Even being in contact with technologies, implementation, and design of different systems, I have to say that tech interviews are hard. Not only for the interviewer but also for the interviewed.

• How did you put the knowledge of both parts to be tested?
• How do you know if the person is good enough for the job?
• How do you know if the person is not going to be a problem for the team?
• How do you know if the person is going to be a good fit for the company?

A lot of questions, and isn’t easy to answer them. But let’s try to think.

First, I don’t know if you could prepare yourself for a tech interview, for high roles, like senior and so on, it’s a mix of all harded work that you put in your career, being contrasted against you, so, for this reason, it’s easy to fail and seems like a complete disaster/foolish guy.

Secondly, you will face a problem that at least for me is one of my principal weaknesses, Rhetoric, you don’t need to know all the details about engineering, but you need to know how to sell yourself, show that you are the best option, confident, and that you already face similar problems, and was able to deal with them.

Here are some personal tips that I could capture on this journey by doing 3/4 interviews per week:

Take care

I have this opinion in mind, but I could be wrong.

In the end, engineering teams should not be created to sound fancy, where everyone is happy, dealing with simple tasks, in an environment where you never will be contrasted about your skills, just accepting tasks and pushing them to production.

Engineering teams should be created to serve! Engineering is a study area created for that, transcript customers’ opinions into lines of code and well-designed architectures. And however interesting this sounds, it is permeated by a LOT of issues, crapy and frustrating situations. That is life!

And why I’m saying that? As we know, software is eating the world, and if you want to be outstanding in the market herd, you should be aggressive, and the engineers, marketing team, C-levels, and all the others should have this mindset, or, probably you will fail.

For this reason, if the company tries to sell them as a global hub, inclusive, product-first, that supports course platforms and so on, take care! They are not selling a good engineering environment, but an environment that sounds good for every person on earth. It’s great to hear that but trust me, you want to hear the deepest and swamp things about the engineering, and if they aren’t able to pass this for you, probably they don’t have the criticism that you are looking for to improve your career.

Imagined you on the other side

Always is a good practice, when you face a problem, put yourself on the other side of the table, and imagine yourself as an interviewer.

You probably will try to hire the most skilled guy, who will be able to do the right job, help the team, and be loyal to the company and the culture, so, practice a good pitch, there is a lot of content in the internet/youtube videos, think that you are seeling a startup idea.

Try to find similar things between the interviewers

Dude, you are talking with people, people like receptivity, be kind, and try to dig into the life of the interviewers, doing that, they will look to you with more proximity. Hence, the probability of success will increase.

Don’t judge a book by its cover

This should be true, but isn’t! People look for appearance, the way that you talk, the university that you studied, the projects that you worked on. Keep it in mind and try to sell yourself better.

The Market

Even everyone saying that the tech market is hot, and this is true, find good companies that will push your career to the moon, and give you a really good benefit and remuneration, it’s hard, they will probably try to omit the really good salary, with fancy benefits, like a day off in your birthday, courses, English classes, and so on, pure bullshit, what you want is money, and a good environment, where you can work a lot without noise.

The best companies are the Big Techs or startups that receive a huge amount of money, they know that to attract the best ones, they need to be aggressive, and if you want to surf in that tide, prepare yourself a lot.

The grass is greener on the other side

Human beings always compare themselves with others, if you are normal, never did something different, your changes to stand out are really low. Try to create different things, side projects, open-source contributions, participate in hackathons, open talks, group studies, and so on. This will make you different, and you will be able to sell yourself better.

Questions, questions, questions

For me, change your work environment is a big headache, you need to feel comfortable and you should be able to pass some confidence to the interviewer, so, ask a lot of questions, about the company, the team, the product, the engineering team, and so on. Here are some questions that I like to ask:

• How do you make money?
• How do people know about the product and how do you attract them?
• How do you deal with the competition?
• How do you deal with new demands?
• Did you recommend this company to a friend?
• What is the worst thing about working here?
• Which is the frequency of people leaving the company?

1. “How do you decide what to build?”

This question reveals a lot about the company culture: Top-down decisions vs. collaborative ones Whether engineers are heard If there’s a product discovery process

🚩 Red flag: “The CEO decides everything.”

2. “What was the last project that failed, and what did you learn from it?”

The answer shows: How the company deals with failures Whether there’s a learning culture Leadership transparency

🚩 Red flag: “All our projects are a success.”

3. “How do you measure the success of an engineer here?”

Look to understand: Promotion criteria Whether it’s just about deliverables or also about impact If there’s a clear career plan

🚩 Red flag: Vague criteria or focus only on time spent in the company.

4. “What’s the biggest technical challenge you have today?”

This is important to: Assess technical maturity Understand real problems See if there’s alignment with your skills

🚩 Red flag: Not being able to identify clear challenges.

5. “How do you help your team members grow?”

Look for: Concrete examples of growth Structured mentoring Budget for education

🚩 Red flag: “People grow naturally.”

6. “What’s the current runway of the company?”

Essential for startups: How long until they need to raise more funds Whether they have a path to becoming profitable (cash flow positive/default alive) Realistic growth plans

🚩 Red flag: Not knowing or avoiding the question.

7. “How do you ensure the team maintains a good work-life balance?”

Observe: On-call policies Schedule expectations How they handle deadlines

🚩 Red flag: “Everyone here is a workaholic and loves it.”

Conclusion

This is a brief list of things that I capture in my journey, and I hope that it could help someone else. Let’s get it!

References

• Interviewing engineers
• hiring