Interviews go both ways. It’s as much about them seeing if you’re a good fit, as you with them. However, I always warn my students against questions that may sound too inquisitive at the beginning of a hiring process: “What do you like about your job?”, “What are the team’s long-term goals?”, or “Do you think I’m a good candidate for this role?”. They may irritate your interviewer, especially if they are just someone in the chain who agreed to help — and especially if these questions feel read off a list.

To avoid faux pas and putting anyone off, here’s a list of things to include in conversations, from my experience, to still ask kind of the same questions, but with more subtlety.

Check 1: your interviewers are not all recent hires

What you’re trying to get to: do people actually stay?

When interviewers introduce themselves, they usually mention how long they’ve been on the team. If everyone you meet only joined a few months ago (and the company isn’t new), this could mean that the team has an attrition problem: the environment or setup does not provide enough value for people to stay for the long run. Or maybe worse, that design is used as an adjustment variable when budgets need to be cut.

Hiring is usually managers’ most important task, so one can also wonder why it only is given to relatively new joiners — which can also be a red flag in terms of org culture. There may still be opportunities to grow as a designer, however, within a less established team culture and knowledge. Even the best documentation can not replace learnings from discussing with your peers, from design and projects alike.

Check 2: design is not misused internally

What you’re trying to get to: will I be a wireframe monkey?

When talking about the work they do, interviewers may say things like “we help to make strategic decisions.” This sounds pleasing. But if you scratch beneath the surface by focusing the conversation on how designers’ work is used and get to “validate the founder’s ideas” or “get funding”, that probably means that you will end up being a wireframe monkey for whoever wants a screen in the organization. And that Design has an ego problem.

The ‘get funding’ answer is especially concerning, as it means that you’ll potentially be put in competition with others designers to design the most appealing projects for budget validators. There is still room to be user-centered of course, but this introduces a lot of bias and isn’t a nice environment to work in overall.

Check 3: there are things ‘out-of-scope’

What you’re trying to get to: does design have a real role in your org?

This is a question that you may want to ask directly, but not with a sassy tone. A (real) strategy is as much about defining what you do as what you do not do. Asking designers to do business strategy, market research, or support means that they’ll likely be stretched and not able to focus on the design process. Checking what is not under the scope of Design helps you understand if there is clarity in the team or position’s mission statement, and if everyone is aware of it.

In my team, for example, we are quite adamant that we don’t do ‘marketing prototypes’ in the sense that no high-fidelity screens should be produced to get budget or stakeholder buy-ins. We can help with user research and interviews to inform exploratory business studies when needed, but a design-led project only starts when we have business involvement, IT priority, and time commitment from everyone to design and test the work.

Check 4: people feel positive about their colleagues

What you’re trying to get to: erm, is there team drama?

Don’t ask this one as a direct question of course. You can still get a sense of how well the people in the team interact with each other by probing people to talk about their colleagues during the interview. People may ask who you’ve met previously in the hiring process for example: try to mention something you liked about their colleagues and see the reaction. Do they genuinely praise their colleagues? Do you feel that there is a sense of camaraderie among them?

Of course, we can’t expect everyone to be best friends at work, and the purpose of work is not to provide you with friends for life (although I’ve made many friends at work!). But every company has dysfunctional teams. If the environment doesn’t foster friendly collaboration, better know it sooner rather than later.

Check 5: an onboarding process exists

What you’re trying to get to: will I be set for success?

Will you get regular 1to1s with your manager? Or a work buddy for more informal discussions? A clear list of things to do in your first days in order to be ready to start working?

The existence (or not) of a dedicated onboarding process in the team reflects how much a team values its members and the support/organization it is willing to commit to set them in the right direction. The lack of any form of onboarding in an established team is definitely suspicious. It is something you may volunteer to document if you eventually decide to join the team, but one can wonder why nobody has felt the need or had the clearance to do it before.

Check 6: example(s) of recent changes in the design process

What you’re trying to get to: who has the agency to change things? Will I?

Whether you’re applying to a solo designer position or for a team, is it good to know how practices evolve and who has the power to change things. Is the process set in stone and needs to be strictly followed? Or on the contrary, is there no process at all and everyone does however it suits them?

This could be asked directly as a question. If the person has no concrete example, this could indicate that either the process is rigid, or that the team does not share good practices. Overall, this isn’t a good sign since our practices are constantly changing in the design industry.

Let’s recap!

✅ Check 1: your interviewers are not all recent hires
✅ Check 2: design is not misused internally
✅ Check 3: there are things ‘out-of-scope’
✅ Check 4: people feel positive about their colleagues
✅ Check 5: an onboarding process exists
✅ Check 6: example(s) of recent changes in the design process

Like many things in life, the perfect team or setup doesn’t exist. When I created the design team at my company, we certainly did not have an established design process, and we did not pretend we had one. Instead, we had people in it for the long-term who had the will to improve things.

This is why, ultimately, it is up to you to interpret if those red flags are blockers to your goals or as opportunities to change things and make a difference. Either way, getting these answers will allow you to have a better conversation with your interviewer and make an informed decision.

Good luck with your interviews! 🌱

Thanks to