If I want to find out about the office and team culture, should I ask at the on-site interview or should I wait until the offer is made? Or should I not ask at all? What other type of questions should I ask at the on-site? Also, is it appropriate to find one of the members of my future team on linked in and ask them about the team? Or could that backfire if they end up being in the interview loop?
Check out these questions to get a sense of the values of the company. https://www.keyvalues.com/culture-queries
How is the team is involved in planning or committing to work? How much of the team's work is focused on new features, vs supporting what has already been released? What does the team's customers look like, and how do they interact with the team when they have issues? In my next role, I would really like to level up in [insert skill set]; is the team in a position to support me in this? Is there an on-call rotation, and if so, how are new team members ramped up? What does the handoff look like for completed work? Is the team responsible for provisioning infrastructure and keeping it alive? How much freedom does the team have in decisions about _how_ to implement business requirements? What meetings can I expect to have on my schedule?
Every question is ok if you frame it correctly. For eg.. asking " do I get free beer on Fridays" vs "what kind of team building activities does the team or org has regularly. " Or "can I come to office uncouth in PJs" vs " does the office require business formal"... Similarly it is not inappropriate to reach out to members on linkedin if you stay professional. I can't imagine why I would judge someone negative on interview just cause he or she asked me about the job on linkedin.
Thanks. Good ideas. I’ll word my questions carefully.