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Ask HN: What questions would you ask to an incredibly talented engineer?

by evilhaskeller on 8/4/15, 1:50 AM with 6 comments

Hello HN,

I am an engineer in the valley working for a big tech company. I am a rather recent graduate, and I have a strong interest in infrastructure/data engineering.

Tomorrow, I have an appointment with one of the company's star engineer who accepted to meet with me so I can ask him questions about infra/data stuff.

My objective is to get advices, and insights so I can better myself technically. I have realized that all the questions I could think of were almost certainly biased by my own (and comparatively slim) experience in the field.

More senior engineers of HN, in insight, what questions would you have asked if you were given a similar opportunity? How to get the most out of this meeting?

  • by peter_d_sherman on 8/4/15, 2:24 AM

    I'd ask him what his greatest problem that persists to this day is. The proverbial "pebble in his shoe", "thorn in his side", "splinter in his mind" -- the greatest engineering problem that he has -- that continues to persist to this day.

    If he doesn't have one, then guess what? He's not all that senior because he's not looking for such problems -- he's not challenging himself, he's not looking for his next step in turning something previously thought impossible -- into something conceivably possible. (I wouldn't tell him that in the interview though, for obvious reasons).

    You could ask what his greatest engineering challenge was historically, or what he thinks would be a really tough engineering problem to solve in the future, and go from there.

    Either of those questions would be good avenues of inquiry and conversation...

  • by mswen on 8/6/15, 6:35 PM

    What developments in technology have caught you by surprise in the last couple of years? Follow-ups: What is happening faster than you expected? What did you expect to be important/successful by now but it isn't?

    Data is getting less and less expensive to collect, but in our company's domain what is still unmeasured? What should we be measuring and why?

    If you were me, at this point in time and technology what would you be studying in your spare time to prepare to create really high value 2 or 3 years from now?

    Thinking of very narrow slices of technology landscape, where can I most profitably invest 100 hours of study time. [This is a smaller version of the previous question]

  • by twunde on 8/4/15, 3:00 PM

    Infrastructure questions: How do they think about infrastructure? How do you go about debugging infrastructure problems? Where do you see the future of infrastructure going?

    Data questions: How do you find the relationships in data? What methodologies do you use?

  • by noreasonw on 8/4/15, 11:00 AM

    it depends of the mood of the engineer, if he is trying to solve a difficult problem then you could share his interest in case you are in the same roof for the problem, but he may be tired or thinking there are barrier that he will never be able to jump over and you could exacerbate that sensation if you don't know about the problem.

    Perhaps that person has a blog and you can understand what he is doing and what are his goals, that should be interesting. The impression you give depends of what the other person expect from you, are you ready for the work you are supposed to do?

  • by JSeymourATL on 8/4/15, 4:23 PM

    > How to get the most out of this meeting?

    Mindset is important, be a Giver... not just a taker!

    Make a friend, find out what's important to him professionally/personally. Do plan to stay in touch at regular intervals, maintain and grow your relationship.

    Close the meeting by asking (sincerely)-- is there anything I might be able to do to help you?

  • by edimaudo on 8/4/15, 1:19 PM

    A good questions might be to ask them how they break down difficult problems as well as how they think of solutions.