As mentioned yesterday, I did a lot of these things and I think my success rate was higher than average. Perhaps some of my thoughts will help you?

If I had one phrase to summarize what you want from interviewing: be sticky. We live in a time where thousands of people may be considered for any given role. What sets you apart? How will you be remembered above all the rest?

Practice

Ask a friend, professional peer, or loved one, or me to interview you. Or heck, come up with an AI prompt that will do a good job, however know you’re not going to get any real feedback from that. There are interviewing services out there as well that are staffed by real employees of firms that may hire you; they’re practicing and getting paid, although some do it for free.

Study

Like any other skill, there’s always more to learn. There are many guides out there. I learn best by video. My favorites were Anthony D Mays, Mayuko, and Neetcode. If you’re not in tech there are similar channels out there, you just need to find them.

Robert Heaton has a great article on tech interviews.

Videos from recruiters are also very helpful. Ben Talks Talent is great.

Pre-Interview

Research the company. What has or hasn’t worked for them? What is their culture like? What are common employee complaints or praises (can be found on Glassdoor)? What are they building next? How rapidly are they growing [or shrinking]?

Research the product. Use it, read about it. Being able to reference it during the interview is invaluable. In my role, reporting a bug is A+. Yes, I reported a couple for my current role.

Research the people to be interviewing you. Google and LinkedIn stalk. See if you have anything in common and casually work it in. Interests, locations, previous employers or coworkers, family. You’re trying to make a connection here.

Get sleep. Get to bed early the night before, pop some melatonin or whatever ensures you get a quality night. Call in a favor to not have to put the kids to bed. Your mental acuity is of utmost importance.

Caffeinate, but not too much. This is pretty self explanatory. You want to be alert, but not jittery.

During Interview

Present your best. Have a high quality webcam (your laptop does not count – I went from a pretty good Logitech to an amazing Insta360 Link and think it was a great investment, although now that iPhones can serve as Mac webcams that’s a great video source), eliminate any potential distractions (close doors, send the kids and pets somewhere), have a lot of light (mostly in front of you, but behind is good too), tidy up what will be behind you or ensure a fake background renders well.

Be yourself. Spending energy to put up a facade is going to cost you now and in the future. If they don’t like you being you, it’s probably not a good fit. Me? I joke a lot. I use humor in interviews, cover letters, follow-ups. My wife cannot believe the things I say, but I think a smile or laugh is worth a million bucks. Obviously keep humor PC and avoid politics.

Get personal. If you weren’t able to find out more about your interviewer prior to meeting them, you still want to make that personal connection. Ask them what they’re into outside of work. Preface this with letting them know they’re under no obligation to answer.

Ask questions and have them prepared beforehand. I’ve never felt like there was enough time in an interview I was truly interested in. I’ll share some of my favorite questions at the end of this article.

You are interviewing them as much as they are interviewing you. This is your chance to find out if this is a place, team, or product you really want to work on. They need to sell themselves almost as much as you need to sell yourself.

This is not their full time gig. It is natural to be nervous, however chances are that you have more recent interviewing experience than they. Additionally, while this person does hold your future in their hands, they are in most cases a peer. Treat the whole thing as a conversation rather than a test and all parties will be more comfortable.

Respect their time. These folks are likely interviewing many people at the expense of doing their actual work. Acknowledge when you hit the end of the meeting. If you have more to say or ask, see if they have more time. If they don’t see if you can send them some questions via email. Typically an interviewer will not provide their contact information so you’ll use the recruiter as a middle-person.

Don’t be afraid to bail. If any red flags arise, save everyone some time and ask to end the interview. It will be incredibly awkward in the moment, but everyone wins long-term. This has only happened once to me when the role description did not match what they interviewed me on (tech-wise).

In the veins of respecting their time and this not being their full-time gig, though, do not end the interview just because you don’t feel it is going well or you aren’t developing rapport; interviewing is hard for both parties. In many cases you will be interviewing with a number of people and any one interview will matter very little [unless it went really really horribly]. Long ago I actually landed a role in which I had such a terrible interview – it ended up being my longest tenured role [by far] and the person who I absolutely hated interviewing with is now one of my closest friends despite having not worked together for nearly a decade now. He’s totally going to read this and know who he is too 🤭

Post-Interview

Follow up the night of the interview. Contact the recruiter or interviewer [or both] thanking them for their time, ask any follow-up questions, clarify anything you think you may have struggled with (keep this part brief). Why that night? It will either leave your name in the person’s head all evening or first thing in the morning. You want to be sticky. This delay also gives you more time to collect your thoughts.

Sample Questions

Please share your own! If I like them they may get added here!

• Where did the role come from? New position, someone left? Why?
• How large is the team?
• Tell me about the rest of the team.
• If speaking to an IC/peer: What it is like working for their manager?
• If speaking to a manager: What is your management style?
• What is the biggest challenge the team is facing?
• If there is one thing you could change about the company, what would it be?
• What does the team or company do best?
• What is the general feeling of the codebase health/testability?
• Describe the tech stack.
• Pick anything interesting out of the job description and ask clarification.
• If things went well: What’s next?
• How is work managed or organized?
• What do you do for fun?

GOOD LUCK!