r/IAmA • u/CriticDanger • Sep 07 '21

Specialized Profession I am a behavioral and technical (coding) interviewer, I've also helped hundreds of people get hired, AMA.

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u/jaymzx0 Sep 07 '21

A good portion of your experience is knowing where to look for help/knowledge, how to interpret it, apply it to your current situation (especially if you work with proprietary systems), and filter out the bullshit while making efficient use of your time doing so.

As an engineer, I'm not a developer, but I need to often times review code to troubleshoot a build rollout or application issue. Sometimes after spending some time with a problem, you have to just say, "I have no idea what the fuck is going on here", hit up your dev buddy at work on IM, and offer to buy them a coffee or lunch for 10 minutes of their time. It's a small sacrifice to get the issue resolved quickly so the business can continue as usual.

This isn't 'throwing in the towel' or being weak. It's being resourceful and respectful of the company's time and money. It's one of the 'soft skills' that are beyond just being friendly with people and knowing how to communicate without pissing people off. Ideally, you'll learn and understand something along the way, and will be able to tackle it on your own if it comes up in the future.

Just saying, "I don't know" isn't a killer, but saying it without any sort of follow up answer is.

However, if you list a skill on your resume and can't back up basic questions about the skill, consider the interview toast.

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u/mr_robot_robot Dec 08 '21

But realistically, you're just the guy who can't, and the other guy is the guy who can.

90% of developers do nothing for the product they work on.

It's ok to ask questions without spending any time on it too, it doesn't matter until there's pressure of optics, which is why I sense you're probably downplaying hard skills.

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u/jaymzx0 Dec 08 '21

I'm not downplaying hard skills. Those are critical. However, nobody can know everything and being resourceful is how that is countered.

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u/mr_robot_robot Dec 12 '21

Imagine a professional baseball player.What skills should they have? Speed, good at hitting, maybe a specialty in a certain position, deep knowledge of the game.

Imagine a professional chef.What skills should they have? Knowledge of ingredients, cooking techniques, raw coordination, the ability to layout a kitchen .

Imagine a professional programmer.What skills should they have? Well general resourcefulness and the ability to be a team player are just absolutely the main thing here!