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222. What Employers Look For When Hiring Developers · DevQuestions with Tim Corey

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: Employers are looking for some very specific things from you as a software developer when they review your resume and portfolio.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_01: Too often, I've seen candidates not understand this.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_01: And if you don't understand what employers are looking for, you're not going to hit their target unless it's by accident.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_01: Let's review what employers are looking for so that you can be more successful.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Dev Questions podcast with Tim Corey.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_01: Software development is more than just about writing code.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_01: So let's talk about the rest of it.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_01: Specifically, let's talk about what employers are looking for when they hire a software developer.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_01: Now, there are four things that employers will look for during the hiring process.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_01: Let's talk about them in order.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_01: And number one, really usually as an HR decision, which is human resources or the hiring manager that's not the non-technical manager, they're going to say, does this candidate match the job description?
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so they're just looking at your resume, maybe your portfolio, but usually your resume, and comparing that to the job description.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_01: They're going to try and match those two and get a percentage match.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_01: Like how closely do they match what we've asked for?
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_01: They often don't understand the role or jargon.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_01: So when they ask for a specific thing, they just know, oh, JavaScript, five years, I need to look for JavaScript and how many years of experience.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_01: They don't know what that really means.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_01: Not often.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_01: So sometimes an ATS is used.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_01: So an applicant tracking system where it's going to do an automated comparison, which really doesn't take into account a lot of those things, like one word versus another.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_01: For example, it might not know that C sharp is.NET or that.NET can mean C sharp.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_01: So you may have on your resume, hey, I'm a.NET developer, when they're looking for a C sharp developer, and they might not think that those two things match up.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_01: Or they may ask for a web developer, and you may say, I've got 10 years of experience in HTML and CSS, but they ask for a web developer.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_01: Well, yeah, those two things are really the same, but they don't necessarily know that.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_01: And so you want to make sure that when you are thinking through step one, just getting in the door, that you have a close match.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_01: This is why, and people don't love to hear this, but you need to hear this, is that I encourage you to tailor your resume to the job posting.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, that means you slow down.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, that means you can't apply to a hundred jobs in an hour.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_01: But what you're doing is you're standing out among the crowd.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_01: Because you say, oh, they asked for a.NET developer for five years experience in.NET development.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_01: I've done C sharp for eight years experience or yeah, of experience.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm going to say that I was a.NET developer for eight years.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_01: Is that true?
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_01: Is it closer of a match to what the job description asked for?
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely, as well.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_01: So you're making sure that those things match more closely.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe you have a lot of experience that doesn't really apply.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_01: And so you kind of filter that out so you put more prominently the things they're asking for rather than just this shotgun blast of everything you've ever done.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_01: So thinking through what HR is asking for and what they're going to look for is important to helping you hit that first target.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_01: But that's just the first target.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_01: Target number two is can the candidate do the job?
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_01: This is usually after you've gotten through the HR process and you're being looked at by the actual technical manager.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_01: Now, you may not have heard from the company yet.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_01: You may not know this is what's happening, but it's often what happens.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_01: First, HR kind of filters out the ones they don't think apply.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_01: And then they pass that on to a manager who is technical and they can review those candidates.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_01: So can the candidate do the job?
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_01: That's the question the technical manager is going to ask.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, uncertainty is as good as a no.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_01: So if they're not sure, they're probably not going to go any further.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_01: Remember that, yes, there are dozens, if not hundreds, of people applying for a position.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_01: And you may have the best skills out of all of them.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_01: But if you don't show that off and they're not sure, and they feel like they are sure of somebody else, they're going to go with them.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_01: So when you think about your resume, when you think about your portfolio, you want to be sure that you don't leave any uncertainty in their mind of whether or not you can do the job.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_01: So standing out in some way is important.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_01: And this is where this step particularly is where being known helps.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_01: And the reason why is because when a hiring manager looks at your resume and portfolio, that's often all they know about.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_01: And so if your resume isn't clear, and if it's not showing them exactly who you are and how you could be a perfect fit for this job, and if your portfolio isn't backing that up and showing them that yes, you can do a job well, well, what else do they have to go on?
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_01: Nothing.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_01: But if they know you, then they may have more information or at least a better feeling about who you are as a developer.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe your resume isn't real clear, but they know that you've been working in.NET for 10 years.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_01: And so they know that even if they don't necessarily see that in your resume.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_01: And this is where that knowledge, that extra knowledge, can really help move you on to the next step.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_01: I would encourage you not to rely on just this, but every little bit of help is important.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_01: So in step number two, you want to be clear that you can do the job.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_01: So what does that mean?
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_01: It means showing the user, showing the person reading your resume that you've done what they're asking you to do.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_01: I see that your portfolio is a huge part of this.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_01: Because when I see people that say five years experience in C Sharp, great, but what does that mean?
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_01: I don't really know because how do I judge?
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_01: Are you have you been a junior developer for five years?
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_01: Have you done the same things over and over again for five years?
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_01: Or have you really been innovative?
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_01: Have you built new things?
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_01: Have you uh conquered new challenges?
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_01: Have you done some really cool stuff with C Sharp?
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know just by five years' experience in C Sharp.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_01: And those little anecdotes you put under every job, like increase productivity by 15%, they can be decent, but they're still not going to be as clear at what you can do as when you say, I've worked in C for five years, and here are just some of the things that I can do with C sharp and show them working applications, really good source code, things that you have recently built that show off your skills.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_01: Let them see that you can do the job that they're asking you to do.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_01: Prove to them that you would be someone who could do the job.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_01: That's number two in the review process.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_01: Next up, though, is number three.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_01: Is this candidate one of the best in the pool?
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_01: Because yes, this is a competition game.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_01: It's a comparison.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_01: Your resume and portfolio are the only are often the only things they've they use.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_01: And so you need to figure out how to stand out among that crowd.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_01: Hire managers have finite resources for interviews.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_01: They can't interview 300 people for a position.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_01: So they figure out which ones are probably the best, which ones stand out as they've got something that I might want.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_01: And the way to do that, going back to step number two, if you show them clearly you can do a job, you stand out.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_01: Because if you saw two resumes and resume portfolio bundles, and you saw one resume that says five years experience in C sharp, and you saw a second one that says five years experience in C sharp, how would you pick?
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_01: If you only pick one to talk to, because we're talking about scale here, so we're talking about C 10 versus the 300.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_01: But how would you compare those two?
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_01: Well, you've got to have something more to compare on.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_01: That's where you can really stand out with a portfolio.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_01: Because your portfolio shows them what you can do with those five years of experience.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_01: It shows them that maybe you don't have a lot of years of experience paid in C Sharp, but you can build some awesome things.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_01: You stand out among the crowd.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_01: And you want to stand out so that you are one of the best in the pool.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_01: So they want to talk to you.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_01: Now, this is typically where they have the conversation with you or multiple conversations, and you need to work through how do I continue to show you that I can do the job.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_01: Even in the nice to have categories of the job posting.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_01: But when you're comparing multiple people that could all do the job, how do you make a decision?
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_01: Well, it's based upon extras.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_01: If they could all do a job, well, which one brings the most to the table?
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_01: And sure, there may be one person that's done this for 20 years and they really stand out compared to you doing it for five years.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, there's not much you can do there, but more often it comes down to there's a few people that probably could do a job, and the hiring manager has to make a choice on which one is best suited for the role.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_01: Having additional skills means that they're not gonna have to pay someone to learn that thing.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_01: You come in with that extra.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_01: It allows for growth in the department for free.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_01: You know, because if you come in with, let's just say, SQL skills, and they don't really have a person who is a full-time uh SQL developer, and so they need that work.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_01: They didn't necessarily list it, but that'd be really helpful.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_01: Well, if you come in and say, hey, I've got those two, well, that's a nice bonus.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_01: And so they could improve the department, improve their ability to store things in databases well, because you bring that skill to the table.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_01: Now all of a sudden you're more valuable than just what you bring to the table with your primary skills.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_01: And sometimes these secondary things become the primary deciding factor.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_01: Again, if you're comparing multiple people that are close, these additional things can help push you over, which means that, yes, maybe you're applying for a job that, let's say that they're working in.NET framework.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_01: It's a pretty common thing still, where you're working on an MVC application and.NET framework, and you show off that you can do MVC and you've got skills in C sharp and so on.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_01: But then you also show you have skills in SQL and in.NET, the.NET Core version, the latest one, with Blazor.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_01: Well, do they need that right now?
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_01: No, but what you're showing them is, hey, I've got the skills to help you move forward.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_01: I've got the skills to help you progress your application out of.NET framework into a more modern framework.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_01: I can help you there.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_01: And they look at that and go, ooh, that could be something that could help me, even though they're not asking for Blazor or.NET or even SQL.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_01: Having those skills in your resume that are kind of related, that might be valuable, can sometimes make the difference when it comes to getting that job.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_01: So, what do you need to do in order to have the best chance of success when you're applying for a job?
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_01: Number one, customize that resume to the job posting.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_01: It's really important because that's what helps you get through the first round.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_01: You might say, Tim, I'm not gonna do that.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_01: I'm just gonna apply at 300 jobs and hope they get back to me.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_01: Well, my question to you is how's that working for you?
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_01: Is it really giving you a great return on investment?
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_01: And if it is, great.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_01: If you're having interviews with 90, 100 companies out of 300, great.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_01: But if you're getting three or four callbacks, maybe change something.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_01: And by change something, I mean change your resume to the job postings.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_01: Try it and see if you don't have a different level of success.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_01: Number two, have a clean, simple resume.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_01: Clutter kills.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_01: So if you have a resume that's multiple pages, I I've had resumes come in that I would keep count of the largest number of pages, and they come in 16, 18, 20 pages of resume.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_01: Guess what I'm gonna do?
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_01: Not read it all.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, when you give me a 20-page resume, it's almost certain that you go into the no category.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_01: And the reason why is because you can't tell me how you will do this job.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_01: You're just gonna shotgun everything at me and hope that something sticks.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_01: I don't need to read an autobiography.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_01: I'm asking you to tell me how you can do my job and the job I'm posting for.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_01: And if you can't tell me simply and clearly how you can do the job I'm asking you to do, I'm not gonna ask you to do that job.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_01: So having a clean, simple resume.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_01: Don't put paragraphs, put a few bullet points.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_01: Have very clear, focused objectives for your resume.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_01: Make sure it's customized for that job posting.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_01: Make sure that your list of skills isn't 50 or 100 long.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_01: Make it seven.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, don't have it be too long.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_01: Because if you list 30 skills, I can safely assume you don't know half of those more than at a very, very uh small level.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_01: So then I don't know which which one of those you do actually know well.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm gonna ignore all of them.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_01: So have a clean, simple resume.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_01: Number three, have relevant portfolio items to explain your skills.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so your res your portfolio should show off how you can do the job.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_01: That's the whole point of a portfolio.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_01: It's not to show what you did in college.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_01: It's not to show what your buddy did but you added to.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_01: It's not to show how you cloned a repository and did nothing with it.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_01: It's to show off what you can do that is relevant to the job you're applying for.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_01: So make sure that's the case in your portfolio.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_01: And then number four, have solid secondary skills for the position.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_01: Don't just look at the primary things.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_01: Try to have things that are complementary.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_01: So if you're a.NET developer, a C sharp developer, think about web skills.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_01: And think about okay, API and uh Blazor and MVC and Mason Bootstrap and CSS and HTML.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_01: Add those skills and SQL and MongoDB and Azure.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_01: These are all skills that go around C sharp.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_01: And you never know which skill might be the skill that an employer is looking for that they didn't ask for, but they go, ooh, I like that.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_01: And that's going to add something valuable to our department.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_01: So those are my thoughts.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_01: That's what employers are looking for.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_01: Don't just stick your head in the sand and say, oh, it's just a horrible situation.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_01: Change.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_01: Do something different, improve your process, continue to iterate so that you're better and better at interviewing, better and better at applying for jobs, better and better at explaining how you can do the job the employer is asking for.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for listening.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_01: And as always, I am Tim Corey.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for joining us for this episode of Dev Questions.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_00: When you're ready to learn to think and code like a professional developer, head over to IamtimCorey.com and enroll in a course.