Understanding how to identify a good manager

(Photo credit @mariogogh)

One piece of advice for job seekers that is often repeated: look for a good manager and they will help move you along your career faster. But there is a lot less advice on *how* to identify a good manager during the interview process! And even if your manager is good, are they able to function effectively in the workplace you’re joining, and will you also be able to? As an interviewee, you need to assess both the workplace culture *and* your future manager to ensure a good fit. 

Here are 3 tips on how to assess both during the interview: 

1. Understand what type of management style helps YOU thrive in a job. 

   • Are you someone who likes to be autonomous or be guided? Do you enjoy supportive bosses or ones who challenge you to achieve? Do you like to be publicly recognized for your achievements or quietly with flowers or stock refresh grants?

   • One person’s favorite boss can be another’s worst nightmare -- because we all have different work styles and preferences. Make sure to know yours to help you evaluate for fit. 

2. Ask your prospective manager questions that force them to respond with specific examples of interactions between themselves and someone on the team. 

   • Here are 3 good questions to ask initially (with good explanations for each one found here). I like these because they help you understand how the manager interacts with the entire team as well as individuals on the team.

     • Tell me about a time when a team member changed your mind. 

     • Describe a recent success or win. 

     • Tell me about the last person you recognized. 

   • Try to push past the surface-level cheerleading or obfuscation that some interviewers do. If the interviewer can’t or won’t answer these 3 questions directly, it’s likely that they have not received a lot of management coaching themselves -- so be wary. Here are a few additional tips to identify a potentially toxic manager.

3. Ask all of your interviewers questions geared towards understanding the work environment on a day-to-day basis.

   • You want to identify a work culture that values psychological safety to help you and your team be as successful as you all can be. Research at Google showed that psychological safety was the number one predictor of success for high-performing teams. And many companies are adept at plastering platitudes all over the place, but how do those values play out on a daily basis on your future team/department?

   • Here are some sample questions from HBR to ask your interviewees to help you assess the workplace culture: 

     • Can you tell me about a time when your teammates and your manager had your back during a project? 

     • How often do people in the organization apologize to one another? 

     • Can you tell me how your company encourages individuals and teams to recognize one another for achievements large and small? 

     • Do people with diverse backgrounds work at every level of your company?

     • How did you (or your manager) start your last team meeting? What happens during the first 5-10 minutes?

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WANT A CAREER IN TECH BUT AREN’T SURE WHERE TO START? TAKE A LOOK AT MY COURSE, ‘TECH SEARCH COMPASS’ FOR STEP-BY-STEP SUPPORT

What is the purpose of a recruiter phone screen

(Photo credit @quinoal)

1. What is the purpose of a recruiter phone screen in the interview process?

   1. I have been getting so many questions on this topic lately! And I’ll admit - it can be confusing because there are multiple reasons that a recruiter may schedule a phone screen. Unless they are very clear about their goal for the call, you should prepare for each of these scenarios. 

   2. Here are 4 typical recruiter screen scenarios and how you can prepare for each. 

      1. Screen you OUT

         • Recruiter Goal: The recruiter likely already has many great potential candidates in their pipeline, and is not sure you should be included too. They did see something of interest in your resume so they are giving you the opportunity to prove you are worth moving forward to the next round.

         • How to prepare: Identify the major gaps in your background as compared with the role, and develop STAR stories to address those gaps. Ensure you have really good answers to the basic questions

      2. Screen you IN

         • Recruiter Goal: The recruiter is often trying to “sell” you in this scenario - either on a different role or team or on the company itself. Maybe you applied to Role A at the company and they are asking you to consider Role B instead. Maybe they got your resume from a resume book and reached out to invite you to apply. 

         • How to prepare: Aim to review the Role B description in advance of the call, so you know how it aligns with your career goals. 

      3. Doing a favor for someone internal

         • Recruiter Goal: This one can be tricky. If your referral is someone senior within the organization, many recruiters like to do a call to assess your fit. Sometimes you aren’t a fit at all - but the call placates the referral as referrals are a vital way for organizations to find talent. Sometimes, you’re a great fit, so the recruiter wants to speak with you to help give you additional guidance on how to be successful in the later process.

         • How to prepare: Again, tricky. I would advise assuming it’s a ‘screen you out’ call and do your best to impress the recruiter -- but keep your ear open to see if they are trying to sell you. Your strategy could flip instantly!

      4. The Slow Play

         • Recruiter Goal: The ‘slow play’ happens when a recruiter is interested in your profile but may not be quite ready to interview you. Sometimes that means you fall into a ‘good for company X’ bucket but aren’t aligned to a current open role. Or you are aligned to a role but the team is just a few weeks or months away from starting to interview. 

         • How to prepare: Treat this one like both the ‘Screen you in’ and the ‘Screen you out’ scenarios. You want to highlight your strengths and your overall fit for the organization. 

   3. Pro Tip: For all scenarios, ensure that you have really good answers to these 4 basic questions as recruiters love to ask all of them! 

      1. Tell me about yourself. 

      2. Why this role/team/department?

      3. Why this company?

      4. What is your salary expectation range?

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WANT A CAREER IN TECH BUT AREN’T SURE WHERE TO START? TAKE A LOOK AT MY COURSE, ‘TECH SEARCH COMPASS’ FOR STEP-BY-STEP SUPPORT

How to Create a Custom Tech Interview Prep Guide

(Photo credit @kaitlynbaker)

One of the most common questions I hear from early to mid-career job seekers in tech: how do I know what to prepare for in my upcoming interview? 

It's understandable that this may be confusing, as some hiring managers add unnecessary complications to the interview process. But most of them are thinking strategically about how to best assess your experience and your potential (as we’ve discussed before) and will develop questions in advance as well as in the interview itself. 

Let me share with you one preparation tip that has made the difference for many of the candidates I've worked with over the years. I had one client tell me recently that using this strategy gave him the exact questions he was asked in his interview! 

🔥  Hot Tip: Use the bullets of the job description to create a highly customized set of practice interview question prompts. 🔥

You should take each bullet and turn it into two types of interview question prompts: “Tell me about a time you did…” and “Tell me about how you would approach doing…”

• Let’s take a look at a sample job description: SoFi Business Operations + Strategy Manager

  • Bullet: “Evaluate and help optimize the operations of the Member Business Unit and related cross-functional initiatives”

    • Interview Q1: “Tell me about a time that you evaluated and helped optimize the operations of a business unit and/or cross-functional initiative.”

    • Interview Q2: “Tell me how you would approach evaluating and helping optimize the operations of a business unit and/or cross-functional initiative.” 

Why is this approach so powerful?

• Q1 offers you a chance to tell the interviewer about your experience executing on a similar project. It’s also highly specific to this job (not just a generic ‘tell me about a time that you optimized a project’). 

• Whereas if you don’t have that experience, Q2 offers you a chance to tell an interviewer about semi-related experiences and/or your approach to solving a similar problem. Tech is a fast-paced & ever-changing industry so if you can show that you are always thinking ahead about how you’d solve problems you haven’t faced yet, you are demonstrating a highly valued skill set!

Note: Most interviewees don’t take the time to consider the Q2-type questions -- so you’ll be way ahead of the other candidates if you use this tip to prepare!  And as you become more experienced, you can also use the job description to create custom practice hypothetical/case questions to practice. 

💡  I've found that with this approach, candidates report back that they felt prepared for around 80% of the interview questions asked! But as it's hard to be completely prescient, the remaining 20% allows for the random vagaries of the interview process (i.e. interviewer creativity, random/specific questions for a candidate's individual background, the waxing and waning of the full moon, etc). 😉

Remember: Interviews aren’t supposed to be a ‘gotcha’ situation - they are supposed to evaluate your fit for a position across multiple dimensions so you can join the company & help them solve problems. This tip will help you strategically prepare for a good interview experience. Good luck!! 

Let me know in the comments if you have used this strategy and how it turned out! Need help with preparing for an upcoming interview? Send me a note here: digitalorchards.com/contact

This post was originally shared on December 14, 2020 and was updated on November 22, 2022.

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