What Do Tech Interviewers Look For?

Recently, one of my LinkedIn connections asked a question that asked for folks who’ve given technical interviews to weigh in on a question:?

“What exactly do you look for in a person during the interview? Someone that actually solves [the algorithm problem] or the effort and thought process the person has shown?”

I thought this was a great question.? Of course, he was asking for feedback from individual people, and the answer will depend on both the person answering it and on the hiring company’s standards, so I’m sure there’s a significant variation in answers here.? So I’d like to try to give my personal answer while at the same time addressing some of the industry variation I know about.

My own experience both in getting interviewed and in interviewing is that I prefer a very lightweight approach.? I don’t like take-home coding exams, though I do tend to do OK on them.? I think I’ve done three in my career, and I got the job on two of those occasions, so if this were baseball I’d have a rock star batting average.? Of course, the answer may be a bit skewed here, since as I said I don’t like them, so I’ve probably said no to them as often as I’ve said yes.? That said, at this stage of my career I can afford to be fussy -- when I was new I probably would have jumped through whatever hoops were put in front of me.

On the interviewer side, I also prefer informal processes.? This seemed to be the norm in most places in the 1990s and first decade of the new millennium.? Alas, since perhaps 2015 or so, we as an industry have either become too self-important -- or too stupid -- to be able to identify a fellow tech professional from a one or two hour interview.? So we started giving take home exams:? “Work for us for a weekend for free, and maybe we’ll hire you.”??

But I digress from the answer to what do I personally look for.? So let’s get into that now.

• I DO look for getting the algorithm “right” to some extent, though in an informal interview it’s only fair to give only the sorts of easy problems that a good programmer should be able to do from memory.? I’ve spent thirty years in the industry without ever once being asked to balance a binary tree other than in an interview.? So why would I ask you if you know how to do it in an interview?? (Note that if you’re applying to a FAANG company, they’re a lot more rigorous about hard algorithmic questions than the sorts of places I work).?
• I DO care that you have projects you can talk about.? Do you have one or more projects that you can point to as representative of your work? ? For a newcomer, this would mean “side projects”, things you’ve done on your own that show you know how to write and test code and document your work.? For roles requiring some existing experience, I’d expect you to be able to talk about projects you worked on, what pieces you added or led, and what you did in a specific way.??
• I DON’T care if you went to college or boot camp or are self-taught.? The same goes for certifications.? Certifications show you care about the industry enough to get the certification, so if you’re switching from one technical field to another, they’re credible.? But by themselves, they say very little about you unless you also have projects to show the general skills involved across all fields.
• I DON’T care if you mess up some of the questions I ask.? I would mess up some of the questions that someone would ask me, too. ? When interviewing, the interviewer is playing with the dice loaded in their favor.? I adjust for that.? Of course, you do need to get some questions right, especially if they’re softballs.
• I DO care that you’re easy to get along with and are honest about what you know and what you don’t know.? I probably would ask you questions about how you deal with things you don’t know.

In the end, I’m sitting in the room with you for some period of time, and I’m interested in learning two things:

• Am I talking to a developer, or someone who thinks they’re entitled to a tech job because they a) went to tech job school or b) filled a seat as a low performer on the team?
• Will working with this person be a joy or a headache?

The good news is, I’m actually a pretty easy interviewer.? The bad news is, I probably won’t be interviewing you.? You’ll probably have to do a take-home exam, and get graded on a checklist.? But anyway, I hope you do well and, we’ll get to work together.? Good luck!