There are a lot of jobs for engineers and developers in Seattle, but getting a great one can still be tough. At Wednesday night’s “How to Land an Awesome Development Job” hosted by Code Fellows, tech leaders spoke to a crowd of more than 200 people at the new Chef offices about how to get hired in Seattle’s dev world.
Hiring managers and leaders from Zillow, Expedia, Chef, General UI and Tune took questions from the audience and moderator Jer Langhans from Hired.com.
A lot of the advice was similar to what you’d hear from any college career center: don’t have typos on your resume; do some research on the company before going into an interview; ask questions during your interview to show your interest in working at the company. But there was also advice geared specifically to developers, and the tech industry.
“Culture fit” was a big topic of the night. It’s something that can’t (or at least, shouldn’t) be forced, but can help determine if an applicant will be a good long-term fit for the job.
“If you’re not a culture fit, don’t force yourself into a job,” Chef CEO Barry Crist told the audience.
Hiring managers can also fail to recognize good candidates if they focus too much on culture fit, or misunderstand it. Zillow recruiting director Annie Rihn explained that culture fit isn’t just about having similar interests. That can lead to too much homogeneity in a company. Instead, hiring managers should look to problem-solving skills, communication and trust when determining whether a candidate will fit in at the company.
Expedia engineering manager Deepthi Kondapalli also looks for someone who can add value to the company broadly, not just solve a specific problem or join one team.
“Skills are one thing, but you should have the talent and the attitude to actually go and solve and learn,” Kondapalli said.
The panel also talked about some of the biggest mistakes they’d seen candidates make. Rihn reiterated some basic advice, including making sure you use the right company’s name when recycling your cover letter. She also urged job-seekers to research the competition, as well.
“People love it if you come in and you’ve been thinking about the problems they’ve been trying to solve,” she said.
Don’t oversell yourself, either. Tune’s Cody Powell once got a resume that said “I’m a world-class expert in C++.”
“Everyone in the interview is like ‘Ah-ha, I’m going to stump you,'” he said, explaining that it’s smart for candidates to exhibit “a little bit of humility” about their skills, which will also make it more clear that they’re easier to collaborate with.
