Survive and Advance (on the job market)
A Beginner’s accounts from the job market
I hope titles do not have copywrite. I borrowed the title of my article from a sports documentary about an American college basketball team. In the documentary, the basketball team wins the 1983 big championship against all odds. The team was considered the biggest underdog and many times won by 1–2 points in the nine games it played for the championship. They also had to beat Michael Jordan! But before my love of basketball gets me to drift away from the topic of this article I will jump right into it. When I was interviewing for jobs this title, Survive and Advance, kept playing in my head. Even though I have a senior profile in my field after a few years on the job, I was somewhat novice in interviewing. I have had only a few interviews in the past and I felt lost and inexperienced with this process. I was able to organize myself and focus on surviving each interview, trying to be at least 1% better than my invisible competition to make it to the end. I did win the championship and I hope my thoughts below help other people embarking on a similar journey to succeed.
Pre-Interview stage
In the beginning, there was chaos. Most people start by polishing their resumes. But to help polish your resume you have to have know well your skills and accomplishments. It helps to make a list and describe the things you are proud to have learned and to have done. Later I learned there is a name for this, a bragg file. It helps if you think of a person on the job market as a product. This person needs to know this product well and what it can do to be able to describe it and sell it. So write a bragg file which outlines your “features” and the things you can do and have done. This will help you to not only polish your resume but prepare you for the interviews ahead, to answer questions with more ease. Classical, two birds with one stone.
The resume
Raise your hand if you enjoy reading two-page resumes that are pack full of information. So informative, impressive, and boring. How about a one-page resume pack full of information. Anyone? You? Noone? Imagine if you have a pile of those. The secret to a good resume is not the amount of information you can pack in it but how you summarize and display that information. You have to make it easy for people to read it and get a sense of your capabilities. I once saw a latex template a friend of mine was using for his resume and I fell in love with it. Why did I feel so strongly about it? First of all, you can tell the difference between a word doc and a latex doc; the latex style stands out for me as more elegant. But most importantly, the template layout of this resume made it very easy and quick to read and assimilate the information. At the top, it started with an ‘About me’ section where with a few bullet points you can summarize and highlight your knowledge, experience, even soft skills.
- ‘Over 6 years of experience in the start-up field working with….’
- ‘Experienced in transforming and analyzing…’
- ‘Good communication skills, resourceful and…’
This was followed by a section on Technical skills:
- ‘Data processing/visualizing: SQL, Tableau, Airflow, Pandas,…’
- ‘Databases: BigQuery, PostgreSQL, MySQL, Impala, Redshift…’
Finally, you can move on to the regular sections of Work Experience and Education. A good summary of your experience and skills at the top might make the difference between your resume ending in the callback or reject pile. Make it easy for the recruiters to know you and to like you. By using this type of resume layout I got about 95% callback response which absolutely amazed me.
Interview stage
I want to reuse my ‘Marketing 101’ analogy from earlier of a person on the job market as a product. Once you are ready to apply for jobs you need to target the right “channels” and “customers” to sell this product to increase chances of success. Choose companies and positions which have the stack you like to work with or want to work with. People say customize your resume to each position; use the same words as in the job description. I don’t think that is bad advice but it is a bit time-consuming and I personally found it unnecessary. A well-polished resume that reflects you well would make you stand out more than blending in by “synchronizing” the wording. The same goes for cover letters. I used to spend a couple of hours researching the company and writing a custom note of why I am a good fit. However, I did not find that to increase my chances of a callback. That said if you feel very strongly about a position it will only help if you send a nice cover letter.
Before interviewing with a new company, I make a new file. I read up on the company’s blog or press releases and I summarize any information and thoughts on the company and its products. As the interview process advances I add more notes about the team, the position, what they asked me or any additional information coming out of the interview. When you are interviewing with a few companies at a time, such a file can help you to keep things organized. Trust me you will start getting confused at who said what.
The pitch
I was asked the “Tell me about yourself” each and every time. At one point all I wanted to do is roll my eyes but instead, I kept refining and refining my pitch. I ended up having a short version (< 3 mins) for the 30 min initial recruiter interviews, and a full version (< 5 mins) when interviewed by a team lead, for example. I realized what works best for my pitch is to make a story out of it. People want to understand your progress, your interests, how you have developed throughout your career, and why this position fits well as a next step. Telling a story makes you sound more passionate about what you do, and usually, that is what companies are most looking for. A well-structured pitch also shows good communication skills so make sure you enjoy the story you are telling and others will too.
“My love of numbers and solving equations led me to study math at…After graduation, I wanted to acquire more practical tools so I took some Coursera classes in…I really enjoyed what I was learning so I enrolled in two certification programs…At my first company, I led/participated in a project to…and I am very proud of this accomplishment…Outside of work, I read books on data visualization and I work on…For my next role, I am looking to expand on …”.
The Interview
Nothing can prepare you better for the main part of the interview process than doing it. Apart from a bragg file, I have a file containing my answers to many common and not so common interview questions in my field. I often add more questions after each interview or I refine my answers to other questions. Before major interviews, I go over both files to feel ready. These files also contain a few stories that I can use for groups of questions. For example, I was often asked in some kind of form, how I have handled conflict at work. Or how do I proceed when I am really stuck on something? You need to have 3–4 stories from your career of success, dealing with failure, collaboration, contribution, handling challenges. It is possible that one really good story can cover a few of those questions. You just need to pull out the part of the story that you need for the specific question.
One more important part of an interview is your questions to the interviewer. At first, I was very lost with what questions are important to ask but subsequently, I ended up with 3 groups of questions. In initial rounds, I ask standard questions about the team and the tools:
How big is the team?
How are they positioned in the company?
Who are the stakeholders?
What kind of agile framework and tools are used for collaboration and project execution?
In more advanced interview rounds, I like to ask questions that help me understand the company culture better:
What is the best part for you in working at …?
What is the product you enjoyed the most building at …?
And if I make it to the last rounds, I like to understand better the position for which I am interviewed:
What do you expect from me in the first 3–6 months?
What about this position is most important for the employee to be successful?
The last rounds are often with the hiring manager or the head of the team so these kinds of questions are fitting for this person to answer. If during the pre-interview company research I have been inspired by a question or two, I find a good time to ask those as well and this is often impressive for the interviewer. I encourage you to not underestimate yourself or “your questions” part of the interview. Imagine you get offers from 2–3 companies. You would want to go to the company which is the best fit for you. If you have not gathered enough information during the “your questions” part of the interview, you would want to go back in time so you can make an informed decision.
To make a long story short, or shorter, I will end my article here. The intention of this article is not to be comprehensive on this topic but to share insights that I did not find in other similar articles. At the end of the day, one of the most important things during an interview is to smile. This might have been my 1% that pushed me on top and helped me win the championship.
