Three tips to save you from filtering out good candidates — When done right, a live coding interview allows to evaluate the candidate’s problem solving, coding, communication and collaboration skills at once. When done poorly, it is more of a chance to lose a good candidate. Let’s look into how interviewers can design a coding task to assess the candidate’s experience…

Simple strategies to keep your dream team together — When an experienced software engineer quits, replacing them is an expensive exercise in terms of costs and impact on productivity. First, it takes a few months to find a comparable replacement in the competitive market. Then it’s another month before the new hire starts in their role. Only three to…

From a chat with the recruiter to the offer in a few days — Do we need several interviews to determine if we want to make a job offer to a software engineer? Probably, not for most roles. …

What areas to focus on and what tasks to delegate to your team to keep delivering the results your stakeholders want — Many first-time software engineering managers wonder: what should they focus on in their roles to deliver the results their stakeholders want? On the one hand, the answer is straightforward if we look at engineering management as a combination of three key responsibilities. People Management: hiring, coaching, motivating staff, performance reviews…

A simple guide for aspiring software developers to build the skills that employers want — Many aspiring software engineers fear they don’t have the experience and knowledge employers expect to see in job candidates. Sometimes that is true, but there is no need to despair. Getting the required skills for a Junior Developer role isn’t that hard. Here is a simple strategy to build the…

Tips from a hiring manager to spot a job candidate who may not culturally fit despite having the technical skills — Today I’d like to talk about interviewing software engineers and share a few interview questions that I ask to get an idea if a candidate would be a great fit from a cultural perspective and whether they are motivated to get this job. These questions help me reduce the risk…

Common mistakes and winning tactics for your next job interview — I’m interviewing software engineers every week. Too many of them make the same mistakes at the coding interview and fail to demonstrate their skills at the expected level. As a result, they don’t get a job offer. That’s sad because any software developer, regardless of their experience, can avoid those…

Software developers often underperform at behavioural interviews. Learn how you can stand out and get a great job offer — The job interview process in established tech companies often includes a behavioural interview to evaluate the candidates’ “cultural fit”. Some candidates underestimate the importance of this interview and think of it as a casual conversation. They believe they should be fine as long as they have the required technical skills…

Tips from an interviewer on how to explore the problem, design a solution, and communicate your approach. — Previously, I’ve outlined common mistakes software engineers make at job interviews and shared tips on demonstrating skills and knowledge efficiently. This time I’d like to focus on how to pass your system design interview successfully. I’ve created this guide based on my experience interviewing candidates at my recent jobs, including…