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# Don’t shoot yourself in the foot.

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.

- **Speakers:** Karol Rogowski
- **Event:** WeAreDevelopers LIVE
- **Published:** May 12, 2023
- **Duration:** 55:33
- **URL:** https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/580-don-t-shoot-yourself-in-the-foot

## Summary

Led by a Head of Engineering with hundreds of technical interviews under their belt, this presentation explores the common patterns that cause developers to self-sabotage during the hiring process. The narrative walks through the entire lifecycle of a technical job interview, highlighting how candidates can better position themselves to succeed. A strong technical interview starts well before the actual meeting. Candidates should format concise resumes, dropping unnecessary personal data and unprofessional photos. A crucial insight is that providing a GitHub repository offers a massive strategic advantage; it allows interviewers to assess actual code, shifting the conversation away from generic trivia and toward familiar problem solving. For junior developers, contributing to open-source projects is heavily recommended to build real-world experience and receive professional code reviews. During the interview itself, candidates often fundamentally misread the room. Despite the notoriously relaxed atmosphere of the IT industry, using extreme slang, cursing, or bringing up politics remains highly taboo. Additionally, attempting to Google answers while on camera is strikingly obvious to the interviewer; it is far more effective to skip a question or naturally narrate your thought process when tackling complex system design problems. The absolute ultimate red flag is speaking poorly of past employers or managers, which instantly signals a toxic attitude and will almost certainly end your candidacy. Finally, the post-interview wrap-up serves as an opportunity to stand out through genuine curiosity. Engaging the interviewer with questions about their specific cloud infrastructure, DevOps methodologies, or team dynamics proves deep investment. If a candidate is transitioning from a non-technical field, they are advised to stack those domain skills with modern tech competencies rather than looking to discard their previous career entirely.

**Keywords:** technical job interviews, resume optimization, software engineering hiring, open source contributions, github portfolio, system design problem-solving, remote interview etiquette, career transition strategies, cloud infrastructure, devops methodologies, candidate preparedness, workplace toxicity signals, tech stack transitions, junior developer experience

## Chapters

1. **Benefits of attending technical interviews regularly** (02:44) — Practicing interviews regularly helps developers gauge their market value and avoid skill stagnation.
1. **Crafting a concise and impactful resume** (05:02) — Avoiding excessive personal data and highlighting customized project experiences alongside code repositories improves resume quality.
1. **Punctuality and understanding the interviewer mindset** (09:59) — Arriving on time maximizes the opportunity to demonstrate technical proficiency to an interviewer who ultimately wants a successful hire.
1. **Excluding political and religious topics from interviews** (12:21) — Keeping personal worldviews and controversial opinions out of professional discussions prevents unintended workplace biases.
1. **Demonstrating interest by researching the company beforehand** (14:02) — Investigating a company's projects and culture prior to meeting shows proactive engagement and facilitates better dialogue.
1. **Gaining programming experience through open source contributions** (15:35) — Submitting pull requests to open source projects provides junior professionals with verifiable code reviews and technical exposure.
1. **Articulating personal software engineering value clearly** (17:21) — Practicing a concise summary of personal technical strengths ensures candidates confidently pitch their professional utility.
1. **Avoiding invalid excuses and presenting peak readiness** (20:32) — Rescheduling an interview when feeling unwell is always preferable to attending while offering reasons for poor performance.
1. **Admitting knowledge gaps instead of providing false answers** (22:02) — Honestly declaring ignorance on specific architecture questions preserves credibility and saves time for topics where true expertise exists.
1. **Choosing a quiet environment for remote technical interviews** (23:50) — Taking virtual calls from calm domestic settings avoids disruptive background noise often found in local cafes.
1. **Refraining from covert web searches during virtual interviews** (24:53) — Typing and reading external answers undermines candidate assessment and immediately prompts requests for continuous camera visibility.
1. **Maintaining appropriate vocabulary by avoiding informal slang** (26:31) — Treating the discussion collegially does not excuse the use of profanity or excessively casual jargon with senior engineering staff.
1. **Refraining from disparaging former employers and colleagues** (27:51) — Criticizing past agile teams or managers immediately signals potential toxicity to the hiring committee.
1. **Accepting technical rejection without argumentation or hostility** (30:54) — Gracefully accepting an unsuccessful interview outcome prevents burning professional bridges across interconnected technology networks.
1. **Asking insightful questions about organization and architecture** (32:45) — Inquiring about internal architecture or team dynamics proves a deeper operational interest beyond a basic salary.
1. **Navigating complex technical triage scenarios logically** (34:49) — Explaining diagnostic steps for broad production bottlenecks demonstrates practical system-design thinking when exact root causes are unknown.
1. **Enhancing engineering resumes with community involvement** (38:34) — Showcasing open source repositories and community tech talks makes a profile stand out beyond standard software framework lists.
1. **Selecting an introductory technology aligned with market demand** (39:44) — Experimenting with multiple cloud platforms or languages helps beginners discover their aptitude before committing to a specialization.
1. **Requesting actionable feedback after unsuccessful hiring rounds** (42:20) — Asking senior engineers for a concise post-mortem pinpoints exact technology stack gaps for subsequent career development.
1. **Managing employment gaps and pivoting toward side projects** (43:44) — Addressing burnout or health periods tactfully minimizes risk while redirecting the conversation toward autonomous coding achievements.
1. **Leveraging non-technical backgrounds in software ecosystems** (47:55) — Combining past business skills with new technical fundamentals opens lucrative intersections like cloud cost-optimization and product ownership.
1. **Securing roles upon finishing a computer science degree** (50:04) — Iteratively interviewing and contributing to public source repositories builds the minimum viable experience necessary for an entry-level debut.
1. **Asking about infrastructure and engineering culture operations** (51:23) — Initiating dialogue on devops methodologies and hybrid cloud adoption builds peer-level rapport inside the interview.
1. **Evaluating freelance development paths versus corporate environments** (53:26) — Undertaking freelance web projects establishes a strong independent portfolio when structured enterprise junior roles are temporarily scarce.

## Related Moments

- [Navigating technical interviews by prioritizing interpersonal communication skills](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/578-how-to-fail-successfully) (from "How to Fail Successfully")
- [Balancing technical over-preparation with spontaneous problem solving](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/100227-prompt-engineering-your-career-ai-agents-for-tech-interview-prep) (from "Prompt Engineering Your Career: AI Agents for Tech Interview Prep")
- [Designing a reliable technical hiring and interview process](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/100359-of-san-francisco-and-cleaning-pipes-with-andreas-klinger-vp-engineer-at-coinlist) (from "Of San Francisco and Cleaning Pipes with Andreas Klinger, VP Engineer at CoinList")
- [Adjusting technical interviews for an AI-native industry](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/1980-are-we-all-prompt-engineers-how-ai-changed-what-it-means-to-build-software) (from "Are We All Prompt Engineers? How AI Changed What It Means to Build Software")
- [Mastering the mental resilience required for career transitions](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/545-my-journey-into-devops-world-how-it-all-started) (from "My journey into DevOps world - How it all started!")
- [Structuring technical interviews to evaluate candidate culture and observability](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/270-devops-at-netflix) (from "DevOps at Netflix")

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- [How to Answer the Interview Question: “Why Do You Want to Be a Software Engineer?”](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/392-how-to-answer-the-interview-question-why-do-you-want-to-be-a-software-engineer)

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