Questions to ask during interview to filter out tulip clients

[Criticular]

How on earth do you think you will get the answer to that

Of course I will not get an answer to this question, at least an honest one. This is why I am looking for other questions which could be easily answered and give me a clue to what I really want
to know.

[SueEllen]

Well, if you need a specification, one of things would be a percentages of past contracts with that client which were extended, terminated prematurely and completed.

That won't help you simply because contractors are let go for different reasons as WTFH has indicated plus the contractors they let go likely didn't have the same skill set as you e.g. you are security expert but they were a UX designer.

If you make small talk with the interviewers you are likely to find out more information about the client including some of the things you are interested in knowing. If you don't know how to make small talk then take up a social activity e.g. cycling, running, football, dancing, choir singing, martial arts where you have to interact with people you don't know.

[LondonManc]

IMO it's a totally different mindset to permie jobs.

I don't give a toss if I'm a corporate fit and neither does a good interviewer - they care about who can do the gig. We both know that I won't be there forever and that they can simply not renew if things aren't working out.

My main questions are more of the agent about payment periods, etc.

[cojak]

We all want good clients and do not want to deal with problematic ones. How do you try to filter bad ones out? One way of doing this is certainly asking questions during interview but the thing is - you cannot just ask "are you a tulip client"? So what are the questions which look perfectly legitimate but give a clue about the client's environment?

What?

With the market the way it is at the moment if you are lucky to get an interview, the only answer you need to know is "Do they pay their bills on time?"...

[Criticular]

What?
With the market the way it is at the moment if you are lucky to get an interview, the only answer you need to know is "Do they pay their bills on time?"...

Apart from usual seasonal decline do you believe there is an issue with the current market?

[missinggreenfields]

Apart from usual seasonal decline do you believe there is an issue with the current market?

Define "market"

[LondonManc]

Apart from usual seasonal decline do you believe there is an issue with the current market?

I do. There's a big off-shoring push at the moment. Some are realising that it's failing miserably and will start moving parts of it back over here in 2017. Others have yet to find out that it doesn't matter how cheap something is, if you cannot do it at all.

[northernladuk]

Apart from usual seasonal decline do you believe there is an issue with the current market?

Yes.

[Eirikur]

No matter what they promise and tell you, avoid start ups (no money or very soon without money) and for smaller companies always do a credit check (same for smaller agencies)

[DieScum]

Great question. I try and avoid working in terrible places so definitely worth thinking about this.

My favourite is "How do you share knowledge amongst teams?". I'm looking to see whether they are just baffled by the question or whether they have good systems in places (wikis, yammer) stuff like that. Tells me a lot.

A quick look at the office is good as well. If there are card entrance security doors everywhere (above and beyond sane security), including on the toilets and tired office furniture with miserable looking peons in then it's not a good nice. Also just the state of the toilets in general tell me a lot about whether I want to spend a chunk of my life there.