External recruiters, also referred to as third party, contingency, or agency recruiters, differ from internal recruiters as they work for a placement firm rather than a tech company directly. They still want well qualified candidates to put in front of an interview panel, but lacking the direct integration, they instead maintain a network of companies that are looking for candidates.… Read more →
Internal recruiters, sometimes called in-house or corporate recruiters, are hired by and work exclusively for the company you’re applying to. They’ll understand the needs of the specific business closely, as they’re developing a tighter relationship being on “the inside”. Along with this, they may have a bit of a marketing aspect to their work as well to help sell the… Read more →
Job postings will likely be your first step towards getting any in-depth info about a role. You may have colleagues who can give you inside info or the company may be well known enough that you can get an idea of what you may do, but that may not give you as much about specifics. More often than not, you’re… Read more →
It’s ok to be in tech for the money. You want to get paid for hard work and software engineering jobs tend to pay well. There’s no shame in making that a big part of your search. We can love our job, the mission our company is taking on, and the people we work with, but it has to pay… Read more →
Developing a tech focused background from an educational institution doesn’t require committing yourself to four years and sizable financial debt. Universities can be expensive and while a well rounded education can be incredibly beneficial, you may want a more focused learning experience concentrated on your area of interest. That’s where code schools come in. Code schools, also known as bootcamps,… Read more →
The following is the current version of a section in my book on interviewing for technical roles. I’m trying to help out with any advice I can while I’m putting all of this together. As part of that, I’m looking for constructive criticism and feedback. My experiences as an engineer are also not universal and so my own biases will creep… Read more →
The following is the current version of a section in my book on interviewing for technical roles. I’m trying to help out with any advice I can while I’m putting all of this together. As part of that, I’m looking for constructive criticism and feedback. My experiences as an engineer are also not universal and so my own biases will creep… Read more →
Resumes offer a view into an engineer’s professional and educational life, but can only skim the surface. Condensing all of your hard work into a page or two can’t explain everything. How will you handle a roadmap that suddenly upends half way through the quarter? Can you be a valuable asset in a crisis to help mitigate an ongoing outage?… Read more →
Interviews are not one sided. It often seems that way since the power dynamics typically skew towards the interviewers over the interviewee. They have the final say and you’re trying to impress them, right? Well, not entirely. Companies of course can’t force you to join. In fact, there’s a lot that needs to be agreed upon by both parties before… Read more →