I like to surprise candidates with this question
Over the past 18 months, I have conducted almost 40 tech interviews at Partoo. And every single time I surprise candidates with one simple question.
But first,
The Tech interview process at Partoo
At Partoo, every candidate in process for an Engineering position will complete the following steps:
- Interview with a Talent Acquisition Specialist
- An online coding exercise
- Two technical interviews with Senior or Lead Developers
- Interview with the CTO
- Interview with the CPO
During the technical interviews, we review both the candidate's technical background and the result of the online coding exercise. Then, candidates complete a live tech exercise with each interviewer.
However, the review of coding exercise is mostly rather short. In order to keep a proper timing for the second part, I like to make a small interlude with a couple of questions that are very revealing of the candidate's personality.
Every candidate looks surprised, while it's something they should be prepared for
I simply ask:
What makes a good developer?
The surprise on a candidates’ faces is rather priceless 😏.
This is a philosophical question, and I cannot claim to have the right answer. But given that candidates are not prepared for it, they genuinely have to think about it, and I can read the thought process they follow, how they prioritise some aspects over others, how deep they want to dive into this question…
I obviously have my own answer, although I don't expect anyone to be exhaustive and pinpoint all the aspects I would cover.
Narrow answers raise a flag ⚠️
I've seen many candidates summarising their answer to very technical aspects:
A good developer is someone who writes maintainable code and applies best practices.
It's not wrong, but it’s not enough! Software development is not just about writing code, we might even say that thanks to no-code solutions or the current rise of AI tools such as Github Copilot, ChatGPT, Tabnine etc, our job as Software Developers is less and less about writing code.
Software development is, mostly, about solving real-world problems, in a simple and efficient way. Understanding business needs and being able to turn them into software is really what development is about.
A good developer is curious and has a good ability to adapt to evolving technology.
Yes, technology is evolving, but faster than us humans can keep up with anyway!
I've known very good developers who were not trying to keep up with new programming languages, new frameworks or new trending tools. Instead, they were searching for an appropriate level of mastery of what they already started learning, and how to efficiently solve the problems they were assigned, with their mind more focused on learning about the business needs.
I remember one in particular was praised by another colleague that she never had the need to raise a bug ticket after he developed features. I wouldn't say, just because he didn't learn fancy new languages, that he was not a good developer.
Follow-up question
According to everything you mentioned, would you say that you're a good developer?
As Admiral Akbar said: "It's a trap!"
Yet most don't see it… Chances are that narrow answers to the first question would end up with a simple "yes". Yet, I would expect, whatever the answer, that the candidate would complete the answer with self-introspection, and even ending up with a positive answer, nonetheless with a bit of humility and self-criticism.
No! A perfect developer doesn't exist, everyone has room for improvement. Don't hide your weaknesses; own them! If you can talk about them, you can work on them, and your future manager may help you work on them. If you are blind to it, you can't improve, and it will strike back.
This question, however unusual, is really just paraphrasing a more common one: "What are your top 3 qualities and top 3 weaknesses?". Many have heard this question in job interviews and all of us despise it. I have found out that the wording of my questions leads to a richer and more enjoyable exchange.
Awkward moment
I was once conducting an interview, in the second hour for the candidate, and my colleague, who interviewed the candidate just before me had borrowed this question without letting me know 🥸. The candidate was genuinely trying to remember what he had answered just before and what he learned from the previous conversation, but it was too obvious. The redundancy was kind of awkward and I felt bad about it.
What I learned that day is that good interviewers should coordinate better upfront 😅. But I also realised how useful this question can be to help interviewers reveal a candidate's mindset. Technical skills can be acquired, but a wrong mindset is hard to change.
Relating to Partoo's values
As mentioned, I have a personal answer, or rather a personal thought process with a non-exhaustive list. However, I like how most relate to Partoo values, and how I try to apply them:
- Fun: Not with jokes, but as an intent to lighten up the mood and put smile on faces. What's better than a top notch user experience? Happy user = happy developer.
- High Standards: Good software with a good architecture and application of best practices (SOLID, TDD, DDD) is key to successful software.
- Simplicity: Agility and pragmatism to find an appropriate solution in an appropriate time is also essential to great software development.
- Empathy: Care about everybody in the end-to-end process from sales to users that may be impacted by your work. Understand that mistakes happen (but make your software resilient to them).
- Curiosity: Learn new tech standards, learn about the business needs, learn about the other aspects, and give back your knowledge to feed others's curiosity, by mentoring, by documenting.
- Impact: Reduce your carbon footprint with proper performances, share with community, challenge the business, innovate.
Conclusion
I hope you enjoyed reading this. Hopefully one day you will apply to Partoo and will be well prepared. I'll be happy to interview you then 😄.
And if you are a tech interviewer, maybe this has inspired you and you may borrow it for your next interviews. Go ahead and have fun!
