This blog will concentrate primarily on the Austin IT staffing scene and from there, I'll branch off to other related topics.
We can never forget that small things do add up and as challenging as the labor markets are for software engineers right now, I simply wanted to share a quick story regarding a question that was asked by a candidate and the great result that was realized from it. It's not spoken about that often but whether it's a formal interview or even a happy hour, walking into any event without any details…
As always, with the continued layoffs going on in the Tech labor markets, I simply wanted to write this post so as to potentially help any senior software engineers that might be looking for a job right now. I continue to catch up with some extremely talented developers who are submitting their applications to 10+ firms but not getting a peep back regarding an introductory interview. Three areas…
I'll be the first to admit to my reading audience that when a software engineer gets very close to a potential offer with a company, yes, it is time to start talking numbers with the executive team and internal recruiters. But I recently had a nice experience with a Hiring Manager here in Austin where I did not disclose any numbers at all for a Developer that I was working with and my words were…
As always, I'm simply sharing an approach that a Senior Software Engineer and I agreed to take with a startup firm here in Austin and it worked out well. Let's call this engineer, Brandon. Talented developer who was recently part of a reduction in force and since he was at a startup, ouch, his severance was just one month so his job search was immediately active. Classic full stack developer with…
As we all very well know, the interviewing process for software engineers is very challenging and you truly do have to be at your best to make it an offer stage. In addition to the technical assessment, candidates are scrutinized from a cultural perspective and dare I say, as difficult as it might be to accept this reality, judgments and impressions are made against the candidates. This is a story…
I completely understand if some of my reading audience gets a bit upset with me regarding this post but this is precisely where my heart is right now. I think about this community every single day and am doing everything I can to help them. It goes without saying that no one will get mentioned in this post but I have been feeling this incredible "itch" to write about the struggling experience that…
My apologies for the pessimistic post but I wanted to write about the critical value of our professional networks and how much it means in our careers to have others speak highly of us. This is the story about a talented senior software engineer that I have had a great history with but three months ago, after securing an introductory interview with a CTO here in Austin, he was declined because of…
It's not spoken enough about the experience that when software engineers are interviewing at a company, both technically and interpersonally, they are having judgments applied to them. Especially in this day of AI, companies are now very much judging software engineers on their ability to "think forward". Throughout most of my career as a recruiter, software engineers were declined because they…
I recently worked with a really talented 26 year old software engineer who was part of a layoff at his latest employer and working with him in his job search, we realized a really special moment and as you can imagine, I just had to write a blog post about it. Let's call him Jared. Jared connected with me via a referral and despite him being a super talented full-stack developer, out of nowhere,…
My post on February 22nd spoke about how software engineering cultures can be significantly compromised when a company undergoes a large layoff. Interestingly enough, this is a story regarding my words of advice to an elite software engineer that I strongly endorsed staying at his employer after they had a sizable reduction in force. Let's call him Mahesh... Mahesh is an incredible developer and…
By no means at all am I critical of the AI movement that our country is realizing right now but I very much wanted to share this story that I experienced a couple of weeks ago. I have to admit that the emergence of AI's influence in our society is truly remarkable. If we do not know of anyone to turn to for advice or insights, we can reach out to Claude. And I have to admit that the insights…
Quality conversations are everything and something that is not spoken about enough is that you always want the absolute, best experience for the other party, especially in these current times. We can feel good about ourselves when we win an argument over someone else but in this particular story, my entire focus was for this top 1% software engineer to make the best offer decision for himself. And…
This post discusses a dynamic that most all of us are familiar with but given I am continuing to both hear it and see it from top 1% software engineers, I felt i just had to write about it. I'm talking about the change in the software engineering culture when there is a layoff and what the remaining engineers are experiencing. So yes, the layoff dynamic is continuing and as a result, the pool of…
I promise that I am not calling this a trend at all but recently, in my engagements with some startup companies both here in Austin and across the US, the CEO's of the firms have been including their Venture Capital Advisors in the interview process. This experience, specifically, has been for senior engineering leadership roles. 95% of the time, the first round interview is with the company's CEO…
This is a classic "observational " post that I wanted to share with the Austin IT community. While this post will be lacking some material insight, at the very least, I am tossing some numbers out there in terms of some offers that have recently been made to high level engineering leadership here in Austin. In the past couple of months, there have been a small handful of startups make offers to…
I'm sure I do not need to remind my reading audience just how challenging the labor markets are for our recent college graduates and yes, this continues to include Computer Science/Computer Engineering graduates. But this story is a nice one and it speaks to a very talented recent graduate who made it to an offer stage with a startup here in Austin. But even when the offer was put on the table,…
My entire motivation for these posts are to simply share experiences that IT professionals have in the labor markets that turn out to be very successful for them.. This story has to do with a strategy that I shared with a senior developer who made it to an offer stage with a startup here in Austin. Let's call her Aanya. Brilliant developer but similar to what a lot of IT professionals have…
I try my best to not be too concerned with all of the podcasts and news stories discussing how much "in person" networking and communication is struggling these days. Influencers of all disciplines these days are talking about how people just don't have the interest or even energy to meet in person anymore. And when they do, so much emphasis is placed on "acting and presenting yourself in a…
As comprehensive as the software engineering interview process is, I still have to hold on to the core fact that 95% of it comes down to the technical assessment. In my experience with technology firms, when the code test is sent out to a software engineer, the hiring manager literally sits back in their chair and waits to see what kind of solution the engineer can present. But that said, a new…
I wanted to write this post primarily on the basis of the fact that with Amazon's recent reduction in force, the candidate pools of IT professionals/Software Engineers on active job searches has, once again, grown significantly. My intent here is for you to simply cross the finish line of an interviewing process and make it to the offer stage. And yes, sadly, I'm continuing to hear from IT…
Quite a few people have been writing about how the quality of Socializing and Networking has decreased significantly over the past few years and while I am primarily an Introvert, I can say that when people spend less time around each other, it can impact how we present ourselves to others, not to mention, how we are perceived by them. This story has to do with a 25 year old talented full stack…
I've written about it many times that when we enter an interviewing process with a company, from a Q&A standpoint, the company will ask a boatload of questions and the software engineers have no other choise but to address all of them in excellent fashion. But if we keep our heads down and deliver in high fashion, we very likely will realize the celebratory moment of arriving at the offer stage.…
I'm continuing to hear from software engineers as well as IT professionals of all disciplines talking to me about companies going quiet on them after 2-3 rounds of interviews. By no means am I saying this is a 100% guaranteed solution but adopting this kind of approach could very well be helpful should you be on an active job search right now. I'm talking about the dynamic of restraining from any…
The reason I hold the Software Engineering profession in such high regard continues to be the large volume of hurdles that they must jump over when interviewing with a company. As we all know, first and foremost is the technical assessment. I have client right now whose interviewing process involved two take home assignments before even coming onsite for the in-person interview. My story here…
These continue to be very interesting times in the IT labor markets. The layoffs are continuing but very quietly, hiring has picked up significantly. And this includes both Big Tech firms as well as the startup communities in the Bay Area, Austin, Texas as well as New York City. What's interesting in the current labor markets is that even unemployed software engineers are beginning to get more…