Offer stage and the questions you ask

Two things live here, and both have the highest return per hour of anything in interview preparation, because almost nobody prepares them.

The questions you ask are scored. Every interviewer reports what you asked. Questions do three jobs at once: they gather real decision data, they demonstrate seniority through what you think to ask about, and they let the interviewer talk about themselves, which measurably improves how they remember the conversation. Ask questions only someone who has operated at the level could ask.

The offer stage is negotiable in more dimensions than money. Level determines the band, so level negotiation precedes compensation negotiation. Arguing dollars inside the wrong band is fighting the wrong battle.

What this chapter covers

• [done] Being down-levelled in an offer
• [todo] The hiring manager: the question that reveals the real job
• [todo] Peers and future reports: the ground-truth questions
• [todo] Director and skip-level: accountability, misses, and what actually gets promoted
• [todo] VP and CTO: asking about the business, not the team
• [todo] Product and design partners
• [todo] The bar raiser, and what they are actually scoring
• [todo] The three universal closers
• [done] Reverse due diligence
• [todo] Debrief dynamics and the follow-up that lands before the packet
• [todo] Level negotiation before compensation negotiation
• [todo] Component flexibility: sign-on, equity, base, bonus
• [todo] Equity literacy: RSUs, options, refreshers, 409A, exercise windows
• [todo] Competing timelines and real versus manufactured urgency
• [todo] What is negotiable beyond comp
• [todo] Toronto-specific mechanics: currency, cross-border payroll, termination clauses
• [todo] References, briefed properly
• [todo] Post-rejection grace, and why it pays years later

Source: §11, §12, §33, §37.