Tech Career Skills: Searching, Interviewing, and Landing a Job

Round out your resume. Learn the soft skills you need to be successful in hunting for a technical job, interviewing with stakeholders, and securing a role.

Too many engineers focus on building hard technical skills, but do not receive the guidance or coaching necessary to make a strong case for their candidacy during the recruitment process. By focusing on the “what”—programming languages and infrastructure stacks—and the “how”—engineering and troubleshooting—they lose sight of the strategic “why." This context gap routinely hurts engineers when they apply for roles and when they try to present their point of view on the job. In this course, tech leader Nishant Bhajaria describes the tech recruitment process and explains how to present yourself on your resume, ask the right questions, and make your case in the interview. These soft skills are indispensable—giving you a better chance at landing the right role and succeeding in the actual job.

Introduction

• Understanding the hiring landscape
• How I got my first job

1. Understanding the Tech Hiring Process

• Behind the scenes: The hiring process
• The pace of the tech hiring process
• Power dynamics during the hiring process
• Setting realistic expectations

2. The Well-Rounded Engineer: What Employers Want

• Technical candidates need soft skills
• The struggle for soft skills

3. Better Defining Your Tech Job Search

• Avoid prejudging the role
• Avoid creating a laundry-list resume
• Customize your presentation

4. Identifying the Key Players in a Tech Interview

• Different types of interviewers
• Tech hiring roles: The recruiter
• Tech hiring roles: Product and program
• Tech hiring roles: Policy, PR, and sales
• Tech hiring roles: Engineering
• Tech hiring roles: Hiring manager

5. Preparing for Your Technical Interview

• The job description
• Using LinkedIn
• The company’s technical footprint
• Social media

6. Common Tech Interview Mistakes

• Getting too tactical in a tech interview
• Speaking negatively about your previous jobs
• Coming off as lacking people skills
• Showing predictability

7. Presenting Yourself in a Tech Interview

• Setting the stage
• Answering technical questions
• Showing judgment and empathy
• Demonstrating your desire for growth
• Acing the hiring manager interview

8. Post-Interview Advice

• Communicating with the recruiter
• Communicating with the interview team
• Communicating with the hiring manager

Conclusion

• Interview success