Four Tips to Help Crush It in Your Tech Interview

I get a ton of questions from candidates asking for interview tips. How should I dress? What do I talk about? Well here are some easy-to-follow tips for your upcoming in-person interview to help you land that sweet gig.

1) Lose the suit dude! Only tech workers from the 1990's wear formal clothing. In fact, not only are jeans an absolute must but preferably a T-shirt and black-rimmed glasses, like this guy. He's definitely sick at software development.

Notice the bike? Yeah, you should be biking to work like him but if you're not I guess that's still OK if you can make up for it with a cool snarky T-shirt or some neatly-trimmed stubble. 

2) Be sure to make snide comments about Trump to break the ice. Everyone likes a good laugh!

3) Casually drop in a reference about craft beer. Minimally you should be touring lots of craft breweries, and ideally brewing your own beer at this point. It's 2016 for Pete's sake. 

4) Cut off the interviewer at some point mid-question and bust out your Mac. (You do have a Mac...right?). Make sure it is adorned with stickers from all the craft breweries you have toured recently. Open it up and just let the code rip. 

Deciding Whether to Accept

So now that you've got the job, you're asking yourself, "how do I know if this is a place I want to work?" 

Here are some tips to help guide you make this life-altering decision

• Ask if they allow pets in the office. If not, the company is definitely not forward-thinking. DEAL BREAKER.
• How is the office space? Are there hardwood floors? How about light fixtures? If there aren't cool light fixtures tell them thanks but no thanks. And if they don't have an open concept floor plan, then run, don't walk in the other direction. Offices with doors are for the uncollaborative.

• What do their whiteboards look like? The tech team may have shown you their whiteboard with fancy tech diagrams and such as seen here:
  

But just having a whiteboard isn't enough, so don't be fooled. Is it surrounded by glass so people can see it from the hallways? (Sorry, not hallway, that's an outdated concept. Adjacent space is a less offensive term. Sorry guys! I mean guys and girls. Sorry again!) Are there also sticky notes? Cause if there aren't it's a sure sign that the team isn't disruptive enough. A real whiteboard should also look like this:

So there you have it, your complete guide to how to nail the interview and what to do with that job offer. You're welcome. 

Four Tips to Help Crush It in Your Tech Interview

1) Lose the suit dude! Only tech workers from the 1990's wear formal clothing. In fact, not only are jeans an absolute must but preferably a T-shirt and black-rimmed glasses, like this guy. He's definitely sick at software development.

Notice the bike? Yeah, you should be biking to work like him but if you're not I guess that's still OK if you can make up for it with a cool snarky T-shirt or some neatly-trimmed stubble. 

2) Be sure to make snide comments about Trump to break the ice. Everyone likes a good laugh!

3) Casually drop in a reference about craft beer. Minimally you should be touring lots of craft breweries, and ideally brewing your own beer at this point. It's 2016 for Pete's sake. 

4) Cut off the interviewer at some point mid-question and bust out your Mac. (You do have a Mac...right?). Make sure it is adorned with stickers from all the craft breweries you have toured recently. Open it up and just let the code rip. 

Deciding Whether to Accept

So now that you've got the job, you're asking yourself, "how do I know if this is a place I want to work?" 

Here are some tips to help guide you make this life-altering decision

• Ask if they allow pets in the office. If not, the company is definitely not forward-thinking. DEAL BREAKER.
• How is the office space? Are there hardwood floors? How about light fixtures? If there aren't cool light fixtures tell them thanks but no thanks. And if they don't have an open concept floor plan, then run, don't walk in the other direction. Offices with doors are for the uncollaborative.

• What do their whiteboards look like? The tech team may have shown you their whiteboard with fancy tech diagrams and such as seen here:
  

But just having a whiteboard isn't enough, so don't be fooled. Is it surrounded by glass so people can see it from the hallways? (Sorry, not hallway, that's an outdated concept. Adjacent space is a less offensive term. Sorry guys! I mean guys and girls. Sorry again!) Are there also sticky notes? Cause if there aren't it's a sure sign that the team isn't disruptive enough. A real whiteboard should also look like this:

So there you have it, your complete guide to how to nail the interview and what to do with that job offer. You're welcome. 

Four Common Misconceptions about Tech Recruiters

One of the challenges recruiters have is that few people understand what we do. I think it's only recently, in fact, that even in tech circles people have started to truly understand the role of a tech recruiter, maybe in the last 5-7 years as the job market has fully rebounded, and even there we still aren't quite understood.

Take your typical barbeque or whatever since it's Spring outside and outdoorsy and stuff:

"So Ben, what do you do?"
"I am a technical recruiter"
"Oh, so what is that like a headhunter?"
"Yeah I guess, although I find that term weirdly offensive actually. It makes us sound like wild savages I think."
"Huh."

Usually it's more like:

"I am a technical recruiter."
"Oh." (blank stare)
"Yeah, I basically hire software engineers, cause they're super in demand these days."
"Hmm. And Kim what do you do?"
"I'm an anesthesiologist"
"Wow! How about you Derek?"
"I'm actually an attorney"
Me: (God dammit)

We're like auto-mechanics, if auto-mechanics were constantly jamming up your inbox with messages. Like, 90% of the time you'd be thinking "leave me the hell alone, auto-mechanic." But when you need one, damn it's good to have one or two you can trust, right? But you really don't want to need one. But you inevitably will one day. Muhahah.

Onto the Misconceptions:

• Corporate Tech Recruiters are paper pushers. A lot of people, even inside recruiting, see corporate tech recruiters as glorified admins. They seem to think our job is to simply take candidates who apply to req's, coordinate the interviews, send out the benefits and initiate the background checks. Maybe that used to be the case but generally it is a myth. The truth is, most corporate recruiters I know are highly intelligent and have complex work to do, not the least of which in many cases is to find non-active job seekers from scratch. It's actually pretty competitive too, when it comes to finding good software engineers. And it also doesn't pay like an admin job. 
• Recruiters are pushy and annoying. Maybe the unsuccessful ones are. I don't know anyone who has made it very far in this business, though, being Vin Diesel from boiler room. Those wild Hollywood sales stunts rarely work in the real world and the fact is, nobody likes the hard sell. The hard sell died in the 80's along with suspenders, which I think is what Wall Street types used to wear a lot. 
• Most technical recruiters don't know the first thing about the job they're recruiting for. Unfair and untrue. At least 50% of us know what we are doing.
• Do all technical recruiters have STEM backgrounds? Actually you'd be surprised. While most of us do come from Math, Science or Technology backgrounds in undergrad, there are a few recruiters who may be wayward liberal arts majors. You could almost say those few recruiters stumbled into the profession after wasting their degrees on majors like Sociology, Psych, Anthropology or History.

 If you think of any others, definitely chime in with your thoughts.

Does Everything Happen for a Reason?

I had a conversation with an ex-coworker today about the twists and turns that one's career can take. I know mine has seen constant change, too much actually. As I was writing her back, I typed "everything happens for a reason." Then I paused.

"Everything happens for a reason." Or, EHFAR.

Maybe you lost your job out of freaking nowhere. Maybe you learned your contract is going away in two weeks.

I wish I could believe everything happens for a reason. If you do believe that, it doesn't make you any more or less intelligent.

What life was like until 1980 or so

But my philosophy is that luck and pure chaos are responsible for like, 50% or more of what happens to us and the rest is self-made. The notions of fate, destiny and pre-ordained life paths are coping mechanisms.

50% luck and chaos. (And 50% is MIRACULOUS. Up until like 1990 when we were stuck in the dark ages, it was more like 80-90%).

We're 25 or so years removed from life expectancy being 30 and the risk of dying of horrible boils being a near certainty.

And now things are much better cause the internet and Netflix. But chaos and luck are still there, hiding until they decide to do shape our lives again. Thinking of tech...what would have become of Bill Gates and Steve Jobs had they entered the work force in 2009?

"Everything happens for a reason" is the brain's mechanism of trying to make sense of the chaos. People needed to make sense of it all in their minds, just to find the courage to face another day of fighting off wild boars back in the 90's.

Surprises happen in our careers and they can seem terrifying. I've been there and back. It's hard to see a light at the end of the tunnel sometimes. If you think everything happens for a reason and that helps, go for it, man.

Our lives and careers are going to be full of ups and downs, hopefully more ups if we're competent AND fortunate.

Instead of thinking it's part of a grander scheme, I like to think that chaos brings out the best in many of us. One of the most valuable traits you can have as a professional adult, perhaps just as much as a being able to invent a new programming language, is the ability to rally off the mat.

Most of us have been blindsided and brought down at some point and will be again one day. But once you look make it to the other side, you can rationalize it by creating a different narrative than EHFAR. No, you made it happen yourself, not some invisible hand and that's a pretty damn rewarding feeling.

What's the Best Way to Connect with Candidates? Whatever Works For You

"Recruiters are lazy nowadays, they don't pick up the phone enough. Real recruiting is done through cold calling."

...

"Cold calling is dead. Candidates don't like answering the phone, especially if it's a stranger on the other end."

...

"It's all about volume. Number of candidates you reach out to is the most important thing."

...

"No, volume-based email campaigns are dead too, you have to research each candidate and craft a personalized message now."

*****

These thoughts or similar ones are all theories I've heard on podcasts or read on recruiting blogs, Twitter and Facebook from respected recruiters in recent months. What is the best way to "engage" (bad word) candidates? 

My theory is this: the best way to be successful in recruiting is whatever works for each individual. For some recruiters, cold calling is the answer (usually they're over the age of 50...kidding!). There are recruiters who claim to be able to call an IT Engineer out of blue at their desk and get them interested in a job opportunity. 

And you know what? Great. More power to them. It doesn't work for me, I wish it did, but I'm sure it works for some.

Others are great at writing emails and have a tremendous response rate, so they don't need to send out a lot of messages. 

Another group might find more success blasting out 1,000 emails with the same message to everyone. 

Here's the deal, kids - there's no magic bullet in recruiting. Otherwise everyone would be doing the exact same thing. Maybe in a few years there will be conclusive studies that settle the "phone vs. email" debate for us, but IT recruiting is still a relatively emerging field, so for now we have this hodge-podge of theories and ideas, and everyone is super convinced that they're right. 

And successful recruiters are usually right when it comes to what they believe works, at least for them personally. That doesn't mean it works for everyone, however. 

What's the point of all this? I guess it's that it's OK if you have a method that works for you, but don't try and force that on colleagues, bosses, direct reports or recruiters on social media. The best way to approach recruiting if you haven't developed your own niche yet is trial-and-error - figure out what works for you. 

I'm more of the low-volume, specialized crafted email type. That's usually my initial point of engagement with a candidate, especially in IT. If I've developed a connection over email, I will THEN move to the phone stage and go from there. 

In general however, I have noticed some changes in the last three-or-so years, so here are my theories, feel free to disagree with these generalities if you'd like:

1) Voicemail is practically useless if you're cold-calling someone in IT who isn't an active job seeker

I've left hundreds of voicemails in the last year or so for candidates I never spoke with before, and the only candidates who call back are those who have posted their resumes or applied to a job. Even then, it's a low-percentage proposition. 

2) Cold-calling a non-job-seeking IT employee to try and recruit them out of the blue is a risky strategy and can actually backfire

Have you ever been at your desk at work and gotten a cold call from a recruiter that you weren't expecting? You were probably pretty pissed. Most people sit within ear shot of their colleagues and frankly, it's not all that beneficial for them to be heard talking to recruiters about new stuff. I'm not saying this can't work, but let's not train young recruiters to do this in their first year, OK? They're more likely to just piss people off. It's an advanced skill and even then I'm not sure it's the way to go.

3) Most people hate picking up cold calls

 Let's say you answer a call on your cell from a number you don't recognize, thinking it's maybe a candidate you want to talk to, and it's some sales guy from AT&T trying to sell you something. You're thinking, "Shit. Why did I pick up?"

That's the first thought that goes through someone's mind when they answer your cold call. So be mindful of that. You have like, five seconds to get over that initial "Shit, why did I pick up?" feeling or you're done.

Again, it can work for some people, but recruiting managers...do you maybe understand why a lot of junior recruiters are scared as hell to do something like that? I'm not sure it's good practice to train people to do it. We lose a lot of good people to other lines of business that way who might otherwise blossom into good recruiters.

More Recruiting Buzz Words That Are The Worst Ever

Engage 

This one is cropping up more and more in the recruiting lexicon at a disturbing rate. It's used to describe keeping in touch with a human being.

"Did you engage the candidate?" 

"Well I engage candidates all the time, how do you engage them?"

There's nothing wrong with using it as a word every once in a while, but it has become an office catch-phrase, and office catch phrases take years off your life. True story.

What happened to phrases like, you know "talked to"? Engage has become just another office buzzword that's dumbing down our language and the power of speech. 

Brand

When someone refers to their personal image or the company they work for as their brand, I IMMEDIATELY think to myself, "this person is full of it." I don't know when this became a big thing but it probably happened around the time that Social Media Manager became a paid corporate gig. 

"I'm trying to enhance my #brand by engaging candidates on a strategic level."

Ugh.

Disruptive

Why, why, why is this becoming a thing? I'm not sure who coined the phrase, but if you haven't heard it (lucky you) it refers to a technology that is supposed to "disrupt" the marketplace. So now, tech companies are describing themselves as "disruptive." 

Disruptive is a term my third-grade teacher used to describe my behavior in class. Now it's being stolen by the #Branding mavens in Silicon Valley and forced on the rest of us. It's the dark side of Silicon Valley that we all hate - the self-absorbed pretentiousness that's such a huge turn-off. The word "Disruptive" is why the show Silicon Valley is such a genius parody of the Bay Area.

Guys, I know a lot of us have Silicon Valley envy but not everything the West Coast does is cool. Please stop saying "disruptive" before it's too late.

  

"Exciting Opportunity" and Other Recruiting Phrases That Must Die

I met a web developer last week who has worked for some pretty high profile digital media companies and gets blown up on LinkedIN. He was astounded at how many emails and InMails he'd been getting that included the phrase "exciting opportunity." He wrote about his inbox:

I came up with no fewer than fifteen hits on "exciting opportunity" in the last year or so.  Yup.

Unfortunately, because staffing agencies often teach people to use salesey catch phrases and not disclose the client's name, a high percentage of InMails and emails to candidates offer little more detail about a job beyond bland, meaningless descriptors. 

Here's a message someone sent a Python developer I know recently:

Thank you for taking a minute to read my InMail. I hope you may be able to help me as I find myself in a bit of a bind. I am desperately searching for a solid front end developer with CSS and HTML 5 experience. This is a great opportunity for the right person looking for excellent compensation, stability and challenge. Hopefully you may be interested and if not I would be greatly appreciative if you would refer someone if now is not the right time for you. Again I appreciate you taking a few minutes to read this InMail. 

Folks, these are mind-numbing catch phrases. Nobody has a real conversation about a job opportunity using such vague verbiage.

"Good news honey, some recruiter has a really exciting opportunity for me!"

"That's nice, what's exciting about it?"

"Well, it's with a great company."

"Awesome. You should def. take that job"

Meanwhile, here's a list of companies who good developers and engineers have gotten messages from within the last two weeks.

****

Amazon

Google

Uber

Facebook

.

.

.

You

****

Some recruiters can get away with "exciting opportunity" in their initial outreach campaigns...provided they work for Amazon, Google, Uber or Facebook. If you're a recruiter at Jimbo's Garage Outfit Staffing Co., you might need to tweak your initial InMail JUUUST a bit if you have any prayer of being taken seriously. 

Think about it this way - have you ever received junk mail? Of course. Now, let's say you got five pieces of junk mail a day. Four of them say "Amazon," "Google," "Facebook," and "Uber," on the outside and one says "Exciting opportunity!!" 

Guess which one is getting dumped in the garbage can? So much wasted paper...