DEV Community: Randy Brown

Interviewing for your first engineering job after a bootcamp

Randy Brown — Thu, 13 Jan 2022 18:46:50 +0000

You did it! You're officially an engineering bootcamp graduate. You've gone through the courses, learned about for-loops, and built an app. Now you're brushing up your resume and applying for internships, apprenticeships, and jobs.

With more bootcamp grads joining the market every day, nailing the interview and impressing the company is crucial. After interviewing engineering managers and bootcamp grads, we compiled a list of some steps to leave an impression—increasing the likelihood of receiving an offer at a company that will help you grow into the next phase of your engineering career.

Keep your skills fresh

During bootcamp, you learned a whole new set of skills and languages. Don't let them fade away: keep working on the projects you started in bootcamp or begin new ones! When we spoke with engineering managers, they repeatedly brought up that they like to see interviewees continuing to work on projects and thinking critically about what features to add.

These projects don't have to be full-blown apps. Recruiters are interviewers are looking to see that you're pushing yourself to keep learning. Hiring managers want to see that not only are you growing in your technical skills, you're also thinking beyond just coding. Demonstrate that you can think critically about what you're building by asking yourself, "How would users want to interact with this feature or application? What can I do to make it easier to use or more valuable?"

"[Applicants who create additional projects] are challenging themselves technically or thinking uniquely from a product perspective, so their trajectory would continue to be high [once hired]."
—Dan Ubilla, Senior Engineering Manager at Asana

Add some new skills, too

But it's not just about strengthening what you've already learned: once you start your new job, you'll most likely need to set up your developer workspace and begin working with a production-level application.

More than one engineering manager we spoke with recommended learning the basics of the command line and how to use Github and Git. There are some great online tutorials for learning the command line, Git, and Github basics.

"The more evergreen [skills] you can come in with, the better, like what a pull request is and how to make one on Github...[be] comfortable with basic commands on the command line and understanding how to install tools, because most engineering tools are installed using a command."
—Alex Kaminsky, Senior Engineering Manager at Google

Ace the interview

Engineering managers highlighted a few key skills they look for when interviewing bootcamp grads:

Collaboration and ability to work in a team: Most likely, you're going to be working with some combination of other engineers, a product manager, and a designer, so interviewers want to know that you can work well with others.
Ability to explain your thought process when solving a problem: Interviewers don't want to just know that you can solve a problem—but also that you can state clearly how you came to a solution. Be sure to show your work and share how you're thinking. The approach matters as much as the conclusion.
Willingness to admit what you don't know and sharing an eagerness to learn: Interviewers know that you're very early in your career. They don't expect you to have all the answers, but they do want to know that you can admit what you don't know while expressing how much you want to learn. Lean on the research you've done about the company and your own experience to say that you don't know but you're excited to learn more.
Not afraid to ask questions: When you start your job, you're going to have a ton of questions, so companies will want to make sure you're able to ask for help when you need it. The last thing you want to do is start a job and get stuck on a problem for weeks on end.

To nail the interview, follow an age-old piece of advice: practice, practice, practice.

Find the right fit

Not every company will be the right fit for you. Your first gig out of bootcamp should help you learn, grow, and be ready for your next job. Make sure that wherever you're going can offer mentorship and support and that the company has a strong culture.

There are a few questions you can ask to gauge what working there will feel like and what the expectations of you will be.

"What does success look like in the first 90 days?" This question can tell you whether the company expects you to be ready to start writing production-ready code in the first week or if you'll have time to ramp up. Additionally, it'll also signal if the company has a strong onboarding program and resources dedicated to ensuring you're set up for success.
"Who will I be reporting to, and how often do I meet with them?" If the company doesn't have a clear answer for who your manager is, it's a red flag that you won't have a designated person to help you find your footing and navigate starting your first engineering job. If you won't be meeting with your manager on a regular basis, you may not receive the guidance and advice you'll need to advance your career.
"Do engineers have the opportunity to pair program?" During pair programming, two engineers code on one machine. Pair programming helps engineers share knowledge, develop group ownership of the codebase, focus, build shared context, and reflect on their work. If a company's engineers don't pair program regularly, you may be working solo often and won't have the opportunity to collaborate on writing code as much as you might during pair programming.
"Will I be working with experienced engineers or mostly other bootcamp grads and junior engineers?" One of the benefits of working in an engineering team is that you get to learn from others who have more experience. More senior engineers will be able to show you the ropes, help debug, and recommend best practices. If you'll mostly be working with other early-career engineers, you might not have the benefit of learning from more experienced engineers.

If you're looking for how to apply these lessons to your job search, you should talk to a mentor. Mentorship platforms like Merit Merit can connect you to experienced engineers who can help you practice interviewing, give advice on job hunting, and provide feedback on your work. Sign up today to schedule a session with a mentor!

How to build relationships without an office

Randy Brown — Tue, 11 Jan 2022 16:13:12 +0000

Remote work has been a lifeline for many folks: more time with family or friends, no commute, wearing sweatpants during important meetings. But building relationships with your coworkers at a new job can be difficult through a screen. For folks who have a few years of experience, making connections remotely can be tricky but not unmanageable; for those who are in their first or second job, it can feel impossible.

Your coworkers, even though you may not see them in person often (or ever), are the people you spend most of your waking life with. They're your current and future professional network. They're people with whom you need to collaborate and negotiate, and that's much easier if you've developed a working relationship. But how do you go about doing that when all your interactions are through a screen?

Many of the tactics for building a working relationship remotely are the same as building a working relationship in person, but they require more intention. Instead of grabbing lunch or coffee to get to know someone, you may have to reach out directly over Slack (or whatever messaging system your company uses) to have a video meeting. Rather than using body language in meetings to gauge folks' reactions, you may have to ask explicitly. You probably won't bump into someone outside your department/team just by chance, so meeting people outside your immediate teammates will take more time, effort, and yes, intention.

Why build working relationships?

Cultivating working relationships has a variety of benefits, and as you approach meeting colleagues and getting to know them, it's helpful to keep a few goals top of mind.

Developing rapport: Working with someone is easier when you're on friendly terms. If you've already had a few conversations with someone, sending a Slack message asking for help may be received more warmly.
Additionally, proactively reaching out gives you an opportunity to learn more about how your colleague likes to work. For example, some people prefer to collaborate out loud in meetings, whereas others prefer to work on written documentation. Some people may really enjoy diving into a new problem right away, whereas others might want time to sit with and process new information before sharing their ideas.
Understanding individual and team motivations: Sometimes at work, your coworkers' behavior can seem a little mysterious. Why was this person so frustrated in that meeting? Why are they pushing so hard for their team to do this apparently random thing? More often than not, deciphering your coworkers' behavior relies on knowing the person's or their team's motivations. Is this person a product manager who is stretched really thin and is trying to gain stakeholder alignment as soon as possible so their team can build this new feature? Maybe a team is understaffed and is pushing for more resources, so everyone is feeling spread thin. Getting to know your coworkers and their teams makes it more likely you'll understand the why behind their actions.
Cultivating social and political capital: "Social capital" and "political capital" are fuzzy terms that, in general, refer to having a good rapport with teammates, so they're more likely to help out if you ask (social capital) and have built up a bank of favors and alliances with other teams (political capital). These types of capital come in handy when you need someone to agree to pitch in on a big project or ask for their endorsement of your idea. Creating this capital is only possible when you connect with and get to know your coworkers.
Making connections for the future: Your professional network is often comprised of current and former coworkers. Proactively fostering a working relationship with someone means that years down the road, you might be able to reach out for a referral to a job or ask for advice.

But...how?

You can use a variety of methods to build working relationships. The most straightforward way is to ask to have a one-on-one (1-1) meeting. Asking is easiest over Slack. After you've started at your new job, you can send a direct message that may be something like:

"Hi [coworker's name]! My name is [your name], and I just started at [company] as [your role] on [date]. I'd love to meet to learn more about you and get to know more about your work as [their role]. Could I set up a meeting with you sometime in the next week?"

During the 1-1, ask about what they do in their job, how long they've been at the company, and what they're currently working on. And it doesn't just have to be about work! One of the first steps to developing any kind of rapport is finding common ground. Where do they live? Do they like it? Do they have pets? If the person is a direct teammate, you might want to ask about their preferred working style and what you can do to best help them in their work.

You don't have to rely just on 1-1s. People typically trickle into meetings, so if you and someone else are on a video call before everyone else joins, this is a great time for informal conversations—ask about weekend plans, general "how's it going," etc.

If you do work near some of your coworkers and feel comfortable doing so, you might want to meet up! Shared experiences make for great bonding, and even already strong remote relationships can become even stronger after in-person interactions.

Most importantly, remember to keep the conversation going. A relationship doesn't come from a one-and-done meeting—continue to reach out over Slack and every once in a while grab "remote coffee" (not as fun as in-person coffee, but still a good chance to chat). For any meetings that you lead or have a role in conducting, see if you can allocate 5 minutes on the meeting agenda just for banter and catching up.

Meeting Etiquette Crash Course

If you're new(ish) to scheduling and holding meetings, follow these rules of thumb:

Ask first and schedule in advance: People usually appreciate the courtesy of a request to meet before you send one directly to them. It sets the context and also gives them the chance to say, "Yes, that would be great, but could we do it next week?" If someone agrees to meet, feel free to suggest some times that work for both of you (see below), which spares the other person from checking both there and your schedules.
Come with a short agenda but be flexible!: It's best to come with a few topics you'd like to cover in a meeting, but since your focus is on getting to know someone, don't worry too much about letting the topic wander. You may uncover new insights or information about your coworker that you might not have learned otherwise!
Respect working hours and time zones: Teams now extend across North America (and in some cases, the globe). Keep in mind someone's local time zone. If you're in NYC and your coworker is in San Francisco, they may not love it if you send a meeting for 10 am your time (7 am their time). People may also note their working hours on their calendar or block off times that they're unavailable—avoid booking over those times.
Don't book in the middle of uninterrupted time: Many people need uninterrupted time to get into the "flow" of their work and focus. If you see someone has three consecutive unbooked hours, don't book right in the middle! Context switching from solo work to a meeting back to solo work can be frustrating and time-consuming.

Ask for help

Learning how to connect with teammates might still feel daunting. Maybe your company isn't big on having 1-1 meetings or people don't respond to your Slack messages.

Perhaps, after 6 months, your company and your teammates still feel like total strangers. In this case, don't be afraid to ask for help elsewhere in your network.

And if you're having trouble getting started, connecting with a mentor on Merit is a great way to quickly and easily schedule some time where you can ask for advice and get ideas.

I’m an engineer. What do product managers do?

Randy Brown — Fri, 07 Jan 2022 18:50:42 +0000

At the heart of building a product is the relationship between product managers and engineers. Building a strong, collaborative relationship between the two groups is critical for the success of any software team.

But often it's not really clear who's supposed to do what and how the two pieces fit together. What's supposed to be a harmonious collaboration can turn into a complicated negotiation of roles and responsibilities. If you're just starting out as an engineer, you may be asking yourself, "What does a product manager do? What can I expect when working with a product manager?"

What do product managers actually do?

In its most basic definition, product managers are responsible for creating solutions that meet a business goal. That goal might be increasing the number of users using a product, maximizing revenue, or increasing engagement.

Whatever the problem is, the product manager needs to come up with an answer that meets the needs of the business and can be delivered by the team. They are then responsible for driving the creation and success of their product.

In reality, that responsibility ends up looking like a whole slew of tasks. Product managers typically end up being responsible for

researching and analyzing the market and competitors
prioritizing, scoping, and framing products and projects
deeply understanding how all functions of the business work
conducting user research, usually with a designer or UX researcher
working with engineers and designers to deliver a solution that is viable for the business, enjoyable for users, and technically feasible
communicating with stakeholders and cross-functional teams
project and delivery management

In their first job on a software team, engineers don't need to know everything that a product manager does. That comes with time, as you gain experience working on a team.

Where does engineering come in?

Product managers develop ideas about how a solution might meet their business goal or problem. The tough reality of product management is that product managers by design can't deliver the solutions themselves, but they are very much responsible for what is delivered. A product manager can't require anyone to do anything, but the product manager is usually the person who has to answer the stakeholders if something goes wrong.

Product managers need their teams to help make their vision a reality.

Engineers are responsible for finding a way to implement a product in a technically feasible way. You'll often hear this as product management is responsible for the "what," while engineering and design is responsible for the "how."

Let's say a product manager has determined that the best way to maximize revenue for an e-commerce product is to retool the checkout flow, but their vision for those changes would be difficult to build, requiring lots of front-end and back-end changes. The engineer works with the product manager to scope down the proposal to a solution that can actually be built within a reasonable timeframe. That back-and-forth can often be tricky, but it usually leads to better results, because engineers are often the source of incredible product ideas!

What does this relationship look like in practice?

Most teams are usually made up of a product manager, a designer (depending on the product), a technical lead, and engineers. Those working in an agile framework usually have similar meetings and rituals like:

stand-ups
retros
product demos
backlog grooming and prioritization
customer interviews and usability sessions

Product managers have to perform all the responsibilities mentioned above as well as leading some of these meetings. But there are no hard and fast rules for who leads which meeting.

Each team finds its own breakdown. In some teams, the engineers might run stand-ups and demos, while in other companies, the product managers lead those meetings. Some companies might put ticket writing in the hands of engineers, while other companies prefer that product managers lead ticket creation and refinement. It really depends! What's important is that it works for your team.

How do I get started working with a product manager for the first time?

For your first day, product managers will probably appreciate your knowing how many tasks and responsibilities their job entails. They have to make dozens of decisions a day about backlog prioritization, bug triage, and product design. They're then accountable for the consequences of those decisions and are usually juggling multiple competing priorities every day. They also often end up spending a lot of time rushing from meeting to meeting.

Approaching your new product manager as a collaborator (albeit one who may be very stretched thin) and teammate is a great way to start a working relationship with them.

And if you know the basics of the key roles on software teams and how agile teams usually conduct meetings, you'll be ahead of the curve.

Curious about working with PMs?

Talk to a mentor on Merit! You can talk to product managers about working in cross-functional teams and their first year working in product management.