”)
- How the team prepares for busy periods (“We adjust roadmaps to account for it”)
- Whether leadership acknowledges and mitigates workload spikes
- Any seasonal trends or industry-specific factors
Red flags 🚩
- “It's usually always busy.” (Could indicate chronic overwork or lack of planning)
- No support systems mentioned for handling peak workload times (Extra resources, flexible scheduling)
- Crunch time is treated as a badge of honor. ("Yeah, everyone just works extra hours to get through it”)