Closing the Hiring Manager Interview for Apps Developers

Welcome to the Interview Loop series where we go over each step of your interview loop.

• Intro to the Apps Developer Interview Loop
• Initial Phone Screen
• Technical Phone Screen
• The Coding Exercise
• The Algorithm Interview
• The System Designs Interview
• The App Specialty Interview
• The Hiring Manager Closing Interview

Remember, while some job interviews may include all these sessions, others might involve a subset. Prepare accordingly.

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If you’ve made it this far, there’s a good chance the company’s interested in you. You’ve also done all the hard technical work and it’s time to meet with your future boss or a higher up. He (or she) can be an engineering manager, a director, a CTO or even a CEO.

The Hiring Manager interview is usually your final step before an offer and tend to focus on behavioral questions, cultural fit, career aspirations and collaboration skills. He/She

Leave your technical hat aside and be ready to present your best self.

Behavioral questions

Hiring Managers seek to understand your teamwork, conflict resolution, leadership, adaptability and motivation.

Here are common questions you can expect:

• “Tell me about a time you faced a significant challenge at work. How did you handle it?”
• “Describe a situation where you had to work with a difficult team member. How did you manage it?”

In case it’s not obvious, you’re expected to deal gracefully with this type of situations, so try to recall the good stories, not the bad ones.

Cultural fit

Cultural fit is unique to each company. It’s about how they operate internally and what values drive their organization. Many companies from medium to large will simply publish their company culture online so do a bit of research, read it, and if you feel like you’re a fit for it, make sure you bring that up during the interview. Talk about how you align with these values.

Many early stage startups on the other hand don’t have time to publish their company culture, and that’s ok. Early stage startups are focused on getting a product to market and some initial traction. This usually means more of a grind mentality and doing everything that’s needed to get their company past the initial critical phase of starting a business. Applying for an early stage startup job means that you should be ok with long hours and working beyond of the scope of your skills. This can be exciting for some who want to thrive off their work and learn a ton of stuff quickly. Other are turned off by it. Try to know ahead of time what you’re getting into.

Career aspirations and motivation

Hiring Managers like to discuss your career aspirations and motivations. What is it that drives you? What are you hoping to grow into later on?

Always prepare for this type of questions so you can come up with a quality answer rather than responding on the spot. “I don’t know” is to common of an answer and usually doesn’t get you any hiring points with the company.

Here are a couple questions you should know to answer ahead of the interview:

• “Where do you see yourself in five years?”
• “Why did you specialize in X?”
• “What motivates you to do your best work?”

Collaboration and leadership

While you may not be applying for a leadership role, companies usually prefer candidates who can grow into it over the ones who can’t.

The Hiring Manager will want to hear about experiences where collaboration led to success. He’ll also want to know what your preferred working style is and how you adapt to different team environment. Extra points to you if you can display some level of flexibility.

Couple questions you should expect:

• “Can you give an example of a successful team project you were part of?”
• “How do you handle disagreements within a team?”

The Final Touch

Now that you know what to expect, there’s a couple more things you should think of for this interview.

Firstly, your communications, professionalism and authenticity are extremely important at this stage. Be clear, concise and articulate. Show up in time. Be an active listener. And always be honest in your responses. You want to make sure you confidently talk about your achievements without being overbearing.

Secondly, one of the most powerful tools you have to maximize your chances at getting an offer is in the follow-up. Always send a thank-you email after the interview and reiterate your interest in the role, and reflect on a point discussed during the interview. Feel free to also mention additional information you might have forgotten to bring up during the interview.

If you check all these boxes, there’s a good chance an offer will be coming your way!

What’s next?

This is the end of this guide on the Interview Loop for Apps Developers, but the beginning of your journey as an interview crusher!

Interviewing for apps developer position can be a bit of a number game. Always make sure to apply to many positions at the same time so you can ensure you have maximum chances of landing something.

You also want to make sure you have as many offers lined up as possible. In a future series, we’ll go over negotiation tactics- but the short of it is that having multiple offers gives you leverage and lets you pick your preferred position with the highest pay possible.

You can also check out our free guide on finding high pay jobs as an apps developer. This is all about your positioning, online presence, and finding backchannels to apply to maximize your chances of getting a job.

Good luck in what’s next and feel free to reach out if you have any questions!