It's a tough job market right now. I've been thinking about that a lot as I continue hiring for my team. Over the past few years, I've interviewed dozens of candidates and reviewed hundreds of resumes. One thing keeps standing out: technical skill matters, but it's not the whole story.
This perspective hasn't formed in a vacuum. Many engineering managers and directors I've spoken with over the years share similar thoughts. Across different companies and contexts, the qualities that make someone a standout candidate are surprisingly consistent: how they think, how they collaborate, and how they handle pressure.
The Most Overlooked Part of the Interview
One of the most underestimated parts of the interview process is the behavioral and situational side. It's not just one round. It shows up throughout every interaction: before, during, and after the official interviews.
Most engineers I meet spend the bulk of their prep time focused on technical content:
- Memorizing algorithm challenges
- Practicing system design prompts
- Brushing up on frameworks and language trivia
That effort matters, especially for technical screens. But what gets overlooked is equally important: knowing how to talk about your actual experience.
Being able to explain what you built, how you worked through problems, what you learned, and how you've helped others. That's what makes conversations meaningful and memorable.
The Reality of Broken Hiring
Let's be honest. The hiring process is flawed in a lot of places.
Too many companies reject great candidates because they didn't recall a niche algorithm under pressure. Too many interviews reward performance under artificial conditions rather than evaluating what really matters for doing the job well. And too often, engineers from non-traditional backgrounds get filtered out before they have a real shot.
I can't fix the whole industry, but I can control how I approach hiring on my team. My goal is to run a process that's practical, fair, and aligned with the actual work. That means looking beyond resumes and rehearsed answers and focusing on the qualities that lead to long-term success: ownership, adaptability, and collaboration.
No process is perfect. But I do everything I can to find real talent and give opportunities to people who might be overlooked elsewhere.
Patterns of Impact and Ownership
When I'm hiring, I'm not just looking for someone who can solve a coding problem. I'm looking for signs of consistent, thoughtful, high-impact work.
I want to know how someone handles ambiguity, how they recover from failure, how they think through tradeoffs, and how they work with people across different roles. I pay close attention to how they respond when things go sideways: tight deadlines, bugs in production, shifting priorities.
Ownership matters. Being able to stay focused, make decisions, and lead with clarity during stressful moments is what makes someone dependable and effective over time.
Great Engineers Build Great Teams
One of the biggest signals I look for is whether someone helps others grow.
The engineers I've seen thrive are the ones who mentor teammates, share credit, and help raise the bar across the team. They don't just focus on their own output. They build momentum for others too.
The best engineers I've worked with don't just build software. They build people.
They collaborate across levels, accept feedback with humility, and make everyone around them better. And I'm not alone in valuing this. Every experienced engineering leader I've talked to says the same thing: technical ability is important, but the ability to grow and support a team is what makes someone truly valuable.
We're Always Interviewing
Most interviews don't begin when you hop on a Zoom call. They start much earlier. Sometimes through a referral, a Slack thread, a shared project, or a casual intro.
How you show up in those moments matters.
How you communicate, how you handle not knowing something, how you listen and explain ideas. These things build trust, and they're what people remember long after the technical details are forgotten.
Final Thoughts
For engineers: Don't just focus on what you know. Focus on how you've grown. Be ready to talk about real problems you've solved, how you've supported your team, and the impact you've made.
For hiring managers: The best teams aren't built by hiring the smartest person in the room. They're built by hiring people who make the whole room better.