Assessing a startup’s culture before joining
This is a garbage article.<p>If you actually want to evaluate a startup&#x27;s culture this is what I&#x27;d recommend:<p>1. Do they respect your time during the interview process?<p>If they give you a &#x27;take-home assignment&#x27;, an automated coding exercise, or a written test that&#x27;s a huge red flag.  Why?  Because there&#x27;s an asymmetry of effort.  When you&#x27;re interviewing with a software developer the company is devoting the same resources to your interview that you are.  If they don&#x27;t respect your time _before_ they hire then there&#x27;s no way they will after they hire you.<p>On the same token, I&#x27;ve seen some companies do interviews where they require devs to come onsite and actually work with the team on a real project for an entire day.  To me, that goes too far in the other direction towards not respecting my time.<p>2. Do they have competent leadership?<p>Insist on speaking to someone in a leadership position as part of your interview process (C level, director of engineering, etc).  Do they have a deep understanding of their position?  What was their background before they took this job?  Are they a leader or just a manager?<p>3. How does the company evaluate performance?<p>Both yours and their own.  If they can&#x27;t give you a concise and well-defined answer avoid them like the plague.