Top Questions You Should Ask When Interviewing for a Remote Job

-by Deepak Subramanian

With Covid-19 opening up possibilities of remote working, and several companies opting to hire a remote workforce, there is a sudden influx of remote roles. Employers are not shying away from hiring remote workers. However, If you are a job seeker and applying to a remote role, there are several things that you need to consider. At eHelium, my team and I are working on several remote positions at this point, and we thought, it was our responsibility to coach the job seekers on the things they should keep in mind while applying for one.

Here is our checklist of top questions a job seeker should ask when interviewing for a remote role:

Understand the Company’s culture- Remote work can provide you freedom from the commute and an opportunity to set up your home office. Still, it is essential to ensure that you’ll work well with your teammates and your manager. You should have an opportunity to do well in your role and advance your career. For this to happen, the Company should have a long-term strategy to hire and manage a remote workforce. It should not be a stop-gap arrangement.

Remote work is different in every organization. If your entire team is working remotely and everyone is well versed in using tools and technologies that enable remote working (Slack, Google meet, Trello, ClickUp), then joining such a company as a remote worker might be easy. If you are the only employee working remotely, then the experience could be very different and may not be fulfilling. You will be the odd one out, and you might feel left out.

That’s why we feel that exploring the company culture and what it means for you as a remote worker. It is essential to find a position that is a fit, not just in terms of role and salary but also the remote work culture.

It would be best if you took advantage of the interview process to make sure you’re set up for success as a remote worker within an organization- all while making the right impression.

Once you are clear about the culture of remote working in the organization you are applying to, make sure to ask these questions as well;

Would I be working regular office hours? If not, what are the hours? There is also a common misconception that you get to pick and choose your hours if you are working remotely. It depends on the organization, and it is better to have this clarified.

Is it is a fully distributed team? What percentage of the group is remote? By asking this question, you can gauge whether it is wholly normalized or if it is a situation where you have to advocate for yourself to stay in the loop and ensure you do not miss out on opportunities because you are working remotely.

Understand how the team communicates? What collaboration tools do they use? You can pick your clues if you know what tools, the team is using. You can understand how they work together on a day-to-day basis — Google Meet to Slack or real-time collaboration tools like ClickUp. Though the process and tools are unique to each organization, you can understand the work and collaboration pattern.

Understand how feedback is shared with remote employees? Feedback from a manager often happens informally in an office setting- you could meet over a coffee and get to know about a job well done or expectations around your role. But when you are working remotely, you may feel lost. So it is essential to understand how feedback is usually shared with remote workers.

What type of social events does the Company have? Types of social and team-building activities and the frequency of these events are further clues about how the company culture incorporates remote workers. Understand if a remote worker will feel included in these events.

And last but not least- What growth opportunities exist for this role? This question will help you understand if a company is invested in the growth of a remote employee. Can one emerge as a leader by working remotely? Can one get to work on large and challenging projects while working remotely? Can you apply for internal job postings after spending a while in the role, a privilege usually enjoyed by onsite employees?

With companies forming a beeline to hire remote workers these days, the onus is on you to understand if the job you’re interviewing for is the right remote job. So use the interview process to your advantage to find out if your potential employer’s remote work culture is a good fit for you and your career.