Software engineering interview experiences don't have to be terrible.

Thread on my best software engineering interview experience.
👇🏼 (Thanks @PaulYacoubian for the idea)

Starting from the top of the funnel, I heard of this company (fintech startup, close to $1b valuation, based in NYC) from a podcast they were advertising on, and I liked the mission.

I went to their website and applied.
Their application portal used greenhouse. One page and no need for re-typing resume info.

They had an open field that said "Tell me something we should know about you".

I wrote about how I was a career switcher, had kids, went to school while working full time, etc.
Here's where they started to stand out.

They emailed me back a few days later and sent me a calendly link to schedule my first interview.

Letting the candidate choose a time for an interview is a small detail but is great for reducing candidate stress.
I scheduled my first interview. I received an email detailing what the interview would be about, what to expect, and what to prepare for. It would be a casual chat.

My interviewer mentioned and asked tons of questions about the free-response field I had filled out earlier.
After, He immediately told me the next steps and gave an outline for the whole process.

1- Pair programming with one engineer. Pass/Fail to next round
2- Pair programming session with 3 engineers in one day. Pass/Fail to next round
3- Talks with executive folks
4 - Offer
The first pair programming session was an open-ended system design type interview. (I interviewed for two different roles 2 years apart at this company. They later switched to using @byteboardDev for this portion, which I really enjoyed.)
They let me use my own laptop for all pair programming. I could use google, ask questions from the interviewer, and overall it felt more closely related to a pair programming session at work than an interview.

All the people I paired with were friendly and low-ego.
Something that stood out to me:
I spoke with ~10 people each time I interviewed, and I could tell that each of them had read my application closely.

They showed a general interest in me!

Contrast this to other interviews I've had where they seemed almost bothered I was there
At the end of each step, I was informed clearly what and when I should expect to hear from them next.

I never felt in the dark.

They biased towards responding quickly. The whole interview felt well thought out.
The pair programming itself was a problem related to finance. Add X feature to this full-stack application in rails.

The interview closely approximated what a day in the life of working at the company would be like. No algorithm questions.
It was a fun exercise and I didn't feel drained for once during the interview process.

The talks with the executives went great too. They were transparent about the needs, what they were looking for, growth trajectory, etc.
Here's where it gets even better.

I accepted an offer but later had to rescind it.
I rescinded because we found out we were having a baby.

The offer was for an internship in NYC. I live in Texas. Couldn't miss his birth.

I felt bad but they were very understanding. The recruiter also recently found out they were having a child and he sounded excited for us!
I thought that was the end of it but around a year later the recruiter reached back out to me and asked how the baby was doing.

We chatted back and forth for a few weeks over email on babies, software development, etc.

It felt very human and it made a huge impression on me.
A few years later in my career, I started looking for a new full-time role. The first company that popped up in my head was this one.

I emailed the recruiter and he started the process over for me again. It was mostly the same but just as pleasant.
I didn't ever end up working at this company but I've told countless friends and colleagues about the interview process and how great it was.

If you put the candidate experience first, your interview process can be another form of PR/Marketing for your hiring funnel
Lots of companies get this wrong, so if you can do things to stand out, your candidates will tell engineers and lower your overall hiring cost.

Have empathy for the people you are interviewing.

More from Software

🚨 🦮 Seven ways to test for accessibility using only what is already in browser developer tools of Chromium browsers https://t.co/C7kdbigHGE

@MSEdgeDev @EdgeDevTools @ChromiumDev
#tools #accessibility #browsers
Also, a thread: 👇🏼


Issues pane, powered by @webhintio, listing accessibility issues with explanations why these are problems, links to more info and direct links to the tools where to fix the problem.
https://t.co/4K5RynHhbg


The inspect element overlay showing accessibility relevant information of the element, including contrast information, ARIA name, role and if it can be focused via keyboard.


Colour picker with contrast information offering colours that are AA/AAA compliant. You can also see compliant colours indicated by a line on the colour patch.
Note: the current algorithm fails to take font weight into consideration, that's why there will be a new one.


Vision deficit ("colour blindness") emulation. You can see what your product looks like for different visitors.
https://t.co/bxj1vySCAb
Developer productivity, y'all. It is a three TRILLION dollar opportunity, per the stripe report.

Eng managers and directors, we have got to stop asking for "more headcount" and start treating this like the systems problem that it is. https://t.co/XJ0CkFdgiO


If you are getting barely more than 50% productivity out of your very expensive engineers, I can pretty much guarantee you cannot hire your way out of this resourcing issue. 😐

(the stripe report is here:

Say you've got a strategic initiative that 3 engineers to build and support it. Well, they're going to be swimming in the same muddy pipeline as everyone else at ~50%, so you're actually gotta source, hire and train 6, er make that 7 (gonna need another manager too now)...

...which actually understates the problem, because each person you add also adds friction and overhead to the system. Communication, coordination all get harder and processes get more complex and elaborate, etc.

So we could hire 7 people, or we could patch up our sociotechnical system to lose say only 25% productivity to tech debt, instead of 42%? 🤔

By my calculations, that would reclaim 3 engineers worth of capacity given a team of just 17-18 people.
As the year wrap's up, let's run through some of the worst public security mistakes and delays in fixes by AWS in 2020. A thread.

First, that time when an AWS employee posted confidential AWS customer information including including AWS access keys for those customer accounts to


Discovery by @SpenGietz that you can disable CloudTrail without triggering GuardDuty by using cloudtrail:PutEventSelectors to filter all events.


Amazon launched their bug bounty, but specifically excluded AWS, which has no bug bounty.


Repeated, over and over again examples of AWS having no change control over their Managed IAM policies, including the mistaken release of CheesepuffsServiceRolePolicy, AWSServiceRoleForThorInternalDevPolicy, AWSCodeArtifactReadOnlyAccess.json, AmazonCirrusGammaRoleForInstaller.
Are you a Designer or a Developer?👨‍💻

Here are some Google Chrome extensions that can make you better in 2021. 🔥🍀

(Thread) 🧵👇

1.
https://t.co/zGir5E5U0J: https://t.co/PVx1wlX0Se is the easiest way to stay updated on the latest programming news. Get the hottest dev news from the best tech blogs on any topic you can think of.

2. CSS Peeper: CSS Peeper is a CSS viewer tailored for Designers. Get access to useful styles with our Chrome extension. Its mission is to let Designers focus on design, and spend as little time as possible digging in a

3. UX Check: UX Check makes heuristic evaluations quick and easy. The extension will open up Nielsen's Ten Heuristics in a side pane next to your website.

4. Checkbot: Checkbot finds critical SEO, speed & security problems before your website visitors do
Tests 100s of pages at once for broken links, duplicate titles, invalid HTML, insecure pages, and 50+ other

You May Also Like

॥ॐ॥
अस्य श्री गायत्री ध्यान श्लोक:
(gAyatri dhyAna shlOka)
• This shloka to meditate personified form of वेदमाता गायत्री was given by Bhagwaan Brahma to Sage yAgnavalkya (याज्ञवल्क्य).

• 14th shloka of गायत्री कवचम् which is taken from वशिष्ठ संहिता, goes as follows..


• मुक्ता-विद्रुम-हेम-नील धवलच्छायैर्मुखस्त्रीक्षणै:।
muktA vidruma hEma nIla dhavalachhAyaiH mukhaistrlkShaNaiH.

• युक्तामिन्दुकला-निबद्धमुकुटां तत्वार्थवर्णात्मिकाम्॥
yuktAmindukalA nibaddha makutAm tatvArtha varNAtmikam.

• गायत्रीं वरदाभयाङ्कुश कशां शुभ्रं कपालं गदाम्।
gAyatrIm vardAbhayANkusha kashAm shubhram kapAlam gadAm.

• शंखं चक्रमथारविन्दयुगलं हस्तैर्वहन्ती भजै॥
shankham chakramathArvinda yugalam hastairvahantIm bhajE.

This shloka describes the form of वेदमाता गायत्री.

• It says, "She has five faces which shine with the colours of a Pearl 'मुक्ता', Coral 'विद्रुम', Gold 'हेम्', Sapphire 'नील्', & a Diamond 'धवलम्'.

• These five faces are symbolic of the five primordial elements called पञ्चमहाभूत:' which makes up the entire existence.

• These are the elements of SPACE, FIRE, WIND, EARTH & WATER.

• All these five faces shine with three eyes 'त्रिक्षणै:'.
Fake chats claiming to be from the Irish African community are being disseminated by the far right in order to suggest that violence is imminent from #BLM supporters. This is straight out of the QAnon and Proud Boys playbook. Spread the word. Protest safely. #georgenkencho


There is co-ordination across the far right in Ireland now to stir both left and right in the hopes of creating a race war. Think critically! Fascists see the tragic killing of #georgenkencho, the grief of his community and pending investigation as a flashpoint for action.


Across Telegram, Twitter and Facebook disinformation is being peddled on the back of these tragic events. From false photographs to the tactics ofwhite supremacy, the far right is clumsily trying to drive hate against minority groups and figureheads.


Declan Ganley’s Burkean group and the incel wing of National Party (Gearóid Murphy, Mick O’Keeffe & Co.) as well as all the usuals are concerted in their efforts to demonstrate their white supremacist cred. The quiet parts are today being said out loud.


The best thing you can do is challenge disinformation and report posts where engagement isn’t appropriate. Many of these are blatantly racist posts designed to drive recruitment to NP and other Nationalist groups. By all means protest but stay safe.