What do Hiring Managers have to say?
Tags: programming, hiring, webdev, beginners
Published: 2023-09-15 00:47:38

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**Introduction:**
- Getting hired can be a challenging process, for every open role there are a quite number of applicants and a streamlined process is in place, how do you stand out? Hiring a prospective candidate is easy but getting that candidate sometimes could be hectic for Hiring managers and often these issues are on the candidates' end. Have you ever wondered what HR managers are looking for?


**Importance of Hiring Managers:**
- Hiring managers play a crucial role in organizations. They define job roles, strategize recruitment, assess candidates, consider cultural fit, negotiate offers, and oversee onboarding, ensuring the right talent is onboarded for company success.

**Problems in the Hiring Process:**

- The hiring process involves an initial filter to remove irrelevant applications, identifying the best profiles, assessing cultural fit, technical interviews, and final offer evaluation. In any open role on the internet comes over 100 applicants, the sad part is that most CVs are not read or didn't pass the ATS bots. 
(An ATS bot, or Applicant Tracking System bot, is a type of software application used by employers and recruiters to streamline and automate various aspects of the hiring process.)

Your application goes through 5 stages
- recruitment filter 1. Getting rid of obvious nonsense.
- Developer filter 1. Finding the best profiles. 
- Recruiter filter 2. Cultural fit(non-technical interview)
- Developer filter 2. Interview (technical).
- Offer filter. 

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**What do hiring Managers have to Say and why aren't you hired is a question every applicant would want to ask.**


I asked a few hiring managers and here's what they have to say and issues regarding candidates in an open role, and their common flaws include: 

- The lack of relevant experience: 
Most prospective candidates lack relevant experience as stipulated in their resume but couldn't answer basic programming questions. companies are looking to hire people or engineers that solve real problems, anyone can make a simple box card component or to-do list, and there are tons of libraries that a developer could easily pick from for these, but they don't show you solving real problems, they just show you can follow a tutorial, they want to see you solve the problem, how you approached them and how you made the decisions to resolve it. Irrespective of the tools, can you solve an issue or do you know how to use the tools. 
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- Having a bulky resume:
Candidates having a bulky resumé have less chance of being regarded recruiters skimp through your resumé /CV for relevant experience. 
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- cloned portfolios, and a focus on generic projects rather than unique ones.
Cloned portfolios, with so many W3Cc validated errors, no basic understanding o fundamentals. 
Your projects can be completely fake, but they are  subject of conversation during interviews and most times candidates couldn't answer the basic questions about coding fundamentals. A lot of people build out projects that are generic and basic, like a to-do app, sure technically there's nothing wrong with that, but the truth is you're going to have other resumes with similar projects. It's just boring and doesn't make you stand out. 
     Instead, focus on unique projects that are interesting to you. Interviewers care a little about your projects, but if you do have one, questions would arise from it. It gives you a better edge if the project is interesting to you. They look at you and how interested you are in the field.
 You can also build a to-do app and make it interesting to ignite the curiosity of the user. 
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- Soft skills: communication, ability to learn, interest.  Tech skills can be taught,"a monkey can be trained to code" , they're mostly looking at your soft skills, it takes one person to ruin a team, regardless of what they know and what they can do, skills can be developed and cultivated but who a person is, is what these companies are investing in, Talking on a point of contact, can learn,  how you communicate with your recruiters is important.
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- Problem-solving approach: problem-solving approaches are highly valued, even more than knowing every syntax. Problems can be solved in several ways, but knowing how to approach and solve things is what gets you noticed. In development an important factor is the details, the differentiator isn't in the problem set, but the execution because in engineering a lot of innovation is actually within the execution. They show your thought process.
Your thought process of achieving a task and not being mundane is of topmost importance, they don't expect you to know every syntax, because they are not hiring encyclopedias.
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**Recommendations and Advice:**
- A portfolio is of little concern to Hiring managers, It's best you Build a clean and fundamental portfolio, as it's important to get the basics right. Don't bother with a portfolio, or else you can make it perfect,  because in learning anything new, it's important to get the fundamentals right.

- A computer science degree is not mandatory to excel in coding; don't fear interviews, and admit when you don't know something.
- Developing a strong personality and interpersonal skills can boost your hiring prospects.
- If you don't get hired, consider creating your job by showcasing your programming skills, This is software development. Once you have the basics down, you can create anything. 

 -Your self-doubt is perceived by only you, you have skills and those skills are valuable when used.