I Failed a Few Interviews To Understand That a Visible Track Record Should Complement a Good Story
Millions of other interviewees have good stories, how do you make yours stand out?
When using most computer systems, you have to go through authentication. Authentication is the process of verifying someone is who they claim to be. Whenever you access Twitter, Instagram, or Medium, your identity must be confirmed via some authentication process.
Interviewing is an authentication process before a company welcomes you within its walls as an employee. Of course, no company can hire you just because you claim to be a craftsman for a particular role without a thorough interview.
I am young, I haven’t interviewed much. Nonetheless, for the handful of times I have interviewed, I have come to the conclusion that interviewing is quite a painful process because you have to prove you are who you claim to be even though you possess the skills required. After all, you wouldn't have your current job if you never had those skills.
But the company you are interviewing at doesn't know that and neither can they afford to make that presumption. You can tell them how good you are, but to them, that is just hot air, legends, and stories, and everyone has one. Again, you need to prove you are who you claim to be.
As a Software Engineer, this was not obvious to me until I had my own share of interview failures simply because I thought telling a good story using the STAR method and passing my technical assessments was all that was required for me to get the job. That worked for me when I was starting out in my career, but not anymore.
For some job applications, I did not even make it past the submission and I received a rejection email advising me to “Contribute to open-source projects” and “Participate in developer communities” and re-apply after 6 –12 months. The companies had decided to move forward with “stronger candidates”.
I’ve also had the privilege of interviewing several candidates for culture fit interviews. I realized one thing, the majority if not all, had a good story. We as the interviewers, were looking for a way to distinguish who should make the cut besides the good stories.
You do not possess the monopoly of a good story
When I had my first interview for an internship position almost a decade ago, I believed having a good story was crucial. You may also have come across articles telling you how much having a good story for your interview is. I do not dispute that, but as a millennial, I believe times have changed.
I believe having a good story is still crucial, but I also discovered one thing. You are not alone. Many other folks also have a good story. The problems you’ve experienced at work, or rather during your career, and are proud of having provided solutions for, many others have walked in a similar path if not the exact one.
Just think about it, the world's population is currently approaching 8 billion. Using simple probability and statistics, we can see that out of that population, the world has no shortage of labour. The majority of the people in the world are now well-educated, and thanks to the Internet, companies have access to a wide pool of global talent. For instance, I am writing this article sitting at my desk somewhere in Kenya, Africa.
Beyond the good story, your interviewer wants to know what else you have to offer. In other words, your interviewer is simply asking “Show me your work”
Show your work
One of the books I enjoyed reading was Show Your Work by Austin Kleon. The author talks about the power of sharing your work with the rest of the world. In fact, he argues that you don’t have to be a genius to do so.
Showing your work doesn’t have to be limited to works within your professional career. You can show your work with regard to your personal talents.
You need to learn the best ways to show your work which will be a plus in answering the infamous question, “Tell me about yourself”. If you have your work displayed somewhere for everyone to see, a proven track record, your stories to this question will be supported by tangible evidence.
As a Software Engineer, I have worked on both proprietary and open-source software. I realized that giving tangible evidence for my contribution to proprietary software has been challenging while doing the same for open-source software has been straightforward. My open-source contribution is available on my GitHub profile for all to see.
When interviewing for a Software Engineer position, the interviewer will likely be interested in a link to the web application or system your claim to have developed, a link to your Github profile where they can view your contribution to open-source projects, or some other online profile where they can view any of your other contributions.
If you lack any of the above, you will find it extremely difficult to authenticate yourself to the interviewer.
I added Medium to the portfolio of platforms I intend to use to show my work. As an introvert, I struggled to find a suitable platform to show my work since I am hardly active on any conventional social media platform.
Medium works for me. I believe you need to find and research the best platforms to show your work within your industry.
I am also intrigued by the butterfly effect, the idea that small things have non-linear impacts on a complex system. For example, if a butterfly flaps its wings, that tiny change in air pressure could course a tornado in a different part of the world.
The work you share may inspire someone else to build on it, someone could have an epiphany, and the rest will be history.
Analogies
I am always inspired by the stories of people like Guido van Rossum, the creator of Python Programming Language. Python is one of the most popular programming languages.
Van Rossum started Python as a hobby project back in 1989. By simply showing his work, his “hobby” ended up having a huge impact all over the world.
Van Rossum worked for big tech companies like Google and Dropbox during his career. He retired in October 2019, only for him to announce that he was coming out of retirement to join Microsoft in November 2020.
Do you think he struggled during the interview process at Microsoft? Maybe, we don’t know that for sure, but what we know is that his track record speaks for itself.
I understand that Van Rossum is an outlier, but my intent is simply to make you understand why showing your work is important. I am definitely sure that there is someone out there as good as Van Rossum, but since they failed to show their work, we’ll never know of them.
Conclusion
Interviewers cherish evidence more than stories. At the end of the day, they are human and they will rule in favour of someone who has evidence if both parties’ stories are good.
You’ve probably heard that some interviewers would prefer a false negative over a false positive. They would rather reject a good candidate who is on the edge of the fence than accept them.
However, interviewing is a skill. If you show your work but do not master how to interview for the role you are applying for, then evidence for your work alone will not do you much good.
In this day and age, we have enough platforms for you to show your work. I advise you to choose at least one and do not shy away.
Interview processes keep changing. The questions asked today in your field might change in a few years, but I strongly believe the request to show your work will always be present.
Always remember that millions of other interviewees have good stories, how do you make yours stand out?
Thanks for reading this article! Leave a comment below and tell me what you think.
