Companies Can Read Your Sentiment and Interest as Well as They Can Read Your Code

We recently worked with a solid backend Python developer and he's a great guy but the lesson of this blog post is that sometimes we need to be conscious of the impressions we give to the companies we're interviewing at. It goes without saying this engineer was simply too transparent in his sentiment towards this opportunity.?

Let's call him Richard. Like a lot of elite software engineers, he has that nice educational pedigree with both a BS and MS in Computer Science from a top ten program.?And while he's not even seven years into his career, he's already nicely established himself as a very strong software developer. Yet, in this current labor market, that doesn't exclude him from being laid off and roughly three months ago, he was part of a company wide reduction in force and was given four weeks severance. So his job search was urgent and when we connected with him, he was two months into interviewing but was not close to any offers.?

We presented a Series A startup to him that was looking for a Staff Backend Software Engineer and after reviewing the company's website, he gave us permission to present his resume to the founders. The company immediately responded and the first virtual meeting was with the firm's CTO. After that, Richard spoke with the company's President/Co-founder and this also went well (or so we thought). And from there, they did the classic technical deep dive and that round also went well. Talk about some positive momentum here as all three of these successful interviews happened inside two weeks. This process was moving forward quickly. But it was at this moment when things just fell apart and I'm sorry to say but I put this on Richard. After having gone three rounds with this Austin based startup, we checked in for his thoughts on this opportunity and here is what he told us. These are his exact words,?

So far, things have gone well and it sounds like a good opportunity. I'm just trying to figure out if this is where I want to be for the next 3-5 years and I honestly don't know if it is. They also seem to be needing a founding engineer so I assume they want this person to know something about their specific domain. I like the opportunity but I can't say I'm super thrilled and excited about it.?

When I read these words, I was disappointed because I immediately started to wonder if my client was getting this same kind of impression as well. I reached out to the company to get their thoughts on Richard and I shared my concern that after three interviews, he was wanting to take a little time to think things over before moving to the next stage. Here is what they wrote back to me,?

Thanks for sharing your concern here, Mark and this is similar to the impression we received?from our conversations with Richard as well. I guess we can stand by to see where his head is at but honestly, this alone is enough reason to pass on him. Let's continue looking for candidates who find our opportunity much more exciting than Richard does.?

As we all know, the #1 rule of interviewing is to be mindful of what we say in our interviews as well as how we say them. We need to be fully aware of the reality that the company is scrutinizing our every word and action. After all, what does it mean to put on our interviewing hat??In the software engineering profession, we all understand that to do our research on a company and fully understand their product or service offering. From there, we must deliver some really strong technical solutions on the code tests.?Beyond that, however, we also have to express to the company that we find their opportunity very interesting. I'm not saying you have to jump out of your seat saying how much you want to work there but maintain regular eye contact in your interviews, always thank them for their time and very clearly state that you're looking forward to next steps in the process. Trust me that I'm not asking you to fake it. But when you do a formal interview with a company, you do need to convey your interest and curiosity in the role you're speaking with them about.?

One aspect I did not agree with Richard on was the timeline he used. While I respect him wanting to stay at his next employer for 3-5 years, in this current labor market, he did not need to use that range of years to measure his interest in this opportunity. Four months ago, a senior product manager asked me to work with him on an interview process and eventual offer with Microsoft. Upon receiving the offer, he told me that the position was far from his ideal role and function. However, he had a family to support and his game plan was to hopefully stay at the company for approximately 18 months. It was a clear "stop-gap job" but we both agreed that there was nothing wrong with this kind of opportunity at this time in his career. And right at that moment, I advised him to take the position with the realization that sometimes we just have to keep that paycheck coming in. He completely agreed and he accepted Microsoft's offer.?To be clear, with so many unemployed IT professionals right now, there is nothing morally wrong with taking a job with a company simply to get a paycheck coming in.?

No hard feelings against Richard in this post. He simply leaked his sentiment too much to this company and the consequence was that he was removed from consideration. Similar to the words he shared with me, the company clearly got the impression that he was not "super excited" about the opportunity and they wanted someone who was fired up and ready to jump on their ship.?

My apologies for the bluntness of these words but if you have been out of work for the past 4-5 months, there is nothing wrong with finding an 18-24 month stop gap job. It would still give you plenty of time to become a contributing member to the company's engineering organization, continue building your professional brand as well as growing your professional network. And it goes without saying that in your personal and private moments, you can keep the dream alive that eventually the perfect company will come along and make you an offer that you can't refuse.?

Richard could have gone this route with my client as they were very impressed with his profile and experience. Instead, he leaked his sentiment too much, was removed from consideration and to this day, he's still on an active job search. In my estimate, I think it could be another 5-6 weeks before he secures another offer. And when that offer comes in, I think there is a good chance that it will be with another company that he is just "kinda interested in". In other words, he'll be in the exact same position with his next offer as he was with my client.?

Emotional transparency can be a beautiful thing.?The moment we share our authentic feelings towards another person or event always results in very sincere moments and validates who we are as human beings.?But if we're currently out of work and interviewing for software developer positions, like I said earlier in this post, keep your interviewing hat on and don't let what happened to Richard happen to you. Crush the technical assessment, stay consistent in your messaging and do everything possible to get to the written offer stage. And at that moment, you can begin having some introspection and honest conversations with yourself.?In Richard's case, he had this moment right before the company wanted to schedule his final onsite. Even if it's not your ideal role or company, if the money, seniority and working schedule align to your needs, open up that digital contract, fill out the fields and email it back with your start date. This accepted offer will be your first step towards being in a much better place 18 months from now.?

Thanks,?

Mark Cunningham

Technical Recruiter

512-699-5719

[email protected]

https://thebiddingnetwork.com

https://markcunningham91.blogspot.com

https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/markhc