Answering Your Top Hiring Questions
Tags: hiring, interview, job, career
Published: 2023-10-05 23:39:00

New week, new newsletter… new podcast? Yep, that’s right. This week we’re taking the GC 2.0 show on the road, and, for once, yours truly gets to be a guest. It was an honor and most importantly a damn good time hanging out and talking all things tech and hiring with Wes Bos and Scott Tolinski on their podcast, Syntax.  

**If you want to give me a full performance review, catch the whole episode [here](https://open.spotify.com/episode/4cLznfo47IswhWeVsudr6X?si=Ta6jfca4QhucTDxf5AWDLQ).**

**For the meeting notes, here you go:**

Wes and Scott did a great job asking questions actively relevant to developers stuck in that hiring process limbo, and there are answers to those questions that you’ve probably seen scattered throughout all these newsletters. So I’m going to take this opportunity to just smash them all together into some crude version of an informational meatball. Delicious. Don’t worry Wes, just meatball no spaghetti (click the link up there if you want to get the joke). 

**As a candidate, how can you stand out?**

Short answer, you have got to do more than what everyone else is doing. The market sucks, odds are it’s never going to be easy again, and what would get you hired two years ago is now just a baseline. The long answer is you need to do things like take on more outside or volunteer projects, or begin documenting your journey online. I’m not saying you need to become some sort of tech influencer online superstar with thousands of followers. But if you’re interviewing, and they can see a backlog of work that you’ve done or a community you’ve contributed to, you’re going to have at least a little advantage over someone who doesn’t exist outside of the words on their resume. And start that stuff now, because odds are you’ll need it one day.

**What makes a developer stand out in a bad way?**

The same things that make anyone stand out in a bad way. If you’re always online complaining or blaming other people for your problems, that’s a hard personality trait to get past as a hiring manager. Also, go into the interview process with some intentionality. An interview isn’t something that’s happening to you, it’s where you should do your research and be able to contribute something outside only answering questions. Lots of companies don’t want to hire but they need to hire, so they’re going to be even more picky. Your attention to detail and the effort you put into presenting yourself actually matters. 

**How do you answer, “Do you have any questions for us?”**

I’ve got a list of questions for you right [here](https://guidancecounselor2-0.notion.site/Ask-the-right-questions-during-interviews-ae0670238c0a4b78958204ecc89931fa) compiled from people all across the industry. Scroll through and pick what will work best for you. 

**How do you answer, “Can you tell me about yourself?”**

Interviews should be a conversation. And any opportunity you have to lead the dialog in that direction, you should take it. The answer to this question shouldn’t be a word vomit two-sentence summary of your resume. Tell them something they can latch on to. Research the hiring manager (don’t get creepy with this) or just talk about something you’re passionate about (again, don’t get creepy with this either). Your interview will go a lot smoother if you can start positioning yourself as someone they would see being a successful member of the team and fun to work with. Because isn’t that what interviews are really for? They’re not to get the best in the field, they’re to get the best fit for the position. 

**How do you say that you don’t know something in an interview?**

Just like that, but tee yourself up for success. They’re going to know if you’re trying to bs your way through, and that’s just awkward for everyone. So here’s what you’re going to do. Say that you don’t know, ask for some more context, and give an example of a different situation that may be similar. And if it’s not, that’s okay. You’re being asked questions to see how you process problems not to make sure that you get every answer correct.

See, it’s like the first five tracks on the greatest hits album of hiring questions y’all are always asking. Right here all in one place. Again, it was tons of fun hanging out with Wes and Scott. And it was a good change of pace of be on the other end of the questions for once.