Tech Applications Go Both Ways

During my career as a design manager, I have spent quite some time in hiring processes on both sides of the interview table. I know how nervous one might be interviewing for a position that promises career progress. I have felt the pain of hiring managers hoping this candidate will bring talent, skills, and attitude to their teams; they need to achieve their goals.

It‘s a challenging endeavor for everyone involved.

While obviously, the applicant is looking for a job to pay their bills and has immense tension to find something as soon as possible, the company offering the job is under its own type of stress.  

You are the Solution to a Problem

No company hires anyone just for the sake of hiring. The team always faces a challenge that it cannot tackle with the current staff. Moreover, hiring is expensive and can swallow significant time and resources, especially in a „crisis“ situation; this isn’t an investment any hiring manager should take lightly. And one of the reasons good recruiting firms can charge high rates for their services.

Getting it Wrong is Risky

Every time someone new joins an existing team, that team may get set back to its forming phase as all team members have to reevaluate their roles and review the new team dynamics. Hiring someone new for an existing team also bears a significant risk of affecting team spirit and performance. Pick the right person, and your team may thrive, choose the wrong person, and you may quickly find yourself dealing with a whole set of new problems. Starting with personal conflicts, original team members feeling threatened by the newly hired talent to performance drops and employee churn.

Hiring Managers are People too

As a candidate, it is helpful to practice a bit of empathy for the person on the other side. Remember that they’re just human and trying to do their job. Many have little to no experience or training in recruitment and are under pressure to find someone suitable for the role as quickly as possible.

The Market continues to be Tough

There is a reason why all those goodies, extras, and benefits get mentioned in job posts. Companies compete for the best talent. Even in tough times like the ones we are facing, employers in tech need to be attractive to talented people and offer purpose, great culture, and security in addition to competitive salaries. So in a way, they are advertising to you. Make sure to take your conversations with a potential employer as a chance to discuss what they offer for you and your career growth. As long as you stay polite, open, and humble, recruiters and managers will regard your questions as engaged and interested.

It’s a Matching Process

I always let applicants know as early in our process as possible that they should also evaluate if we are a good fit for them. Our views on culture, process, people, and products must match with the candidate for us to work together. It goes way beyond skill assessment. Your work with a company will only be successful if it’s a good fit. If you find out shortly after hiring that the culture isn‘t for you or the required skills aren‘t what you feel comfortable doing, you most likely won‘t stay at the company for long.

I find having this in mind while interviewing with companies or candidates takes a bit of stress out of Applications and allows me to engage more confidently and openly in the conversations.

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