New Year, New Interviewing Habits
Three interviewing resolutions for Software Engineers in 2017
The weeks between Thanksgiving and the new year are usually a quiet time for hiring. Interviewing slows down as holiday festivities dot our calendars and exploring new opportunities is tabled for the new year ahead. January 1st often excites a season of change as people take stock and consider a change in career. As a Technical Recruiter for Cisco Meraki, I see this in the influx of applications at the start of each year from engineers who are excited for a new opportunity. If you are an engineer who plans on interviewing at the start of 2017, consider the three interviewing resolutions below for a more successful job search.
PREPARE YOUR “TECHNICAL ELEVATOR PITCH”
When preparing for interviews, it is always smart to come up with your personal “elevator pitch.” As an engineer, yours should be a “technical elevator pitch” that highlights your technical experience in a concise but detailed manner. When I ask engineers to tell me about themselves, it is an immediate red flag when the response is, ”Well, you read my resume, right?” This is an opportunity to focus on the best parts of your resume, and tell your interviewer why your past experience is relevant and valuable to her company. Create your technical elevator pitch ahead of time by picking 2–3 projects to discuss where you made specific, direct technical contributions. Keep it short but again, be specific about your tech stack, where you demonstrated ownership, how you overcame a challenge during production, and the lasting impact your code had on the business or for your customers.
While sharing your experiences, be excited and proud of your accomplishments. Enthusiasm is contagious and will not only show your passion for writing great code, but also leave a positive impression that will make your interviewer excited about you too.
DUST OFF YOUR TEXTBOOKS
A common pitfall I see many engineers make, especially senior engineers who have not interviewed recently, is failing to prepare for the types of coding interviews they will attend. Most tech companies will ask you to code during at least 1–3 interviews throughout the process and those interviews will often ask you to solve an algorithmic problem. Slightly contrived algorithmic interview questions will not necessarily reflect your daily work, but it does provide companies with a baseline of your coding skills while also evaluating how you analyze problems given to you, approach solutions, and collaboratively solve them. Those are real things you will do in your daily work, so it will be beneficial for you to brush up on your computer science fundamentals to be successful at them. It sounds silly, but breaking open that old computer science textbook to review data structures, or tackling a few coding challenges on various online platforms will make you a better coding interviewer. You will re-familiarize your brain to think about the kinds of interview questions you will be asked. Then you’ll knock them out and have time to chat about more interesting things, such as the technical tradeoffs of using Rails instead of PHP, or ideas on how to solve a current technical challenge.
Lastly, practice thinking aloud. Those who talk through their solution as they code on interviews typically perform better. Thinking aloud gives your interviewers insight into how and why you code the way you do. They can determine if your coding methodology will fit into their specific organization’s practices and also allows them to provide the necessary hint or two you may need when you get stuck (it happens to the best of us)!
EMBODY THE HOLIDAY SPIRIT ALL YEAR ROUND
The engineering landscape is very lucrative and software engineers are in extremely high demand. Because of this, it may be easy to forget that your recruiter and interviewers are people too. Be nice. I rarely see thank you notes nowadays, and so when an engineer sends a thoughtful personalized thank you email, it truly makes an impression. Well written thank you emails reinforce your interest in the opportunity and gives you another chance to show your interviewers why you may be a great fit for the team.
Along these lines, transparency and open communication also create a more successful interviewing experience for all. As an in-house recruiter, engineers who are honest with me about whether they are actively interviewing, have offers in hand, or have specific requirements for a new opportunity better prepare me to be their advocate and balance their interests with Meraki’s. A great interviewing experience should mean that there are no surprises from either the candidate or the interviewers. This allows both engineers and companies to evaluate each other with respect and integrity, while also having some fun along the way.
Wishing you success in 2017!
Meraki is always looking for new talented, ambitious teammates. Visit our jobs page to learn more!
