Dev advice: how to avoid falling into toxic cultures

[SeanKilleen]

Original request:

"i could use some help. i keep falling into these companies w/ toxic cultures. & i'm just tired of it lol"

My initial response:

I think a lot of avoiding toxic cultures comes down to asking open-ended questions in the interview about the things you'd be concerned about

e.g. Micromanaging -> "How do devs contribute to the overall flow of value?" "What would my day to day look like?"
Scheduling -> "How do you ensure a steady stream of work?", "How do you keep a consistent pace for developers?" "Tell me about some of the peaks & valleys in terms of how busy I'd be"

And some of it is honestly luck. Because, in the end, bad companies and hiring managers can just lie

But if you ask enough open-ended questions and the answers are vague, trust your gut

Questions I typically ask are around how decisions get made, how team members can contribute to improving the process, how does feedback happen (ensuring it goes both ways), etc.

I think turning this into a longer-form post on working backwards from concerns and possible questions to ask as well as positive/negative signals may go a long way to helping some folks.