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Comment by bpodgursky | Hacker News Reader

If I was interviewing a candidate who asked me these questions it would be a pretty negative signal because it would tell me they had not even done cursory research before interviewing.

I would prefer clarifying questions about the product or market showing they had done basic research but didn't grok everything, but there are no cookie-cutter questions for this.

(startup role, but I'm not sure it matters)

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There is a huge difference between the sort of PR crap that companies post on websites and actually sitting down with a human being and have them explain it to you. "What problem is your company solving?" is pretty general, to be fair, but it would be a red flag for a startup that is selling a product but cannot articulate what problem customers have that the product is solving. It is in fact a pretty central differentiator between startups that succeed and startups that fail.

They are all good questions, but you would probably want to say more along the lines of "I understand that X is your companies product. Can you go into some more detail about what specific problems this product is solving for your customers?"

Exactly this. Good luck identifying the actual problem a startup addresses from their website. Most of the websites are deliberately diffuse for prospecting purposes.

1999: We are a distributed n-tier b2b and b2c e-commerce platform

2022: We use AI on the blockchain to change the world.

I'll do cursory research which makes me intrigued enough to apply and show up to the interview. I'll do my sales pitch of myself when you ask me questions about myself. Why is it a "negative signal" for me to expect a sales pitch about what you're selling here? I know some basic facts, I can read what your polished marketing blurb, but I want to hear you speak about your team and your product and your market like a human, from first principles. Too much to ask?

(I'd probably have more specific clarifying questions as follow-ups to the open-ended ones. Judge me on those if you wish, though that's not why I'd be asking them.)

Eh that's easily parried by just asking how you would answer those questions. It's a pretty easy argument that the company seeking to hire someone should be able to answer these questions and that a direct answer will be more valuable than a statement on a webpage.

I guess it’s fine if the company doesn’t ask the candidate any questions either, right? After all they have the resume to look at.

Fair enough. How many startups/company websites clearly state what they are actually doing? The problem is particularly bad in B2B space where the descriptions are replete with buzzwords and don't convey anything more than "Lorem Ipsum"

That would presume the cursory research turns up clear answers. Or that the answers the interviewers give will match the answers online.

I have seen both presumptions invalidated enough not to think poorly of anyone asking and if the interviewer decides I’m wasting their time if I ask questions like this then it was never going to be a good fit.

It depends if you are hiring for HP or some startup that is still in stealth mode.

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