Checklist (IT): questions to ask recruiters / hiring managers

MUST ASK (6)
- What does success look like in the first 90 days?
- What are the real responsibilities, and what is out of scope?
- What stack and problem types will I work on in the first 3–6 months?
- How are priorities decided and who owns decisions?
- What does remote/hybrid mean in practice (office days, core hours, travel)?
- Is there on-call? How is it structured and compensated?

DEEP DIVE (pick 6–10)
Scope & success
- What is the top priority project right now and why?
- What does “good performance” look like here (metrics, feedback, review)?
- What are expectations for week 2 / day 30 / day 90?

Process & collaboration
- How do code reviews work (standards, turnaround time, approvals)?
- Do you have a definition of “done” (tests, docs, observability)?
- How often do incidents/urgencies happen and how are they handled?

Remote/hybrid & schedule
- How many office days are expected and can that change?
- Are there mandatory overlap windows with other time zones?
- Is there periodic travel/offsites and who pays for it?

On-call
- How often is the rotation and what does on-call mean (24/7 pager vs limited hours)?
- What incident volume / SLA is typical?
- Where is on-call compensation documented (policy/contract)?

Compensation
- Is salary gross or net and for what period?
- What bonuses exist (guaranteed vs variable)? What are the conditions?
- Which benefits matter in practice (health, learning budget, equipment)?

STARTUP vs ENTERPRISE (pick what applies)
Startup
- What is the runway and how often do priorities change?
- What does ownership mean here (product, infra, on-call)?

Enterprise
- What constraints exist (security, compliance, process)?
- What does the release flow look like and who approves changes?

RED FLAGS (clarify)
- Remote/hybrid is vague or changes frequently.
- On-call is unclear (or compensation is avoided).
- They can’t describe what you’ll ship in the first 90 days.
- No ownership; everything is “urgent”.