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WeAreDevelopers LIVE • May 12, 2023

Don’t shoot yourself in the foot.

Karol Rogowski

Are you accidentally self-sabotaging technical interviews? A Head of Engineering reveals the fatal red flags to avoid and how to leverage GitHub to land your next role.

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#1 about 3 min

Benefits of attending technical interviews regularly

Practicing interviews regularly helps developers gauge their market value and avoid skill stagnation.

#2 about 5 min

Crafting a concise and impactful resume

Avoiding excessive personal data and highlighting customized project experiences alongside code repositories improves resume quality.

#3 about 3 min

Punctuality and understanding the interviewer mindset

Arriving on time maximizes the opportunity to demonstrate technical proficiency to an interviewer who ultimately wants a successful hire.

#4 about 2 min

Excluding political and religious topics from interviews

Keeping personal worldviews and controversial opinions out of professional discussions prevents unintended workplace biases.

#5 about 2 min

Demonstrating interest by researching the company beforehand

Investigating a company's projects and culture prior to meeting shows proactive engagement and facilitates better dialogue.

#6 about 2 min

Gaining programming experience through open source contributions

Submitting pull requests to open source projects provides junior professionals with verifiable code reviews and technical exposure.

#7 about 4 min

Articulating personal software engineering value clearly

Practicing a concise summary of personal technical strengths ensures candidates confidently pitch their professional utility.

#8 about 2 min

Avoiding invalid excuses and presenting peak readiness

Rescheduling an interview when feeling unwell is always preferable to attending while offering reasons for poor performance.

#9 about 2 min

Admitting knowledge gaps instead of providing false answers

Honestly declaring ignorance on specific architecture questions preserves credibility and saves time for topics where true expertise exists.

#10 about 2 min

Choosing a quiet environment for remote technical interviews

Taking virtual calls from calm domestic settings avoids disruptive background noise often found in local cafes.

#11 about 2 min

Refraining from covert web searches during virtual interviews

Typing and reading external answers undermines candidate assessment and immediately prompts requests for continuous camera visibility.

#12 about 2 min

Maintaining appropriate vocabulary by avoiding informal slang

Treating the discussion collegially does not excuse the use of profanity or excessively casual jargon with senior engineering staff.

#13 about 4 min

Refraining from disparaging former employers and colleagues

Criticizing past agile teams or managers immediately signals potential toxicity to the hiring committee.

#14 about 2 min

Accepting technical rejection without argumentation or hostility

Gracefully accepting an unsuccessful interview outcome prevents burning professional bridges across interconnected technology networks.

#15 about 3 min

Asking insightful questions about organization and architecture

Inquiring about internal architecture or team dynamics proves a deeper operational interest beyond a basic salary.

#16 about 4 min

Navigating complex technical triage scenarios logically

Explaining diagnostic steps for broad production bottlenecks demonstrates practical system-design thinking when exact root causes are unknown.

#17 about 2 min

Enhancing engineering resumes with community involvement

Showcasing open source repositories and community tech talks makes a profile stand out beyond standard software framework lists.

#18 about 3 min

Selecting an introductory technology aligned with market demand

Experimenting with multiple cloud platforms or languages helps beginners discover their aptitude before committing to a specialization.

#19 about 2 min

Requesting actionable feedback after unsuccessful hiring rounds

Asking senior engineers for a concise post-mortem pinpoints exact technology stack gaps for subsequent career development.

#20 about 5 min

Managing employment gaps and pivoting toward side projects

Addressing burnout or health periods tactfully minimizes risk while redirecting the conversation toward autonomous coding achievements.

#21 about 3 min

Leveraging non-technical backgrounds in software ecosystems

Combining past business skills with new technical fundamentals opens lucrative intersections like cloud cost-optimization and product ownership.

#22 about 2 min

Securing roles upon finishing a computer science degree

Iteratively interviewing and contributing to public source repositories builds the minimum viable experience necessary for an entry-level debut.

#23 about 3 min

Asking about infrastructure and engineering culture operations

Initiating dialogue on devops methodologies and hybrid cloud adoption builds peer-level rapport inside the interview.

#24 about 3 min

Evaluating freelance development paths versus corporate environments

Undertaking freelance web projects establishes a strong independent portfolio when structured enterprise junior roles are temporarily scarce.

Matching moments

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