Why I like taking interviews as a software developer

18. 10. 2021

There, I said it.

As the headline of this article indicates, I have confession to make... I *like* taking interviews as a programmer. I don't mind taking one time to time, even when I am happy in my current job. And when I am actively looking for a new opportunity, I don't hesitate to talk to, let's say, 10-12 companies at the same time (do more than that and you are asking for burnout, if you are doing it in combination with working full-time). I don't think it is unethical, as long as you don't neglect your other responsibilities. Also, I don't believe you are wasting the other companies’ time, because:

1. the people interviewing you (HRs, managers, fellow software engineers) are paid for it and it is just another part of their job,
2. you never know if the offer presented to you at the end of the process won't be so good, that it will force you to reevaluate your current conditions and eventually accept it - even if you originally weren't going to. And that's a potentially huge win for the company.

As for what it is in for me and why I don't agree with the general sentiment among programmers, that interview processes are "necessary evil" - I can come up with several (in my opinion) valid reasons:

You will improve your technical skills

Good companies will attempt to pick competent developers to join their ranks. They choose different approaches in order to achieve this goal. Examples include live coding sessions, take-home assignments, system design discussions, or tricky, trivia-like questions (please don’t choose the last one, if you are interviewer). What they have in common is that they will usually pull you out of your comfort zone and force you to use the parts of your brain you don’t usually need in your day-to-day tasks, implementing yet another CRUD API endpoints. You can learn a ton in the process and eventually become a better programmer. Even better, you may discover some new unknown unknowns – things you didn't know, that you didn't know. For example, I was asked how would I resolve a situation I never thought about before, but looking back at it, it is a perfectly real possibility. Thanks to that interview I will be prepared, if (when) it will happen in the future.

You will improve your soft skills

Gone are the times, when a programmer could take a printed hundred-page specification, lock himself in a dark room and emerge in a couple of weeks with a completed program. In these times, software development is a team sport and you need to clearly communicate your thoughts with your colleagues, managers, and sometimes even users/customers of your product, with each of these groups requiring slightly different communication styles and vocabulary. These soft skills are becoming almost as important as your technical competence. The interview process is a great opportunity to put them to the test and see if you can sell the product (yourself) to a bunch of people from different areas that have probably never seen you before.

You will improve your interviewing skills

Building on the previous paragraph, interviewing itself is definitely a (soft) skill. And it is a skill that can bring you many benefits once you become good at it. I compare it to dating, as the hiring process is basically you and the employer checking out each other and determining if there is mutual compatibility. When most people think about their dating beginnings, they remember the stress, the excessive sweat, and the constant worry that you will screw it up by saying the wrong thing. It is only with practice when you learn that it is actually not so bad, the other side is just as human as you are and it isn’t a big deal, even if it doesn't work out in the end. This helps you to act more confident, natural, and therefore more attractive. Taking interviews is the same. Once you complete a few of those, you will stop looking at them as a horrible trial in front of an uncompromising jury and instead more like a friendly chat about interesting topics. And I guarantee you that this alone will help you to make a more convincing impression and therefore get much better offers.

You will know your true worth

Data is power. And we, as the employees are often left in the dark when it comes to our true value on the job market. Talking about salaries is still a taboo topic in the majority of the world and the companies are taking advantage of this fact. Interviews are a brilliant way to find out where you stand and once you have several offers on the table, each of them significantly higher than what you are currently making, you may quickly discover, that your salary is not as competitive as your manager is trying to tell you. Even when you are satisfied with other aspects of your current job and don’t want to leave, this gives you the confidence to ask for a raise without feeling like ungrateful and greedy Uncle Scrooge. Same with seniority. Even though the titles with the same name may have different meanings in different companies, once you get evaluated multiple times as a Senior Engineer, you may conclude that you are not getting the promotion at your corporation not because you “don’t have what it takes (yet)”, but maybe it is just as an excuse to not pay you more.

You will grow your network

Last but not least, you will interact with a lot of interesting people, during the hiring process. Many companies will send their most experienced engineers to conduct the later interviewing rounds. Especially earlier in your career, you may get an hour or two of uninterrupted chit-chat about technology with folks who are in the business longer than you are alive. It is always eye-opening to observe what they care about, what kind of questions do they ask, and how they react to your answers. Plus there is a non-zero chance that if you make a good impression, they will remember you. So even if you don’t become colleagues right away, you might encounter them later in your career and have an advantage, because they will already know how good you are.

These are the reasons why I am fond of taking interviews as a software developer. So next time, you see an interesting job listing on your Facebook feed, or in your LinkedIn inbox and you have some spare time, give it a chance. In the worst case, you will gain some extra experience that will help you in your career, and in the best case, you will land an offer for the job of your dreams.