I recently went through an interesting interview process, but unfortunately, I didn't make it past the team manager interview due to what seemed like focus on 'culture fit' rather than my coding abilities. I thought I would face more technical questions related to coding or architecture, but most of the discussion revolved around my past work experiences and accomplishments. The interviewer wanted to hear about instances where I took initiative and shipped features without needing direction. However, I felt that my examples didn't impress him much.
With about 4-5 years of full-stack development experience on a contracting platform, I realized that companies, especially larger ones, might prioritize your approach and mentality over just your technical skill. I'm curious about the archetype companies look for in a developer and how to better frame my experiences, especially when most decisions were made by more senior members of my previous team. Is it still relevant to ship personal projects to demonstrate my independence and passion, or are there better ways to communicate my potential?
1 Answer
It sounds like you encountered more of a level assessment rather than cultural fit questions. Many hiring managers, especially at senior positions, look beyond coding skills; they want to know your mindset and approach to work. Proactive engineers are highly valued. It's not just about how many features you ship but how you look for gaps and suggest improvements based on key business metrics. If you're mainly discussing coding, it can come off as needing hand-holding. Focus on showing that you understand your impact on business outcomes and how you can contribute beyond just the technical work.
Exactly! It's about aligning your experiences with how you can actively contribute to goals. You might want to think about how you can present your work in terms of value and strategy rather than purely technical terms.