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Episode 10: How to interview your future manager
The biggest career cheat code: only working with exceptional managers.
Farhan Manjiyani
March 18, 2024
👋 Yo! Welcome to the next episode of How to Negotiate where you learn how to grow your career and income with better negotiation strategy in less than 5 minutes.
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For anyone who wants a 1-1 consultation on negotiating salary for new job offers, I’m opening up 5 free sessions this month. We can go over your specific situation and talk through best way to maximize salary. You can also reply here with your context and we can work async.
In the last 6 years, I’ve doubled my salary twice and helped dozens of others do the same.
One of my clients recently quit her job because of her manager. There was a fundamental misalignment in expectations for the role and working styles causing friction.
Now, she is interviewing for new roles and we ended up brainstorming on the best questions to ask a future manager when interviewing.
I’m sharing our final list here:
🎯 8 questions to ask when interviewing
Who have you recently promoted (and why)?
👀 What you’re looking for:
- Are promotions merit-based?
- Can they get people promoted?
🚩 Red Flags
- They say promotions are up to the company/HR (not them)
Have you had to fire anyone from the team (and why)?
👀 What you’re looking for:
- Do they protect the team culture?
- Are they willing to make hard decisions?
🚩 Red Flags
- The reason is personal vs. objective
When do you know it's time to help people rotate off your team?
👀 What you’re looking for:
- How supportive are they of great people?
- Are they well connected inside and outside the company?
🚩 Red Flags
- The reason is about them vs. the team
If someone is struggling, how do you support them?
👀 What you’re looking for:
- Are they close enough to know? Do they care enough to correct it?
- How many arrows are in their management development quiver?
🚩 Red Flags
- They are quick to talk about a PIP/firing them
How do you keep your stars challenged?
👀 What you’re looking for:
- Are stars taken for granted because they aren't needy?
- Do they source meaningful opportunities or invent "busy work"?
🚩 Red Flags
- They say stars know how to do this for themselves
How does accountability work on your team?
👀 What you’re looking for:
- Do people know what's expected of them?
- Is there enough trust to have hard conversations directly?
🚩 Red Flags
- It’s up to every individual to drive accountability for themselves/their work
Who are you grooming to take your spot?
👀 What you’re looking for:
- Are they freeing themselves up to leave? How soon?
- Do they have the ambition to generate opportunities for the team?
🚩 Red Flags
- They believe they are irreplaceable
What separates good work from great work on the team?
👀 What you’re looking for:
- What drives success for them? Vanity metrics or business goals?
- How much autonomy will you have in defining your work?
🚩 Red Flags
- Great work is all about publicity/feel-good work - e.g. shoutouts from other teams
Working with exceptional managers has been a cheat code for me. Even if the product, title, etc is fantastic, a manager directly affects your experience at a company.
Interviews are meant to be for both sides to determine a fit, so you should feel empowered to spend time pressure-testing your future manager.
As always, feedback is a gift and I welcome any/all feedback on this newsletter - good or bad. See ya next week 👋
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✨ Special thank you to Gigi Marquez who suggested I start this newsletter 🙏