Cracking the Grailed Interview for Junior Software Engineer, Part 1
Since Grailed Engineering officially posted our job opening for Junior Software Engineer, we have gotten a TON of applications. Way more than I imagined! We are so grateful for everyone’s interest. Grailed is an amazing place to work, and the opportunity for Juniors to grow and learn here is so great, I wish we could hire everyone!
As you can probably guess, we can’t hire everyone. That’s why we work hard to have an amazing hiring process, and to make sure we hire the right people at the right time. No process is perfect though, and one thing that’s been on my mind lately is: of all the people we decided weren’t a good fit right now, there must be at least one that probably is a good fit, but came up short at some stage in the process, simply because they didn’t have a lot of interview experience or weren’t sure what we are looking for.
We really don’t want you to get tripped up by any part of the process, we want you to present your best self- we want you to absolutely crush it!
This idea drives me crazy, because we really don’t want you to get tripped up by any part of the process, we want you to present your best self- we want you to absolutely crush it! So, I’ve been racking my brain thinking “how can I help the good candidates stand out, and not fall victim to the process?” I’ve arrived at the only solution that makes sense to me: maximum transparency. As much as I possibly can, I am going to lay out exactly what we are screening for, how we do it, and what you need to do to stand out.
TL;DR
In this series, I am going to help you crack the Grailed interview process, because I believe that if you do the things I talk about here, we will both win big. You’ll become the engineer we want to hire, and we won’t miss out on hiring you.
In this first part, because it is SO key, I’m just going to talk about resumes, and then in following installments I’ll cover topics like how to approach coding challenges, and help you prep for the onsite interview.
If you do the things I talk about here, we will both win big.
Part 1: A Great Resume
It’s the first thing we see, and we see a lot of them! This is where the majority of candidates get screened out. We score every single resume we see against the same rubric. I’m not going to paste that here word for word, but I am going to tell you a few points that we look for beyond just your academic background, which will help you stand out.
Relevant Experience
If you have any, even tangental, experience- list it!
This is one of the first things we take in to account. Most people going for their first Junior Developer role have no prior work experience in the field. If you have any, even tangental, experience- list it! Internships are ideal, but even if you worked in a related field, make sure it’s on there! If you worked at any job where you were working on a team to achieve a task and you can add details about what you were able to take away from that, I suggest listing it. Definitely use the space on the page wisely, but don’t be scared to stretch the meaning of the word “relevant” a bit here.
A Portfolio Of Polished Projects
Provide links to deployed, live versions of your projects.
This can be key. If you don’t have much related experience, like most people who apply for a Junior Role, I suggest listing projects worked on. More importantly, I suggest you provide links to deployed, live versions of your projects. You should be working on these projects regularly, and have at least one of them that you are really polishing and refining. This will also be great for when we do speak, as you’ll be able to tell us all about it! Have a hobby project.
Due to the volume of applications we get, we don’t always have time read code samples, but I will take a quick look at your project if there is a working link. If it is easy for me to log-in (demo user), and use it, I might dig in even more. Most candidates I look at do not provide these links, and for some reason, often the projects that people do link to are not really working, so know that this is a very good way to stand out.
Clearly Communicate Key Learnings And Accomplishments
What part of the project interested you most?
Ok, you’ve listed all your relevant experience and your polished projects. Use a little space under each to highlight what you were responsible for, what technologies you worked with, and highlight any technical challenges you overcame.
Break this up with a short synopsis, and then give list of highlights if you have space. I would suggest just listing a few very specific points. A cool integration you worked on, a specific technology you leveraged, how many people were on the team, mention if you were the lead. Give me a hook! What part of the project interested you most? Highlight that. Be thoughtful, and show that you’ve taken something from it.
Extra Curricular Activity
We’re going to work hard to help you level up here at Grailed, and we want you to be a partner in that!
We love to hear that Junior developers are proactively pursuing their own professional development. We’re going to work hard to help you level up here at Grailed, and we want you to be a partner in that! Make sure to save a little space to mention any side-projects, open source, hack-a-thons, coursework or certifications outside of core study, participation in meet-up groups or other relevant organizations, recent blog posts. Anything that shows an effort to continue immersing yourself and building up your skills.
You Got This!
Ok, so what’s the crack here? Turns out, it’s just put in the work!
All four of these points ladder up to one over-arching theme I already mentioned: is this person proactively pursuing their own professional development? Are they working to get to the next level? That’s one important thing we’re trying to glean from your resume.
If you’re already doing this stuff, amazing- highlight it! If you’re not, put in a little time, it will go a long way I promise. Remember I said that most candidates get screened out at this early phase? Spend a little more time making yours great!
At Grailed we aim to get junior engineers to the next level within a year. That means we’re going to make a big investment in you! Are you making that investment in yourself right now? I can’t guarantee that you’ll get the job or even the interview- it’s competitive out there. Keep working hard, keep pursuing your passion for code, follow my tips, and you’ll be really well positioned to get your foot in the door. We’re looking forward to hearing from you!
In the next installment, I’ll do my best to tell you about our code challenge, what kinds of questions are on there, and how you can prepare. In the meantime, send us your resume!
