An Engineering Manager's Final Interview was with the VP of Engineering - The Strategy I Offered to Him

As we very well know, candidate pools for job openings in the Tech industry have swollen considerably since summer of 2022. This is a story about the final stage of an interview process for an engineering manager here in Austin and an approach he used that helped him secure an offer with the company. And since the position was opened this summer, he beat out 17 other candidates who had been selected to interview for the role. Was there anything special or unique that he did to earn this offer? Let's explore his approach and for this story, we can call him Greg.?

A talented engineering manager with approximately 17 years industry experience with six of those being as a manager/technical lead. My client is based here in Austin and their engineering manager role had been open for four months and yes, their technical bar is top 1% as well. Upon presenting Greg's resume, my client expressed an interested in considering him for the role and the entire interviewing process was the following,?

1. Introductory virtual meeting with the company's Director of Engineering who would serve as Greg's boss.?
2. Technical Assessment which was a virtual white board session with three Staff Software Engineers in attendance.?
3. In-person onsite interview where the candidate meets two other Engineering Managers and two Principal Software Engineers.?
4. Final one hour virtual meeting with the company's VP of Engineering.

When I reached out to Greg to let him know about my client's interest in speaking with him, I immediately made it clear that we needed to take this process "one step at a time" and Greg wholeheartedly agreed with me on this.? Rounds 1 and 2 were great and Greg's onsite interview also went really well. These three steps took 2-1/2 weeks to complete and upon doing so, my client let me know that Greg's final round would be a virtual meeting with the company's VP of Engineering. It was at this time that they let me know there was another candidate in consideration for this position who was also at the final round with the VP.?

When I heard this update, I have to admit that I was a little concerned because a pretty common experience a lot of IT professionals are realizing right now is doing multiple rounds of interviews with companies only to be declined because the firm went with someone else. Unintentionally, through my network here in Austin, I learned that the other candidate had previously been a Director of Engineering in his career. The conversation he wanted to have with the VP was to confirm the seniority of this Engineering Manager position as well as a timeline for when he could be promoted back to Director. Knowing that Greg was going up against someone who had these kind of questions for the VP, I had a 15 minute phone call to discuss a strategy for how to make the strongest impression possible which would hopefully result in him beating out this other, more senior, candidate. Here is what I shared with him,?

So Greg, this final stage in the process is what I define as a "Confirmation Call". You have received very nice feedback from everyone who has interviewed you so far and now, their VP of Engineering plans to have an insightful conversation with you in hopes of coming away with the same impression. I have learned that you are going up against another candidate so perhaps this is a strategy we can deploy here??

Upon entering the virtual meeting, I think the two of you will settle in nicely and as always, feel free to invite the VP to speak first. But here is where I think you can create a very nice experience with this VP. You already have a very strong understanding of the day to day function of this role. And you have met 5-6 people in their Engineering organization and they all had positive things to say about you. How about you simply let the VP know that not only have you truly enjoyed the entire interviewing experience but you are very excited about coming in and doing anything and everything that is asked of you. It does not matter at all what is put on your plate; it gets taken care of in very good form. When we say words like this to another party, especially in professional settings, two nice personal characteristics are realized about us,?

1. We emotionally embody a Sense of Service to other parties. Our efforts are always in the name of helping others, ie. our team members and our manager. In this case, the Director of Engineering whom you'll be reporting to and of course, he reports to the VP.?
2. We extend our trust to others to the extent we can be taken advantage of. In other words, we trust other people entirely and that is a very rare quality exhibited in interviews these days.?

I realize point #2 sounds risky but please remember that this virtual meeting with the VP is a "Confirmation Call", ie. to simply confirm all of the positive feedback everyone else has shared about you. But when he hears you say that you are willing to do everything that is asked of you, there is a very good chance he'll internally give you a thumbs up and tell HR to start preparing an offer.? I realize this sounds a bit non-traditional but if this other candidate is going to be asking this VP questions regarding the seniority of the role as well as how soon he can be promoted to a Director, you will 100% shine more brightly in his eyes.?

As Greg took in my words, he did politely interject a couple of times inquiring into any specific questions he might want to ask the VP. I told him that while it would be okay to ask a few questions, please don't give the impression that the tables have turned and that he was now interviewing the company. After all, we were going up against another candidate so this 1 on 1 virtual meeting with the VP was critical and had to be very positive in every way possible. Knowing that, I clearly told Greg that I wanted this final conversation to be "icing on the cake" for his interview process. And luckily for both of us, that is what happened. Later that day, my client called me and said that they were going to decline the other candidate and present an offer to Greg.?

Extending our trust entirely to someone else definitely comes with an assortment of risks but like with everything, it comes down to the other party. My last post dropped some nice praise on Michael Norman and this time around, I just gotta put the spotlight on an incredible engineering leader here in Austin by the name of Sankalp Acharya.?

So yes, Sankalp is technically brilliant and he is an Industry expert on all things Software. But what has always just blown me away through they years is just what a great human being he is. His authenticity and sense of trustworthiness is incredible and over time, whomever he engages with, really special bonds are built. He's naturally curious about software and when he dives into challenging problems with other engineers, he always makes it a point to get everyone nicely involved so they can be a material contributor to the final solution. He's obviously a great leader but even more than that, he's such a genuine team player and such a quality is so critical these days. So if there is a moment in your career where you extend your trust entirely to another person and that person happens to be a Sankalp, the professional and personal benefits are profound. The collaboration and partnerships will all be very successful and as a result, you will just experience an unlimited number of positive moments in your career. Not to mention, the bonds you will develop with other human beings will be so very strong and 100% based on trust.?

Make no mistake, if we extend our trust entirely to the wrong people, it can definitely backfire and we will feel the pain.? The challenge here is that it can never be 100% certain going in that the other party is someone possessing the qualities of a Sankalp Acharya. But if you make it to the final round of an interviewing process and it happens to be with the firm's VP of Engineering or CTO, go ahead and take that chance of extending your trust entirely to the person on the other end of the line.? Again, 17 candidates over 4+ months interviewed for this position but were deemed not a match. But Greg shined nicely in every round and upon meeting the VP of Engineering for the final conversation, he 100% laid his sense of service and blind trust on the table and it was very well received.?

I'm telling a real life story about a Software Engineering Manager right here in Austin, Texas. That said, you could be in Product Marketing, Technical Support or even Sales/Business Development and apply this kind of approach to your final interview. My heart continues to be with our young people and something really special is when a 22 or 23 year old extends their full trust to another party. The emotional na?veté can really work out well for them and believe it or not, the downside risks are not that bad. It's all about bumping into a Sankalp Acharya inside the first 10 years of your career and extending your trust entirely to him. For that final round, project your true "Sense of Service" to the person interviewing you as well as your natural inclination to trust others.? After 3-4 positive rounds with the company, you will have just put the "Icing on the cake".? And from there, hopefully it's offer time!

While I cannot say this approach would be successful for everyone, it worked out very nicely for Greg and he could not be happier about landing at this company.?

Thanks,?

Mark Cunningham

Technical Recruiter

512-699-5719

[email protected]

https://thebiddingnetwork.com

https://markcunningham91.blogspot.com

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