Crushing Interviews

Programmer’s Guide to passing the paper sift, acing

the interview and more

CRUSHING DIGITAL LTD

Introduction & Background

Hello and welcome! Let me begin by saying a huge thank you for purchasing this ebook. I
hope it delivers immense value to you. This is a book I never thought I would write. I’ve
long resented the world of recruiters. In fact, I was vocal about it. Then, in a bizarre twist
of fate, I became a recruiter. I was going to have to eat some humble pie or at least think of
a good excuse to deliver to my friends and relatives.

Do I see things differently now? Yes, but that’s not to say that I’ve turned 180° and
suddenly seen the light. Far from it, in fact. It’s more akin to seeing the game for what it
really is and by game I’m not referring to recruitment. I’m referring to this game we play
that we bundle into the term of career. What I’ve discovered is not only are many people
not playing the game correctly, but most people are not even playing the game at all!

I’ll explain more about that later.

So, who am I? My name is David Roberts and I have over 20 years of software
development experience. I’ve worked for small companies, large companies, good
companies and bad ones. I’ve written tools that I’m proud of and that have been used by
thousands, even millions. I’ve written things that I hope are now lost in the sands of time.
In the last few years, as I’ve already admitted, I have worked in the talent acquisition field.
See, I’m already avoiding the recruitment label! I’ve been recruiting and building
development teams for some of the world's leading brands. I've interviewed thousands of
developers, site reliability engineers, senior architects, team leads, designers and more,
and I’ve learned a lot.

It’s been less about the technical, though I continue to learn in that respect. Software
development is a very demanding field in terms of continuous learning and development.
I’ve learned about the softer side, the people skills and more succinctly, the game.

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In this book I will share what I've learned from the successes and, more importantly, the
mistakes along the way.

As I have extensive experience as both interviewer and interviewee, I have a somewhat

unique perspective and I am able to provide you with valuable insights into crushing your
next interview.

We've got lots to cover and we will start with the basics. The simple things that an
alarming number of developers get wrong on their applications, even for the senior roles.
After that we will ramp up heavily, so stick with me. We'll discuss the fine art of the
interview and how to give yourself the best chance of getting a job offer.

There’s also a focus on trying to make this as simple as possible because remembering a
sequence of questions to ask during the interview is flawed. The interview is a pressure
environment. We're going to focus on giving you less to remember and less to worry about
whilst, at the same time, helping you to stand out in a crowded market.

At the end of the book, and throughout, I'll be leaving links for you to be able to get a FREE
profile review and, more importantly, practice remote interview questions and scenarios
with me. This is a private and safe environment where you can feel free to get it wrong and
practice presenting yourself. You can answer the questions as if it were a real interview
and I can provide feedback. There is no obligation to do this, of course, but it can be
immensely valuable and, if you can muster the courage to take that first step, I’m sure
you’ll get a lot of value from it. So, if you so choose, it can be something we work on
together and serve as a process to improve as time goes on.

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What are we going to cover?

In this course we will cover everything you need to know and should have in place before
you apply for your next job. We will then cover:
1. How to apply for your next job
2. What to enter into the application form or Applicant Tracking System (ATS)
3. How to stand out in the inevitable paper sift as they try to filter thousands of
applicants down to a manageable number for an interview
4. Interview setup (remote) for the interview including some of the common mistakes.
5. How to respond to interview questions and what to ask in return.

That’s a lot to cover!

One interesting observation is that most people don’t update their resume until they
actually apply for a role. I’m guilty here too! Why would you put effort in unless it is
required. This is a flawed strategy as your CV, LinkedIn and, most likely, application form
become rushed jobs and it shows. Then, we have the audacity to complain when rejected
before the interview stage. We are our own worst enemies sometimes.

When we do get around to updating our profiles, we’re bad at doing so. We don’t know
what to write. We write for the wrong audience. We write what we want to say versus
what the other person needs to know. We write for technical people, like ourselves, as a
way to show off to our peers and we forget to sell ourselves. It’s a catastrophe from start
to finish.

Rule #1 - If you don’t define yourself, someone else will!

We will also look at:

1. What recruiters and employers look for and are interested in?
2. What are the tell tale signs that put employers and recruiters off and why?
3. Why developers strike out at the paper sift stage

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Headlines

I’d like to start with a question:

Which is more important, your resume or your LinkedIn?

I’m going to put it out there that the answer is LinkedIn. I know, I know …. Don’t hate me
just yet. I have a theme running through this course and this is the first point at which it
arises. Recruiters are LAZY! I don’t just mean agencies, I mean anyone who has any
volume of developer applications to sort through. The point I’m making here is it can be
tricky to navigate through CV’s that are all slightly different. Yes, the joke is they are all the
same, but people are quirky and format things differently. Some start with qualifications,
others with their experiences, some with their favourite foods (I’m not kidding). A
LinkedIn profile is standard, so as a recruiter, I can scan them quicker since I am familiar
with the format. I look for certain things in order to build confidence in your application,
hence mirroring some of that content on your CV is a good idea as I will often cross check
them for consistency. With that in mind, let’s discuss the LinkedIn format.

The first item on any LinkedIn profile is the headline. Sometimes overlooked, often abused.
You should be aware that recruiters not only use it, they can sometimes rely on it. If you
have 1000 applicants for a front end developer position, those that do not define
themselves as such can quickly be eliminated. Yes, I might lose out on some full stack
developers but i’d have to email, or even interview to find out if they’re a fit (are they really
full stack or a back end developer that can fix bugs on the front end in an emergency). If
I’ve got enough dedicated front end applications, I’ll make that the basis of my first cull.

You should not only be acutely aware of the importance of this field now, but also have an
idea on what to write. Keep it simple, be clear and be direct. If you’re a full stack developer,
then simply state that. It’s even better if you can add your specialisation. What tech do you
use on a day to day basis?

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 Full Stack Developer - Node/React

You’re not a wizard or a code monkey! We don’t need any new vocabulary. Stick to the
basics. The recruiter is reading this and deciding whether to read on. They want to stop
reading. I told you earlier, they’re lazy!

About You

We’ve got over the first hurdle and the recruiter has now been reviewing our application
for about 1.5 seconds. Congratulations, you’re now one of their closest friends! I’m just
kidding, but they are still trying to get out of having to read through any more than they
have to. So, the next section is the About section. The long form version of the Headline.

We’re going to repeat and embellish what we started in the Headline section. You can
think of this section in two parts.

1. Who you are

2. Where you are going

Who you are is merely taking the headline and adding some sugar. An example might be:

I am a full stack developer specialising in Node, React, AWS Lambda and the
Serverless framework

If you’re lucky enough to have a few years of experience under your belt, that can add
weight to your application and build confidence in the recruiter or employer. So this might
now become:

I am a full stack developer with over 5 years of commercial experience, specialising

in Node, React, AWS Lambda and the Serverless framework

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Looking good! That’s part 1 covered. For part 2 we want to talk about where we are going.
No, I don’t mean your next holiday. We want to give our career some direction. This is
especially important if you’re trying to move into a new field, or new technology.
Recruiters can often be guilty of trying to drag you back to old technologies that you
thought you had left behind. Stating your career intentions can help to eliminate, or at
least reduce that.

The way to express this career direction is to mention your passion and focus. Here’s what
the finished version might resemble:

I am a full stack developer specialising in Node, React, AWS Lambda and the
Serverless framework. I am passionate about the JavaScript ecosystem and
serverless architecture.

Only a fool would try to drag you back to PHP with that statement!

Experiences

A good Headline and About section is probably not enough to get you the job, but what
we’re trying to do here is eliminate the reasons for saying “No”. We want to place enough
information into each section to encourage the person reviewing it, to read a little bit
further or at least not give them justification to stop reading!

If they like what they see in the Headline and About sections and they align with what they
are looking for, they will move on to the Experiences section. What we need to consider, is
what are they looking for? This tells us what we need to ensure makes it into each
Experience entry.

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If we remember that people are lazy, they still don't want to read lengthy passages of text.
Most are looking for a quick confirmation of your skills as compared to the job they are
recruiting for.

They want to know when you began using those skills and are you utilising those skills on a
frequent basis currently?

It's good to emphasise and highlight the skills utilised during each role on your CV or
LinkedIn profile.. We want those skills to match up with the job for which you've applied,
ideally.

Hopefully you've got some experience that aligns and you can illustrate how you've been
using these skills in your daily life.

This confirms that you have the experience. Interviewers can see when you started to use
those skills and the projects on which they were deployed.

In a real world example, if you'd applied for a front end development role using react, The
interviewer is looking for:

1. The first mention of React in your work history.

2. How many projects have you completed utilising React?

After listing the skills, it's good to detail any achievements on those projects. So if you
used React to build a website, I'd like to hear a little bit more about it. The challenges you
faced and solutions you uncovered. How was the team structured and what part did you
play?

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If you can detail some of the challenges and solutions in your projects, it will provide a
huge confidence boost to the interviewer that you've been here before and should future
problems arise, you've got the skills and experience to handle it.

And lastly, and the one thing that people usually forget is they write down the things
they've done, in chronological order, but they forget to spell out the benefit.

If your UX project improved conversion by 20%, say it!

If your back end restructure saved the company hundreds of dollars in AWS services, say
it!

What's the benefit to hiring you? Maybe you can wear multiple hats. You might be a
backend developer comfortable with setting up and managing the CI/CD pipeline or a
front end developer who is able to handle all the UI design and UX concerns? This adds
value to your application.

Maybe you have extensive experience, and maybe you've solved various challenges that
are well aligned to the position advertised. If you have faced similar problems before
you're going to stand out as the best fit to take on the challenge.

A quick summary:

● What are the skills you use in each role and how long have you been using them?
● What problems did you solve while you were there?
● What are the achievements you've made in each of your positions? They can be
personal achievements in terms of learning or some of the technical challenges you
tackled and resolved
● What is the BENEFIT to hiring you?

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Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS)

Once you’ve spent time crafting and polishing your CV and LinkedIn profiles, entering
your data once again into a recruiters website can feel like a step too far. It’s one of the
things I hear the most complaints about and, on top of that, some of the conspiracy
theories surrounding it are entertaining to say the least.

Let’s dispel the most common myth! Recruiters only want us to enter our details again to
boost their numbers. This makes no sense if you give it some thought. Whether you fill in
your details or just submit your CV or LinkedIn profile, the numbers remain the same. You
applied. By entering data into their system, known as an Applicant Tracking System (ATS)
they simply have more data on you, but the applicant count is the same?

So, why do they want this data? To understand this, you need to understand a little more
about how recruitment works and let me be clear, it’s not the way they tell you it works!
Developers have a simplified view.

1. See a job
2. Apply for a job
3. Get a response about the job
4. End

Wouldn’t that be nice! Sadly, that’s not the way the world works.

Recruitment is more like a race. They will often tell you they have exclusive deals with
clients. This is rarely the case. Most exclusivity, if any, is a time constrained window (such
as 1 week) before the role goes public. Usually, the exclusivity they speak of is simply a
strategy to prevent you from applying for the same role via multiple agents. It gets very
messy as they fight legal battles to prove who found the developer first.

Now that we know that the recruiters are clambering over one another to find candidates
to fill the roles, we can gain more insights into the process. What are the chances that the

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right developer, with the right skills, at the right price, is available right away? Unlikely,
right? It’s similar to plate spinning. They check in on you, over and over again, keeping you
engaged and interested whilst hoping that when the stars align and the role does come in,
you’re already talking to them and ready to go.

If they don’t have someone ready to go, they’ve got to dig into their database of applicants.
Searching LinkedIn data is hard. As you would expect, LinkedIn doesn't want to share their
data. At least, not without some exchange of a few dollars! Likewise, searching CV’s is
free, but somewhat troublesome as every one is unique and the buzzwords used vary
massively. Some examples might be Node/Node.js/NodeJS. Granted you could search for
just ‘Node’, but what about DevOps vs Site Reliability Engineers. How do you differentiate
between developers using Python for web applications as opposed to those using Python
for data analysis or in a DevOps capacity? What they need is the data entered in a way
they can control and search. This sounds depressing, but there is value here and I will get
to that shortly.

Another common complaint is that the jobs do not exist. They are duplicated and spammy
at best. This is often true. I would urge you to be careful where you submit your CV. If
you’re employing a scattergun approach, you have to expect varying results. Be a sniper. It
takes more work but the rewards are great. Trust me. On the flipside, many of the jobs
that developers consider to be fake, are simply because they didn’t get the job or even
offered an interview. This does not necessarily mean that the job is fake, so let’s explore
why this might be happening.

The chances of you getting the advertised job are small. When there are many other
applicants, it’s challenging, but once you consider multiple agents, the chances drop
through the floor. So, this role is lost. Depression beckons. Your secret weapon is you
entered quality data into their ATS. When the next role arrives, they can search, find and
match you to the role quickly. They know what you’re capable of from your previous
discussions. This time you are first in line and your chances improve greatly. This is where
it also pays to be nice and get to know the recruiter.

For those that do enter data into the ATS, energy and motivation is weakened and this
leads to a lackluster delivery. You should consider that for every new role, this is the entry

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point for the recruiter into considering you for the role. Just as the Headline and About
sections determine whether someone will read on in your profile, your entries within the
ATS will determine whether they will even bother to open your CV or LinkedIn profiles in
the future. So, it should really be where you place more effort, not less!

As before, we are eliminating the reasons for someone to say “No” when reviewing your
application. Laziness here is a common source of “No”, believe me! You don’t have to make
it difficult. If you’ve already completed your CV and LinkedIn profiles, this is simply a cut
and paste job.

Source Control

If a recruiter or employer is digging into your GitHub (or similar) it’s a good sign. It means
you haven’t put them off with your CV or LinkedIn profile. What we need to focus on now
is keeping that momentum. It’s easy to say, commit lots! Work hard for no money. Create
amazing repositories but that’s not what I’m saying.

What you should ask yourself is when someone reviews your code repositories, what are
they looking for? Let’s choose GitHub in this example, but it applies across the competitors
like Gitlab or Bitbucket etc.

If you stated you are a Full Stack JavaScript Developer on your LInkedIn and that you
specialise in Node, React and AWS. In my head, as a recruiter, my thoughts are: “Ok, prove
it!”. Essentially, I’m looking for confirmation of what was stated on your CV or other
profiles.

When you arrive at a developers GitHub, it’s hard to ignore the Contributions graph

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A wall of green tells the onlooker that you live and breathe this. It is undeniable. If you’re
just starting out, this is a hard pill to swallow, but you can achieve it relatively quickly.
More on this later!

The next place to look is the Repositories tab. I want to confirm a few things about the
claims your CV has made.

1. Is there any evidence of you using the technologies required?

2. When did you start using those technologies?
3. Do you use those technologies as your go to tech?
4. When did you last use those technologies?

If you are now a MERN stack developer and your personal site is written in PHP, I want to
know why? It’s not a deal breaker, but you should be prepared for the question. I should be
seeing your recent repositories are in the chosen technology.

If you are new to development or are a junior, it’s common to have lots of shallow
repositories. Shallow repositories have few commits. You tend to create them when
learning new things, so you have lots of repositories that do very little. By contrast, senior
developers work on single repositories for longer, solving more in depth problems. These
longer running projects tell me more than just the fact that you can code. They illustrate

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that you can code, solve problems, be proactive, keep going, test your code and ideally, if
the project has a live site attached that you can deploy.

The holy grail of these are open source projects. These have the added benefit of showing
you can work on large codebases and write code collaboratively. If you want to really
stand out, have a long running project of your own and occasionally contribute to open
source projects. If you use open source packages intensively, it won’t be long before you
encounter issues you can fix. Scratch your own itch!

If you create this new, larger project, commit to it daily. Then, write about it on LinkedIn or
a location of your choice. I prefer LinkedIn here and the reasons for that is that I believe
it’s better to place this content in front of recruiters and employers rather than fellow
developers. If you do this in line with initiatives like #100DaysOfCode then 3 months later
you’ll have a green contributions graph on GitHub, endless evidence or social proof of
your ability to deliver via the blog posts and, without doubt, you will have built a network
of developers, employer and recruiters to take great interest in not only your successes
but your determination to overcome the challenges.

Every new developer is faced with the same problem. They have very little to show for
their time other than a certificate. You, on the other hand, now have a sizable project,
loaded with tests, documentation and a site to show for it. Chances are that job offers
won’t be far behind!

Now you are different and that stands out!

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Preparation and Setup

In the last few videos we've been talking about the documentation required to get you
noticed, to increase the chances of securing the interview and passing that paper sift
stage. So, let's now move on and discuss what happens next, the interview!

The world is going remote, so let’s cover preparation for a remote interview. For an in
person interview, you put on smart clothes and make your way to the office. It’s easy to
think that for a remote interview, less preparation is required. The truth is quite the
opposite. There’s more to consider. Lighting, cameras and how you present yourself is
slightly different in the remote environment. These are things you simply don’t need to
consider if the interview is at the office.

Getting the preparation wrong is akin to an unforced error in tennis. In Tennis, many
matches are won, not by delivering outstanding shots, but by eliminating unforced errors.
I want you to think about interviews the same way. Get the basics right, eliminate reasons
for someone to say “no” to your application and you will find yourself in a much smaller
pool of candidates for the position. There’s a considerable amount to think about and the
interview is stressful enough, so let’s get a few things straight before the interview begins!

The first thing is everyone sets up their environment for themselves. I’m sure you’ve got a
cosy setup, but I'll bet, you probably set that up with little or no consideration for the
interviewer? We're going to focus on 3 things: Lights, camera and action and we'll go
through them one by one.

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Lights

This is the one that most people get wrong. You’ve been setting the lighting environment
for your personal preference at your workstation or desk for years. Unfortunately, for the
duration of the interview, it’s not about you! It’s about the interviewer. More importantly,
it’s about what they see.

That window that’s next to you, offering pleasant views over green pastures and a
babbling brook and the sporadic chance of escapism, needs to be in front of you, shining
light directly on to your face. It’s uncomfortable and not ideal for working long term, but
again, it’s not about you!

The light needs to point straight, no shadows. No demon impersonations or looking like
you’re about to tell a scary story. If you don’t have a window, any light will do, but the
“straight on“ principle remains. Use a light ring if you have spare cash.

I see people getting this wrong every day. It sounds trivial, but the interviewer is making
an assumption about your day to day working environment. They want to see or know you
are setup to work as a professional and poor lighting is unforced error #1.

The irony is this lighting setup is not ideal for your working environment, but it presents
the illusion that it is!

Camera

This section is very similar to the one that precedes it, lighting. If you can remind yourself
that it’s not about you, you won’t go far wrong. As you would expect, this chapter is more
visual, but let’s start with the general rules and then we can examine some common
mistakes!

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 1. Camera in front
2. Camera at eye level
3. You should be staring into the camera for the duration of the interview

Well, that was easy. How could anyone get it wrong? Well, here’s what I see every day!

I call them: The Nasal Examiner, The Satellite, The Spy, The Mug Shot

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The Nasal Examiner - nobody wants to look up your nose ....... EVER. No excuses!

The Spy - I've got to admit, I like this one, but don't do this for the interview unless you are
interviewing for MI6, but in that case remember to disavow anything mentioned on your
CV and throw your equipment out afterwards!

The Satellite - Whilst it's true that the interviewer wants to see into your soul, I don't think
they are aiming to start at the top of your head!

The Mug Shot - If the only crime you've committed is bad code, there's no need to prepare
for prison ..... well, not yet anyway, so side on is not a good choice!

In short, camera in front. Nothing too fancy.

Action!

Action! is a little more subtle and hard to define. It's also more difficult for some more than
others. What I mean by the phrase is what a director might shout at the cast before the
scene begins filming. We’re looking for an injection of life into your presentation. We want
the interviewer to see you as someone they could spend time with, because, essentially,
that’s what they’re looking for! As before, let's focus on removing the common mistakes
and unforced errors.

Be animated! Not like a cartoon. Animate yourself. You're not dead! No acrobatics
required, just some subtle evidence of life. We're trying to convey some passion,
excitement or enthusiasm for the role. Nothing over the top, just don't make it seem like
you're there under duress!

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No dancing, do not swivel in your chair. You don't need to slide into the camera shot (yes,
this did happen). Don't make it seem like you've accidentally just bumped into this person
as you looked up from your keyboard, busy at work, with a "Oh, hi there!". It's not a good
look!

Here's the hard part. Smile. Nothing creepy. Just convince people you're not wishing you
were somewhere else. What you need to channel is that you're meeting a friend for a chat.
You'd smile, you'd be enthusiastic. Do not, if you can help it, answer questions with one
word answers. If you were to only give one word answers when in conversation with a
friend, you would not be friends for long! The best way to make a friend during the
interview is to treat them like one! When asked a questions, even if a one word questions
might suffice, offer an opinion or some experience and how you came to this conclusion.

I guess the summary should be, you're not dead, so smile!

Clothing

I think we're getting somewhere now! As you can see, most of the topics discussed so far
are things you can do before you even get to an interview. This is great as it means there is
nothing to remember! Hopefully, they are the things that improve your chances of
securing an interview.

We have a couple more items to discuss on preparation. Again, this might sound trivial, but
it’s also quite a contentious point. What to wear?

As with most things in life, there is no right or wrong answer. It's very subjective and it
really depends what school you're from, old or new?

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You’ll often hear people say it is better to go smart as you cannot be penalised for being
too smart, right? This is old school thinking. Nowadays, companies crave that cultural fit
and the suit is quite off putting to the typical startup vibe. So, you really have to consider
the context.

What can I add to this? Well, 2 things. Firstly, we live in a world of social media and every
company, if not the employees or leadership team themselves have probably got an
Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat or YouTube channel for you to view. Watching some of the
content they put out and what they are wearing and mirroring that is a pretty good place
to start. If they’re dressed formally, so are you! If you see a more casual approach, you can
relax, a little bit too.

Personally, I find someone getting dressed up in formal attire, like a suit etc, in their own
home is a touch weird, but again, it depends on the audience. So take a look and you should
be able to get a feel for it at least.

Secondly, you can always hedge your bets. Remembering the theme we have running here
about eliminating the "No", you can always go "smart casual" (I don't mean a suit without a
tie). Smart casual, in your own home, is hard to argue with. You're not in your pyjamas,
you're not exposing yourself in any way. It’s unremarkable, in a good way! It is difficult for
someone to comment negatively when you are dressed smart-casual in your own home
and that’s the point! Don’t let the conversation be sidetracked from what is important
(you!) to the topic of your clothing. Be clean, unremarkable and keep the focus where it
should be!

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Surroundings

Working in a cafe might be cool for you, but the hustle and bustle is not good for an
interview. More distractions detract from the important subject, you! A busy road, sirens
blaring, the occasional car horn or person screaming (depending on where you live). All of
these raise questions about whether you'll be able to concentrate during your working
day. Granted, you may very well thrive in that kind of atmosphere, but in an interview we
don't have time or the opportunity to convince anybody. So, let's just remove the concern
and play safe. What we’re looking for is somewhere quiet with zero distractions (for you or
the interviewer). Think BORING!

Tell me about yourself

So, by now we are in the right place, wearing the right things. All the earlier tactics have
worked and we have landed an interview! Let’s get ourselves ready to handle whatever
they throw at us!

Tell me about yourself? Such a simple question and yet so cruel. How do you answer that?
Many developers fear this question and prefer to be asked anything other than this,
preferring more technical questions as this is their comfort zone.

One strategy I employ is to rephrase the question. Change it to:

"Why are you the right person for this job?"

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Granted, it's not much better, but it gives you some context on what the answer should be.

To answer the question succinctly you need to tell the interviewer all the things you've
done in your previous roles that are relevant to this one. ‘Relevant’ is the key word here.
Then you're going to add a dollop of why the technology required for this role is actually
the real love of your life and your burning passion!

On any question that arises during an interview, try prepending:

"With this role in mind ....".

It directs you to the answer and telling the other person what they really want to hear.
Think about it! “With this role in mind, tell me about your career so far ?" or **"With this
role in mind, tell me where you want to be in 5 years". It’s a game changer. Adding this
context keeps the guide rails on and your answers should be easier to formulate.

Why is this job open?

There's a little trick I like to use. It's subtle, but can completely change the course of an
interview and will certainly help to set you apart. I would normally like to use this trick
early and by that I mean before the interviewer asks me any questions, but alas, that's not
always possible. So, at your earliest convenience, consider asking the question:

Why is this job open?

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Maybe a developer left the business or, perhaps the project is behind schedule. Are they
exploring new territories? In any case, their answer is extremely valuable. They are about
to tell you how to answer every question in the interview.

If they are hiring to replace a lost skill set, we now know what they're missing and can
highlight our experience, or even expertise, in this area when talking about ourselves. If
the project is behind schedule, we can talk at length about hitting deadlines and saving
projects from the brink of failure. They are telling you their pain point, so you can position
yourself as the solution!

If it's a new project and they're exploring new technologies or fields, you can explain how
you've handled project initiations and exploratory tasks in the past.

Without this step, you could be providing, what you consider to be, gold in your answers. It
just so happens it's the wrong type of gold. You need to know their pain points and this
little under the radar question can tell you everything you need to know, if you play it right!

Love your recruiter

It's time to deal with the elephant in the room. The recruiter. Nobody likes recruiters. They
are the unnecessary man in the middle who charges extortionate amounts of money for
almost no value. At least, not any value to you, as they work for the employer, not you.
That part is true. Recruiters do work for the employer, but there are ways to extract value
from them. So let's talk about that!

Despite what you might think, the recruiter is not there to block you. She is praying you
are the ideal candidate who can close the deal. Recruiters want money after all!

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There is a common scenario where the recruiter has a role that they want you to fill. They
are struggling to find suitable candidates and they can see you did C++ many years ago.
Despite the 10 years since then when you’ve been happily employed as a front end
developer, they figure it's worth a shot? This sucks and it happens all the time. The solution
here is everything we've discussed so far. Update your profiles. State who you are and
your chosen direction. If you are clear about this, it will minimise the chances of this
disruption from happening again in the future.

Let’s dig deeper into how we can utilise the recruiter to our advantage.

Fix problems

Most candidates are fearful of the questions for which they do not know the answer. This
is pointless. You, most likely, don't know what the questions will be and I have experienced
my fair share of interview curveball questions.

Let's think differently. We're going to try to fix problems. Consider the interview to be like
an Escape Room. You have to fix all the problems in the allotted time. There could be any
number of problems, but they always align to 3 themes and there has to be a reasonable
match on each of them. There can be some misalignment, but then you'd have to excel in
another theme.

1. Are you technically good enough?

2. Is your desired rate within budget?
3. Do they like you?

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Resolving each of these themes may require pleasing one person, or multiple. For our
purposes, we can think of them as separate people. In line with the numbers above we
have:

1. CTO, Technical team lead or lead developer

2. CEO or person who controls the budget
3. A fellow team member

Luckily, we're dealing with humans and humans have problems. Don't waste time trying to
prove you are good. Convincing people is hard and rarely works. Find out what their
problems are and fix them!

To find out what their problems are, just speak to the recruiter. They've gleaned all this
information already, either through talking to the employer or via feedback regarding the
previous candidates. The recruiter can help you cheat!

So, the recruiter has watched your predecessors fall on their sword. They've seen people
ask for too much money or not demonstrate the right skills or behaviour. They will be
more than willing to prepare you. They want you to win. They want to arm you with all the
information to tick every box and close this deal. So ask them what they know!

The trick is you need a thumbs up from all those involved. A yes from JUST one of them
won't get you very far, but a NO from just one of them is game over. Now, the recruiter is
ALSO part of this group. They're the central point and they will either get asked their
opinion or may offer their opinion at any stage, so beware! If you're rude to the recruiter,
you just sealed your own fate. So, love your recruiter and use them to win the others over.
You can even ask them about the questions being asked as they just might know that too!

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Provide value

Now we're going to talk about how to fix the problems we talked about in the previous
section and the mindset to adopt in order to improve your chances of success.

Before we begin, let's remember, it might be one person making all the decisions, but
equally, they could be separate people. So, each of these people have problems, needs and
wants. Your job is to identify them and fix or supply them. Simple, no?

Most candidates are busy trying to blurt out all of their skills and qualifications. That's a
scattergun approach. Think differently. Why are they recruiting for this position? Did
someone get promoted or fired? If so, are the technical team now inundated with work
and struggling to cope? Are they behind schedule? Are they struggling with some specific
technical aspect and need to bring in some expertise? If you can find out why they're
hiring, you can tailor your answers to fix the problems and deliver on their desires.

An example might be if they're hiring and the job posting asks for Node, React, GraphQL
and ElasticSearch. You might spend most of your time talking about Node and React, but if
you knew the role came into existence because the developer that handled ElasticSearch
was fired and they now have no idea what they are doing, you can swoop in and be their
saviour!

Fixing someone's problems by providing value is a ninja move. Try not to think of yourself
as a software developer, Site Reliability Engineer or whichever title you give yourself. You
are the answer to their prayers. You just need to know what they're praying for!

How do you find out what they're praying for? There are 2 ways:

1. Ask the interviewer

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 2. Speak to your new best friend, the recruiter!

When explaining how you are the answer they have been looking for, consider our mantra
of "think in benefits”. Don't just spew out your technical skills, tell them the benefits of
hiring you. If you can make the benefits align with solving their problems, you are well on
your way to a job offer.

FAQ

After the previous sections, we've now got a strategy for our interview. No big list of
things to remember, just a general strategy. Focus on the people and their problems and
tailor your answers accordingly.

There's a few other ancillary bits to cover. The FAQ's that come up and a few gotchas.
None of these are hard rules, just things to consider.

Perks - we're all drawn to them, like a moth to a flame. Company swag is another, but perks
like unlimited holidays, company retreats, education budgets etc are there to entice you.
Your job is to ignore them, for a good while at least. Let them come to you. It's a nice little
thing to wait for as it means the interview wrapping up and now they are trying to sell the
position to you. If you pounce too early, it can appear that you're more interested in the
perks than the role itself. Be excited for the challenge. They want someone with a shared
vision. The perks are...... well, perks!

The 2 things you'll get asked, certainly if the interview has gone well is your required
salary and current notice period. This is a great sign and not knowing the answers to these
questions is a momentum killer. Strike while the iron is hot. Don't upset the flow. Answer
immediately and you just might get an offer there and then!

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If it's a remote role, the interviewer might also want to confirm your flexibility to work an
overlap with a different time zone. Again, the same rules apply, have your answer ready
and keep the pedal to the metal.

As developers we are often guilty of delivering the answer, short and sharp. This is an
interview so try to elongate your answers and engage in conversation. Express an opinion.
Explain why you have this opinion. If you can explain the benefits of your opinion, you are
on the path to success! Don't be closed off to the opinions of others but imagine you were
having a discussion with a friend. Perhaps about a show on Netflix. You would not simply
say “Yes” when asked if you're watching the show being discussed. You say “Yes” and then
offer an opinion and maybe some offer some musings or mention for most or least
favourite bits. Give a little bit of yourself. Have a chat, it's not a quiz!

In contrast, don't be too opinionated about things you don’t like. You don't want to appear
as a problem. Things like "I won't touch old codebases" or asking to hear about their code
structure as you refuse to work on bad infrastructure again. This happens a lot in
interviews and it always leaves a bad taste. We have all had to fix bad code or do
migrations. It's part of life.

If you can have an open discussion about all these things, the project and the architecture,
you can glean the information, get the job offer and then decide if you want to accept the
position. Work on getting the “Yes” first!

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How do you keep up to date with your passion?

This comes up all the time and you should know the answer. Again, don't just name the blog
or podcast you subscribe to. Give an opinion. Talk about it like the Netflix show we
mentioned earlier!

The thing to consider is why are they asking you this question? What do they want to
know? In most cases, interviewers want to know you are passionate about the subject and
the root of that is they want someone to come in and take over this side of the business
and take responsibility so they don't have to think about this aspect any more. Convincing
people you live and breathe the technology or area of expertise is job one. The interviewer
might also be telling you their pain point that we discussed in the earlier section. Tailor
your response accordingly!

You should certainly be brushing up on the latest industry trends and announcements. In
particular, if there's a new feature or version to your framework or library, some
knowledge, however brief, even if it is just in a side project, goes a long way!

What if I’m late?

Things never go according to plan. It's the one thing in this life you can rely on, but being
late is not the end of the world. In fact, I want you to think about it as an opportunity!

I'm not saying to be late on purpose. That's rude. Don't do that!

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If the world should conspire against you and for whatever reason you are late, it can be
made right. I've heard stories of Google taking candidates to their cafeteria to see how
they treat the staff working there. In the same way, I've always taken a keen interest in
how candidates treat members of my team. If you are rude to them it is the end of the
road. No excuses.

I apply this strategy to being late. It's not the end of the road, what I mean is that I want to
see what you do next. If you arrive late, do you apologise? Do you follow up with an email?
When next we talk, do you apologise again? This can completely swing the needle back in
the right direction, proving you are a decent human being. Now we just need to tick off the
job skills.

As I said, it's an opportunity! In a normal interview, we might be looking to confirm you're

a decent human being towards the end of the process after confirming the skills. In this
instance, we've covered it at the very beginning. It is almost a plus point!

Now, not every recruiter or employee will think like me and you might not get that second
chance or opportunity to apologise.....well, apart from the email, which you should send
anyway. If the decision is already made and you are rejected for this reason, that's beyond
your control. As I said, things happen in life. Move on! However, it's worth remembering
that if they treated your first ever mistake like this without giving you a chance to explain,
do you really want to work with these people in the future?

As the phrase goes: It's not what you've done, it's what you do next that matters! This is a
very important lesson and applies in so many areas of life.

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Wrapping up

Let's sum up all we have learned. Hopefully not too much to remember but enough game
changers to your strategy for the future. Despite what they told you in school, interviews
are not about receiving a “Yes”. It's not about that miracle move. It's about eliminating the
reasons to say “No”. It's about removing the unforced errors. The silly little mistakes we all
make. The first of which is that the process starts long before the interview.

Take a fresh look at your resume and LinkedIn profile. What do you see? With fresh eyes,
how long does it take you to view them and decide who you are and establish your skillset.
This needs to be almost immediate. This is the reason people fail the paper sift!

Next is to define yourself and define your career direction. Don't let someone else decide.
You decide and then announce it! Think about what the other person sees. Are you clearly
establishing your chosen career direction on your CV?

Prepare yourself and your environment beforehand. You cannot just expect to turn up to
the interview, even if it is remote. Think about the lights, camera and your actions! How
are you dressed? Eliminate any reasons for someone to say “No” to your application.

In the interview smile and start chatting. Ask questions like "Why is this job open?". Start
digging and getting into conversation with the interviewer. Nobody is ever going to give
the job to someone they don't like so the more personable you are the better your chances
become. Frame your answers! Prepend the phrase "With this role in mind..." to the start of
every question and you won't go far wrong.

Provide value! The technical part. Think less about selling your own skills and abilities and
more about solving other people's problems. Each of the people involved in making the
decision to hire you, have problems and, remember, some of those people might not be in

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the room. Find out what their problems are and fix them. In order to fix them, talk about
the benefits of hiring you and how you are the answer to their problems.

Always think in terms of benefits!

The last check mark is the recruiter. Love your recruiter! They need love, probably more
than most and in order to get the 3 other check marks, this new friend of yours will help
you cheat and give you the answers, so be nice!

A note from me!

Finally, this is not the end. This is just the beginning. My commitment to you is to help you
from this point. You can contact me on social media (@crushingdigital in most places) or
email me: david@crushing.digital

This is a journey and If I can help you, I will.

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