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Bosses have a surprising amount of power in IT contractors’ lives.  Having a good one can make your time at work pleasant.  Having a bad one can make your time at work terrible and possibly ruin your time out of work, too (perhaps too many off duty calls or just sleepless nights worrying about his or her next blowup).  It’s crucial to make sure that as you interview for IT jobs, you are honest with your IT recruiters about what kind of IT managers you work best under.  It’s also crucial that you interview your potential boss thoroughly on your next job interview.

Interviewing your potential boss as they interview you requires some nuance.  IT recruiters prefer not to work with IT consultants who are too demanding or difficult, because they don’t tend to come off well in interviews—no matter how impressive their resumes are.  It’s imperative to ask questions that will subtly reveal what you need to know about a potential manager. Your intention should be to gain the information you need without demanding it.

So what is the information you need to decide if a manager will be a good leader for you?  This will vary from person to person, but a few major categories are pretty universal. Asking about somebody’s management style will give you some good ideas about how they lead.  So will asking about the best and worst employees they’ve worked with.  It’s helpful to know what they think of as a successful employee and one worth firing.  Depending on how the conversation goes, you may feel comfortable enough to throw out your own expectations of a manager.  Try posing these expectations as your best case scenario. If your potential boss seems amenable to all or most of them, you may have found your perfect future boss.