I don’t care how “clean” your code is. If you aren’t coachable, you aren’t hirable. Last week, a SWE candidate got glowing remarks across all their technical rounds. Many of the interviewers thought he should be up-leveled. Then we heard about the behavioral. “He was pretty arrogant about Agile.” Silence. “Now that you mention it, he wasn’t very receptive to my feedback on his API design either.” More silence. “He’s super talented, but he’d require significant coaching.” The Hiring Manager chimed in: “Are we sure that’s going to be possible?” Finally, I came off mute. “I’d rather hire a coachable L1 with decent skills, than an arrogant L2 who can lap me in a code sprint.” No offer was given. We forwarded the candidate our honest feedback, hoping he might course correct and apply again 6 months later. He never responded. Understand: Feedback is the very soul of great software development. From both customers and teammates. If you can’t receive it, clean code can’t save you. --- P.S. I'm offering free 1:1 mentorship calls for select Junior SWEs in the industry who want help earning their first promotion. If you value feedback like I do and you're hungry to improve, find a time here: https://lnkd.in/eaKzTEux
Bro, I understand what you're saying, but no one is going to wait 6 months to apply ro your job for the second time. Be realistic, there are lots of other companies and opportunities out there and once they get a rejection, applicants forget about you. No job is worth a 6 month wait and BILLS ARE NOT GONNA PAY THEMSELVES
I have mixed feelings about this. Coachable is definitely important. But not everyone has the same aptitude. More experienced people might seem to be less coachable than junior ones, but sometimes they just simply have opinions. Less experienced interviewers tend to turn down experienced candidates in favor of people who they think are coachable. Assessing someone's attitude can be subjective and we need to be aware of that. Let's acknowledge that talent also comes with different ways. I am not commenting on this particular case, but rather what I have seen and what I have read.
Did we interview the same person? 😅 Mine went like this: "Oh dang, this guy is fast! He's so good!" .... "Oh no...he thinks he's super great. Well, as long as he..." .... "Okay, yeah, calling yourself the best engineer non-sarcastically is a hard pass." "Yeah, and he shut down all my suggestions in the live coding." "What? No. Let's go with the other guy. He didn't know as much, but we can bring him up to speed in a month, no problem." And that's what we did. Even if you're amazing technically, please be coachable too. Please. PLEASE.
A lot of interesting comments on this post. Personally, I think even if the candidate finds a good job someplace else, they’d still have friction with their colleagues or the higher ups. That is, if truly they were as problematic as the post portrays. Did they fail the interview? Yes. Did the company reject a skilled candidate? Yes. Can the company find another skilled candidate? Absolutely. Even if not as skilled as the person in question. Can the candidate jump on another interview and get accepted? Yes. Will their resistance to feedback hurt them in the new job? Most likely. The mantra, at the end of the day, should be “Skill and Character”. Nothing beats being open to feedback and being able to correctly and politely express opposing views or thought processes.
The most shocking part of this story for me: "We forwarded the candidate our honest feedback, hoping he might course correct and apply again 6 months later." Having just gone through a 5-month job search to start this year, the idea of getting actionable feedback from an interview process might as well be a foreign language. I got exactly ZERO instances where the feedback was anything more substantial than "we think it wasn't the right fit". Kudos for putting the detail out there, even if it wasn't received.
How much experience and what skills did the job spec demand from this person who you now want to be coachable? Sometimes you get what you ask for.
AJ - One of my favorite metaphors: 2 baseball players run with exceptional speed to first base in a tie. One has perfect form. The other has less-than-desired form. Which one do you hire? You hire talent and speed with the BAD form. Once you train with the proper form, that player outshines the other every time. Coachable and Respectful Good Manners wins every time.
Thanks for this anecdote. It’s got immediately applicable advice for me. I firmly believe I’m coachable, but I do worry that what confidence I do have might get misconstrued as arrogance. I must be more mindful of how I present in interviews. This is solid advice. I have an interview tomorrow, and I know it’s an Agile shop. I’ve got opinions about Agile that I’ve formed over years working in different teams, and I can express those opinions passionately. I need to remember to qualify anything that I might go off about as an opinion, and that I’m always willing to be shown better concepts. Perhaps I should frame my opinions more as concerns about observed risks that come with “doing agile”.
Can't add water to an already full cup, as they say.
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5moHow did you came into the conclusion that he was like that though? I find that sometimes when someone who has more "authority" say a job interview, they give feedback which I might already though over before, therefore I got an imediate answer on it. Doesn't mean you're necessary wrong, but maybe you haven't explained yourself properly and or showed a good argument. The reason people on e.g. L1 are "better" in your eyes, is because they might not know a lot of code, haven't had the experience so you can easily mold them to how YOU want them to write code - doesn't mean its the best way. People with more expereince are always more opinionated and have ways of doing things. While what you said CAN be true, doesn't mean its absolutelly true. Maybe you failed at communicating your idea. I don't know. There's always two sides to stories like this. I was once interviewed by a Junior dev, with a title of a senior, obeviously his feedback was very junior like, and the company overpayed him - and I would be wrong to show him where hes wrong, but he thinking he is at the top of the game, woudln't take no for an answer. Its complicated.