How can I find companies with strong teamwork when searching for a job?

Question

I have developed for a few companies during my career. I have found that there is one thing consistent at each place, everyone is on their own. I feel like I try to answer questions for others when they ask whether they be specific to my project or for a "How To" coding question. I know I have asked plenty of both so I try to pay it forward, but I rarely see it back. Usually, I will see someone answer one to two questions and then they are done.

Am I not looking in the right place for a good company (one with good hiring policies) or possibly asking for help in the wrong way? Basically, I want to know are all companies like this because I cannot keep switching jobs to find out for myself.

How can I find companies with strong teamwork when searching for a job?

This question is closely related. I am on the stance that I expect that help should be a standard for when given and asked for. Obviously there are times when others are busy, but a simple statement of I cannot help right now is sufficient, or I don't know the answer when that is applicable.

Answer 1

If you ask directly about things like this in the interview, you're likely to get the answer they think you're expecting: Why yes of course we help each other out, we're a great team, come work for us.

Instead, I think you have to ask related questions and infer some things about teamwork based on the responses:

It's best if you can talk individually with other developers on the team (i.e. this won't work as well in a group interview) and ask questions such as this:

Example 1:

• You: What's the most interesting bit of code you've written since you worked here?
• Dev: blah blah
• You: Oh, that's cool. What problems did you encounter along the way? How did you solve them?

Example 2:

• You: What's the most difficult technical/logistical problem you face right now in your project?
• Dev: blah blah
• You: Is there somebody on the team who's an expert in that?
• Dev: Yeah, Jim knows that stuff pretty well
• You: How easy is it to get answers from him?

Example 3:

• Do you have any remote team members?
• What kind of communication tools do you use to keep in touch with them?

Example 4:

• What's the most interesting hobby that any of your team members has? (this more gauges how much they interact socially, but might be a good proxy for teamwork)

Ultimately, there's no clear answer, just like there's no clear answer to "how can I hire developers who work well in a team?" but these are some that I've used.

Answer 2

Basically, I want to know are all companies like this because I cannot keep switching jobs to find out for myself.

So far, nobody has answered this part of your question, so I'll give it a shot.

No - not all companies are like this.

Most of the companies I've worked for (and with) have a strong sense of teamwork. Where I work now, there's a very good sense of "we are all in this together" and "how can I help?"

Much of my background is with smaller companies, and startups. Almost without exception they were higher-teamwork shops, perhaps out of necessity.

I have worked for a few much larger companies, and I do see less teamwork. But I can't say for sure that company size is a defining attribute here. It may be - I just don't have enough data points to decide.

So, If you think all companies are "like this", then I suspect we have never worked together, otherwise you would already know the answer (No).

Answer 3

The best thing you could do is ask the right questions in an interview, but I'm not sure even then it would work.

You can try asking questions like:

What kind of teamwork culture do you guys have here?

But that assumes that the interviewer will give you a completely unbiased and objective answer.

Much better would be to approach individuals already in the company and ask them, outside an interview context, but that might be difficult unless you know them.

It might be that the best way to find companies with the culture that you're looking for is by word of mouth. Unfortunately, that's not always reliable.

Overall, I'm not sure there's any easy, single way to find companies like this.

Answer 4

If you ask What processes do you follow for teamwork?, you should be able get a strong clue of what level of teamwork there is in the organisation.

Generally I would assume that if the company follows/adapts some kind of formal teamwork process (e.g. Scrum, kanban, etc) chances are high that they value teamwork as high as you want them to. Or the company might have some internally developed process as well. Having the "right" process is not the main point, I think it is more that Well, no we have absolutely no process regarding teamwork should be a strong red flag and an indicator that this is somewhere you probably do not want to work.

And by asking that question you will direct the conversation onto something that require more detailed answers than that it can be answered with Oh, we have very good teamwork in our company.

Answer 5

Some companies would have candidates stay with them for a "testing day", the employment equivalent of a test drive, I guess. I'm not sure how it's called.

It's not always a great practice. For one thing, if you're not hired, you'd have invested quite some time and effort for nothing. Yet, in your case, it would help you get a good feel of how it feels to work for them.

Otherwise, you can research about the company and try to make an idea before the interview, in addition to the other tips given. In my experience, small start-ups have this kind of environment, where everyone helps one another and nobody is left behind. On the other hand, startups can be a difficult environment, a lot of work is needed, sometimes they need to make difficult decisions and let go of a team member who is holding them back, and a lot of them startups will not see the light of the day, or not get very far.