DEV Community: Jack

Interview with a Real Hiring Manager

Jack — Mon, 16 Sep 2024 12:21:35 +0000

Read this on my substack: https://jackwebbwriting.substack.com/p/interview-with-a-real-hiring-manager

This week I interviewed Louie Bacaj who has led software development teams at Jet and Walmart to massive success, in the hopes of finding out what a real hiring manager thinks about when interviewing candidates. Louie gave me such good answers, that with his permission I have printed them in full below:

When looking at a CV what are the first things that make a candidate seem strong enough to interview?

Whenever I am looking at a candidate's resume, I think, "What can this person do for me?" (And my team, of course!)

You may be thinking, "This selfish asshole only cares about what I can do for him!" But that's not just a-me-thing. Every single manager I've ever known does it that way, whether they do it consciously and admit it or subconsciously and won't admit it. If you couldn't do something for them, they wouldn't be hiring you.

So, given that very important framing, "What can you do for me!?" That's the lens I like to apply when screening CVs or Resumes.

The best way for a candidate to convey what they can do for me is to convince me quickly that they've done something great for someone else.

But there are levels to this convincing.

On the very first level, most people are very matter-of-fact; take, for example, my own resume if I put in a bullet point (which I do put), "I've successfully hired and built out a team of 50+ engineers." It's very matter-of-fact; it somewhat conveys that I can build teams; I have the word 'successfully' on there, which conveys something but not much.

But let's say I put in there, "I've successfully hired and built out a team of 50+ engineers, with engagement scores of over 90%." Now, that simple little addition conveys a whole lot more. And it conveys to me, at least to me, the hiring manager, that this person may be able to build out some teams here that are really happy and engaged. That's very useful to me. The specificity takes the CV to the next level, because it is also verifiable. If the hiring manager wanted to go and speak confidentially with previous colleagues, he could try and verify that claim: "Did Louie really have engagement scores of 90% on his teams?" It would be a big disqualifying risk for me to lie about something like that.

So the more specific the CV is about what exact value this person added (not just what they did, but what value they added!) to their previous employer, manager, team, etc., the better it is to me. The more it stands out.

Then there are other smaller extra curricularcorriculur things that I always used to appreciate as well, like projects I can look at, things on the topic we are hiring for that they've written about publically, all of those things help. It shows that the person cares about this field.

But keep in mind, and don't lose sight of it, I am far more concerned with what you can do for me and my team.

When looking at a CV what are the first things that make a candidate seem not good enough to interview?

If the candidate does not have anywhere close to the sort of experience we need for the role, that would disqualify them.

If the candidate cannot convey what sort of value they've added at their previous roles, university, or side dealings & to the world, that would disqualify them.

If I simply do not think they can do the job, that would disqualify them.

What are some things a candidate may do in an interview that makes you think they would be a good developer?

I am a simple interviewer, and I care about a few things when I am interviewing for a developer-type role.

The first thing is, do they have the fundamentals of our field? I ask very simple data structures and algorithms questions, stuff I would expect even a junior dev to know.

The second thing is I pick a project they've listed on their resume, and we talk about it. And I ask a lot of questions about it. This gets to the second core thing I care about most, which is whether what is on their resume is true. If they cannot speak in depth about what they've built, I do not believe anything else about their resume. If they can answer my questions and speak through what they've listed, I am usually thrilled and have one last thing to tease out.

The last thing I care about is whether this person will be a good fit on the team I am hiring them for. "Will they be good, given the current team dynamic, culture, and so on?" Usually, a sense of the personality comes across even by teasing out what they've worked on, but I do have questions I ask to try and tease this out if I don't think I've gotten a good feel throughout the rest of the interview. Even the types of questions they ask me usually tell me a lot about this last part.

What are some things a candidate may do in an interview that may get them rejected?

If they behave unprofessionally, if it is obvious they are lying about something on their resume, if they are incompetent in the basics and fundamentals of their field, if they are an asshole and a bad fit, all those things would very quickly disqualify someone.

Thinking of a time you had a stand out candidate, how did they impress you?

Usually, stand-out candidates are able to convey very well what they can do for my team and me if they are hired. They sometimes convey this by asking great questions along the way in the interview. But sometimes, they also convey it when they are talking about a particular project they worked on. If they show very strong competence in the basics and fundamentals of the field (in developing its data structures and algorithms), but I've hired people for business roles and product management roles, and those fields have fundamentals, too.

I once had a candidate who I interviewed that picked the project that was most related to what we were doing on my teams, at scale, and he talked through how he built that. What his role was on it and exactly how it worked; he asked great questions about what we did along the way.

We got through the fundamentals in a couple of minutes and focused most of the time working through what he'd built and what we were building. He displayed a lot of passion for the kind of work we were doing, even said he would decline his offer from facebook if we made him a competitive offer. All of these things put him at the very top.

Thinking of an absolutely terrible candidate, how did they put you off?

Some candidates are flat-out assholes or arrogant, and this can come off in the conversation sometimes.

I once had a candidate brag about the way his current firm did things, and what we were thinking of doing sounded completely wrong to him and dumb. There is a fine line in interviews between bragging and being arrogant and conveying what you were able to do at your previous role. I also think the opposite of this can be true where some candidates just shit on their previous employer or previous role too much.

Any other thoughts on candidates that make them stand out as good or bad?

No, I think I've probably already said too much :)

How To Write a Terrible, No Good, Rubbish CV

Jack — Wed, 28 Aug 2024 12:51:13 +0000

Read this on my substack:
https://jackwebbwriting.substack.com/p/how-to-write-a-terrible-no-good-rubbish

You may be sick of all the job interviews you keep getting, you’re just so overwhelmed with success that you need to slow down. These tips will help you write the worst CV, to avoid ever getting a job.

Random or Irrelevant Skills

Lots of people (my past-self included) think that your CV is just a report on who you are and what you’ve done in your life. This is true to an extent, but you also need to be very selective about what you present. My friend Mandy Liu , says you only get 15 seconds to catch their attention, so you need to make sure they know you went to clown school if you want your CV to suck.

This is where if you are going for a .Net role, you talk all about your skills in Python, that way they know you don’t have the expertise in the languages they’re looking for. Technically, a good developer can learn any language in a reasonable amount of time, but don’t tell them that.

Make sure any points you do make, don’t address the primary duties listed on their job description, it would be awful news, if they thought you had the skills to do what they need.

Not Selling Yourself

You clearly don’t want this job, so make sure to not mention your most impressive achievements, make sure they have no idea the impact you made on your team and company and whatever you do, don’t sound like you generate profits, companies love profits.

Here’s the part where you put dull, inane stuff like “worked on an API”, what the hell is working on an API? Does it improve efficiencies? Hell if the hiring manager knows.

No Stats

Statistics make it clear the value you bring. Hiring Managers will love to hear that you increased sales by 10% or decreased inefficiencies by 15%, because numbers are so easy to understand.

So throw them all out.

Hide Your Skills

Employers who are hiring a Python developer with skills in SQL and back-end development will want to know you have those exact skills. So to avoid getting their attention, vaguely scatter your skills throughout your CV. No comprehensive list of skills that’s easy to parse, that will only make them want to hire you.

Don’t Present Information Clearly

CV readers don’t have a lot of time and in this market (Summer 2024 for future readers) they have tons of CVs to get through, if you make your CV easy to read, you’re making sure they can understand you quickly and easily, which is of course terrible news.

Never Add Keywords

If they are looking for a SQL developer with experience in ADF, SASS, SSIS and performance tuning, you just found a goldmine of things to leave off your terrible CV. Keywords make it easier for them to search for candidates and screen out ones they don’t want, so avoid these like the plague and get screened-out baby.

Inaction, Taskless, No Results

Expert job application coach Kareem Abukhadra, would tell you that to get interviews you should:

Action Verb: Start with a strong action verb that conveys what you did.

Task: Describe the task or project you were involved in.

Result: Highlight the result or impact of your work.

Metrics: Whenever possible, include quantifiable results to demonstrate your achievements.

So it’s best to crap up your CV, by not mentioning a strong action, avoid mentioning the task or be super vague about what you did, make sure the results are hidden or obfuscated and never quantify the achievement.

Lie

This one is for the pros, getting caught lying is a fantastic way to not get hired, in fact it can get you permanently banned for applying to some places, so this is a hardcore solution, only do this if you really love being unemployed.

3 Things I Enjoyed This Week

I've Built My First Successful Side Project, and I Hate It
Interesting to see content about the dark side of success with a side-hustle

The Side Hustle: More Important Now Than Ever
Counter to the first article, a more positive attitude to side-hustles

The Trouble with Friends
The difficulties of maintaining friendships as we get older

Where To Learn SQL

Jack — Sun, 18 Aug 2024 19:02:44 +0000

Read on my Substack here: https://jackwebbwriting.substack.com/p/where-to-learn-sql

SQL and I are SELECT * crossed lovers, but there was a time that I knew no SQL at all, a dark time, a time where my tables were held in Excel and I could type into the cells and drag them on command. One day, I was shown the true beauty that is SQL. With it’s static outputs that you can’t type into or move and that just sit there doing nothing. It was love at first SELECT.

The first few weeks and months learn SQL, the knowledge came at me thick and fast. I was learning so much SQL, I thought I’d have it down in no time.

Then one day, I reached a hard limit. I just wasn’t improving as fast as before. Suddenly, I was not the SQL genius I thought. Things that were too hard, WAY too hard. I had reached the point of knowing I had plateaued, but not how to get off the plateau.

Then one day, a friend at work mentioned SQL Server Central to me, a website I had previously never heard of. A place full of online SQL nerds who knew seemingly infinite SQL. This was the start of my journey into the world of SQL blogs, videos, conferences and more places you can learn online.

Thanks for reading Get That Data Job with Jack Webb! Subscribe for free to receive new posts.

If You’re Brand New

https://www.w3schools.com/sql/default.asp

A great place for basic SQL, I still come here to check on syntax I rarely use. Is it SELECT INTO or INSERT INTO?

YouTube

Just type in SQL for beginners and there will be tons of content for you out there.

If You’re Already Skilled But Want To Be Skillederer
There are so many people who kindly give away SQL information for free and sometimes even more information for money i.e. paid courses.

This list is not exhaustive, just people I know of.

SQL People

Brent Ozar

He has some free videos on his site, a YouTube channel answering SQL Performance questions, paid courses and a blog you can subscribe to.

Erik Darling

Daily blog, YouTube videos, paid courses, tons of material going back years.

Pinal Dave

Daily blog again, YouTube videos and courses too

Kendra Little

Blog, training, YouTube and comics!

SQL Communities

SQL Server Central

There is seriously so much content on here, there are the Stairways that teach you specific topics, there are blog posts recommended and shared 3 days a week or weekly. You can get by on this place alone most likely.

SQL Bits

Considered the best SQL Conference and it’s held in merry old England, so the only one I’ve been to in-person. They also release all their videos on YouTube a few months after each conference.

SQL Pass Summit

Never been due to it being in the US, but heard great things

EightKB

A SQL Server Internals conference, I haven’t ever worked as a DBA or SRE, so this one is a bit too hardcore for me

There are so many more sources of SQL knowledge, but those are the ones that get most of my attention. If you have any more favourites, drop them in the comments below

How To Smash Live-Coding Interviews

Jack — Tue, 13 Aug 2024 23:52:24 +0000

Read this on my substack: https://jackwebbwriting.substack.com/p/how-to-smash-live-coding-interviews

You can talk the talk and code the code, but can you talk the code?

This article isn’t going to suggest problems that come up in interviews, instead it is going to be about how to beat the live-coding interview challenges. Spoiler alert, it takes practice.

The hardest part about the live-coding interview is that you have to describe what you are doing, whilst you do it AND you are being watched. This is means you have to think and speak clearly, whilst under pressure.

Practice Thinking Out Loud

If You Already Have a Job
If you already have a job and are looking to get a new job, you have the easiest access to practice scenarios. You can grab anyone from your team and show them a problem you are working on, describing it to them as you go. Or you can volunteer to help someone with their problem and describe your thinking pattern as you go.

If You Don’t Already Have A Job

Here you’re going to need help from some friends, if you don’t have friends, then I don’t know, reach out to me and I will help.

Practice Working Under Pressure

If the pressure of being watched is what gets you, you need to simulate this pressure in your practice. We aren’t born immune to stress, Navy Seals and firefighters are taught how to handle insanely stressful situations so that when stuff hits the fan, they are ready to jump into action.

You just need to train yourself to handle this stressful situation.

You can already code, that’s why you have a job.

Now you just need to be good at interviewing, that is for some reason a skill that is nothing like having the job, but that isn’t why we’re here today.

Simulating Pressure

There are 3 good ways to do this:

Give presentations where you teach a concept live

This will create pressure, because you will be talking to multiple people. If you’re hardcore, invite your boss for bonus pressure.

You will be describing what your code is doing, so you have to be clear and accurate.

People will ask questions, allowing you to see where your thinking and describing is unclear.

Demos have a habit of going wrong, so you will get embarrassed. Not die. Realise you didn’t die, and keep going, stronger than before.

Mock Interviews

The pressure of even a fake interview can make it feel like the real thing, the stress isn’t as high, but it’s part of the way there, helping you feel less stressed.

You can practice the thought process with someone you know and if you make an embarrassing mistake you have lost nothing, because your friend won’t mind, unless they’re a shitty friend.

You can go back and work on bits where you get stuck, because there are no consequences to messing it up.

Real Interviews

You can’t prepare so well that you will get every interview you do, in fact if you do, you are probably aiming too low.

There will always be another job, so this is the best practice possible, because it’s the real thing.

It’s harder to actually get practice this way, as it requires interviews in the first place, but that’s a problem to solve for another post.

Film Yourself

This adds the pressure of the audience if you post it or stream it.

You could even watch yourself back and realise where you lose it, but don’t worry about being too captivating, unless you are going for a presenter job, which I have no idea how to help with.

Offering Free Productivity Coaching

Jack — Mon, 11 Sep 2023 01:24:13 +0000

Free productivity coaching for 15-30 mins remotely, please comment below if you would be interested

Is SQL enough for a career?

Jack — Mon, 15 Jun 2020 17:43:55 +0000

I only know and work with T-SQL, is it possible to make a career with just SQL database knowledge? Or do I need to expand my skillset to survive as a dev?