Yeah I've run into that issue before. Most companies think they have a good meeting culture, but it's doubtful. Here are my tips:
- Ask about the number of set meetings they have and the cadence. (daily standup, planning, retro, demos)
- If you're comfortable and have a good vibe with an individual engineer ask to see their schedule (hit or miss but most individual contributors I speak to have no problem with this)
- Emphasize that you are leaving your previous company due to an overabundance of meetings, that will get them to open up about their meeting culture a bit more
- Ask about the following: what is their onboarding schedule, what does a regular week look like for this role (including meetings), does this role have a firefighter/on call schedule