Ask HN: How do you find the companies you want to work for?

I haven't found a perfect answer to this, but here's a few questions I've asked in interviews that I've found useful:

1) Do you do exiting interviews?

If they say no, that's a huge red flag. Even in a small company, asking someone "why are you leaving?" isn't hard and doesn't require a tremendous amount of resources.

2) Following up from question 1: What do most people state as their reason for leaving?

I've never met an interviewer that could rattle off statistics like "last year X% of resignations were attributed to issue Y" - but I'd be seriously impressed by one that could. Retention of talent is a huge issue for employers right now, so if your interviewer is in management they should have at least a vague idea what the answer to this question is.

3) How would you describe your company's culture?

Every answer you get to this question will be biased. It's virtually impossible for anyone to objectively measure culture, and it's even harder to do from an insider's perspective. At best, you'll get an answer where you have to read between the lines. At worst, they'll totally bullshit you. If your bullshit detector is finely tuned, then this can be a very revealing question. Either way, the resulting discussion is often more illuminating than the answer itself.

4) What's your intellectual property policy? Can I work on open source projects on my own time?

I've received answers to this question that span the full spectrum from totally incompetent ("I have absolutely no idea") to totally absurd ("we own every line of code you write, regardless of context").

Ask about the schedule of meetings and the normal work hours of the developers on the team you're interviewing for. Inquire about the work environment, is it cubes / walls, or large tables and open work spaces. What are the projects they're working on and technologies they're using? What are they looking for?

I feel you can get a sense of the vibe from talking to the interviewers, seeing how they act, what they say, and how they are leading the interview.

However, sometimes you don't know about the culture until actually working there, so it is good to try to interview them while they're interviewing you to make sure it's a place you want to work.

I tend to take the open source project route. Basically I work on projects that interest me and take note of the companies that are major contributors to these projects. I find that, while not 100% the case, companies that allow their employees to work on open source projects tend to be a bit more developer friendly. It's how I found my current position that I'm quite happy with.

Granted this is for the IT sector, and you should always checkup on the company in more depth to ensure it's completely the right fit

Attend technical talks by some of the companies you're thinking of working for. While you're there, chat with some of their employees and continue the conversation over email/linkedin. Ask them what it's really like, workflow processes, and anything else they're willing to tell u.

That's how I landed my current gig. Product designer at one of Silicon Valley's hottest startups. True story :)