Interviewing at a Small Company

Steven Petryk

Who am I?

Steven Petryk

Full-Stack Developer

Teeps

Why small companies?

• Closely-knit team
• Fast-paced work
• Know the whole hierarchy
• Usually little or no hierarchy
• Easy to contribute

The Spectrum

Highly "chatty"

No technical assessment

No collab (bro?)

Too specific w/ tech

Ideal Zone™

Interview #goals

• Determining skill
• Determining culture
• Figuring out collaborative talent
• Identifying potential disqualifiers
• Provide a learning experience
• Seeking unanimous approval from the team

Testing dev skills

• Simulate real development
  • "Build a RESTful API that can be used to create todos and mark them as complete."
• Highly collaborative
• Freedom to Google
• Freedom to ask questions
• Choice of toolchain
• (Severe anxiety is expected here)

Culture fit

• Far more subjective
• Determining like-mindedness to team
• Be aware of bias due to:
  • Gender
  • Race
  • Perceived wealth
  • Appearance
  • Anxiety

Collaborative tact

• Mainly a test of humility
• Willingness to ask for help
• Types of questions asked
• Ability to take respond to advice

Potential disqualifiers

• Shit-talking former jobs/employers
• Objectifying women in the office
  • Yes, this really has happened.
• Externalizing failures
• Lack of social skills

Note that anxiety is not on this list.

How this applies to you

• Expect questions about your process
• Show, don't tell
• Don't sweat anxiety (but sweating is okay)
• Be kind and humble to everyone you meet

Thanks.