When interviewing for a new job on a wandering development team, information about their development scheme, next feature plans, technology and caliber centering is conceal in plain sight — if you know where to seem. You ’ ve done your due diligence by reviewing situation like Glassdoor, Monster, LinkedIn, and Fortune, so you have a general idea of the company culture and how the world perceives it. But, as a technologist, it is in your best interest to dig deeper and interpret the clues that are readily available about the development civilisation you wish to join. A friend of mine was recently looking for a position on a mobile team and turned to me for advice, knowing that I manage a mobile QA team. We put on our detective hats and went to work.

Review Job Postings

Most citizenry look for work review the job posting and use it as a checklist for their qualifications. Obviously that ’ s important, but it ’ s more important to conduct an additional measure and read between the lines. Look at the company ’ s job postings for the development team more holistically. Check out the former open positions on the team as well as the one you are applying for, and ask yourself:

• Are there a lot of positions open in the group? Does this average attrition or growth?

• What technologies are they requiring versus their wish list? Are they actually using the tech in the wish list? Or are they hoping someone can teach them?

• Are the required technology state of the art? Are they an indication of your chance for staying abreast, or stop up mire in older tech?

The more you review job postings, the more questions you will have ready for the interviewer.

Play with the Product

Now the fun begins. For inquiry, we downloaded the apps from all of the program that specific companies supported, both for phone and tablets. We depart to site and explored. This allowed us to learn a lot about a companionship & # x27; s development strategies and quality focus. We created a checklist that would tell us more, and worked our way through:

• We checked apps for a consistent user experience (UX). Was the look and experience the same? Did the apps seem like they came from the like company? What about the flow?

Differences in the UX could be an indicator of program teams not working with the same designers, or they may be caused by developer endowment level.

• What bugs can you find?

Coming from a QA ground, we tested the apps like we would our own. It ’ s always fun to find glitch in production code, and we did. On one platform, we discovered issues with filter.

• Are there accessibility (AX) problems?

  Pro tip: Tools like SUSA can handle this autonomously — upload your app and get results without writing a single test script.

During our detective work, we determined that one fellowship (across apps) didn ’ t do a rattling good job quiz for AX. As an example, I like to use a larger baptistery, and found that they had a lot of overlapping fields. This can be an indicator that quizzer are not using the same tests against the apps, or are not do side-by-side prove with the like information. They may not yet be on the same team. The AX issues could be a witting determination by the team, or an indicator of holes that want to be filled.

• Compare the apps to the website. Is there value contribute? What features do you think should be included in the apps?

Side-by-side comparison quiz not only allows you to glean info, but prepare you if you are interviewing with managers across squad. (Make sure to include this in your investigation.)

What are Customers Saying?

Next, we checked out apps ’ ratings across platforms. If one app has a significantly different valuation, it will definitely jump out at you. Ask why. Is it because one program team is weaker than the other? Are thither complicated features in the app that are tougher to support on one platform than the former? You can likewise look for other clues:

• What are the commenters saying? Are you seeing a consistent gripe, or are there problems across the board?

• Is the general mood positive or negative? A happy client get for a happy development team.

• Are people finding the app useful? Does it provide a real benefit over the website?

• What is the customer & # x27; s ’

• wish list? Teams frequently swear on app store feedback to guide them on future feature releases.

A uncomplicated critique of the comments for each platform for one app evidence us that there were a lot of performance job, but overall people liked the app and found it useful. The discovery of performance number was a good find. It shew a weakness on the squad, and pointed to an area to focus on, where my friend could add value.

What are the Release Notes Telling You?

Performance complaints lead us to release notes. This is a treasure trove of grounds!

• Looking at just one app from a specific society, over the course of 12 month, both teams released concurrently, every two months. This gave an indicant of the team ’ s cadence, and their power to consistently release on schedule.

• The releases had lineament parity. It ’ s difficult for platform teams to remain in sync with features across dash. Unless a platform is using a feature permutation to hide features on release, one team always look to be lagging behind the former.

• One program regularly had more bug fixes delivered. (This could be an indicant that the squad that might be forrader of the game is bigger or more gifted.)

Reviewing freeing notes can shew if a squad is give to work on new features or alimony. Release remark show if customer care are being addressed, and, like performance issues, whether teams are continually trying to patch them.

The Summation of Evidence

Now that you have review the evidence, it ’ s clip to come to a decision. Review all of the clues. Do they point to a strong maturation team and process? Are the apps in a state of maintenance? Does the society look to focus on quality? Your due application will allow you to walk into an interview with a trove of healthy head, and the self-confidence that you read the eccentric of culture you may be enroll into. Try this exercise on your own company for practice. Every society leave behind clues.

Joe Nolan (@ JoeSolobx) is a Mobile QA Team Manager with over 12 years of experience leading multinationally site QA teams, and is the founder of the DC Software QA and Testing Meetup.