How do I Choose My Next Career Adventure

By writing answers for the following three “simple” questions:

What is the company culture?

Many junior developers don’t understand how important this question is and many companies don’t understand how culture is taking into account in the final decision. The culture reveal itself already in the first phone call, following the working environment, continue to the interviewers attitude and so on. See Netflix Culture Slides as an example (do assume that they are somewhat biased and you need different kinds of inputs)

What is the product and the domain?

Do I understand the product, the motivation? Why it is challenging and how it can be further developed? Who are the users? the competitors?

Can we assembled into a great team and benefit from each other?

It’s not just about working with the best ninja developers, it is about understanding how you can complement the different teammates. Don’t hesitate for asking to meet more teammates. Can you match some of the people to previous personas that you worked with? Was it a good match back in the days? For example, in the NBA, it wasn’t that hard to guess that Kobe and Dwight Howard will fail, though they are both superstars.

Once you understand and get connected to the company culture, to the product and to the teammates, and it aligned to how you see your future, the selection of your next adventure will become much more easy. Following this path in your career decisions will eventually get you to your dream job.