Who is stopping you from getting the DevOps/SRE offer? Perspective from the hiring manager interview
Summary
TLDRThe speaker shares insights on the hiring process for DevOps and SRE roles, emphasizing the key stages where candidates may face challenges. They explain that while recruiters and hiring managers play an important role, the most significant hurdle often comes during technical interviews with senior engineers. These engineers, who seek highly skilled candidates to minimize training efforts, ask tough technical questions related to system design, coding (e.g., Terraform, Jenkins, Ansible), and cloud infrastructure. Preparing thoroughly for these technical interviews is crucial to advancing and securing a job offer.
Takeaways
- 👨💼 The speaker has over five years of experience as an operations/SRE manager, with a successful track record of retaining employees.
- 📊 During their management tenure, they have interviewed around 20 people and personally been interviewed for DevOps and SRE roles multiple times over the last 7-8 years.
- 🔍 Recruiters are incentivized to push candidates through to the hiring manager, so candidates are rarely denied at the recruiter stage.
- 📉 Once a candidate reaches the hiring manager, there's about a 50-60% chance of moving to the next stage, as hiring managers are often eager to fill open positions.
- 🧠 Hiring managers may ask a mix of technical and non-technical questions, but the toughest hurdle is the technical interview with senior engineers.
- 🛠️ Senior engineers prioritize hiring candidates who are technically strong and require minimal training, so they are the most likely to prevent candidates from receiving an offer.
- 💻 Candidates should focus on preparing for technical interviews, which may involve topics such as coding in Terraform, system design, Ansible, Jenkins, CI/CD pipelines, or cloud services like AWS or GCP.
- 🤖 The senior engineer interview often includes scenario-based questions that are relevant to the company’s current challenges.
- ⚠️ Candidates should not overly stress about the recruiter or hiring manager; the key challenge is the technical interview with senior engineers.
- 👍 The speaker emphasizes the importance of preparing thoroughly for the technical interview, as it is the main barrier to receiving an offer.
Q & A
What is the speaker's experience in DevOps and SRE roles?
-The speaker has over five years of experience as an operations/SRE manager, managing around 27-28 people during that time, and only losing one person to attrition.
How many people has the speaker interviewed for DevOps or SRE positions?
-The speaker has interviewed around 20 people for DevOps or SRE roles.
What role do recruiters play in the interview process according to the speaker?
-Recruiters, whether internal or external, aim to move candidates forward in the process because they are incentivized by getting candidates through to the hiring manager.
What is the significance of making it to the hiring manager stage?
-Making it to the hiring manager stage means that the candidate has a 50-60% chance of moving forward, as hiring managers are often eager to fill positions that have been approved after a delay.
Why is the technical interview with senior engineers crucial in this process?
-The technical interview with senior engineers is crucial because they have a vested interest in hiring someone who already has the skills, as they want to minimize the time spent on training and knowledge transfer.
What types of technical questions can candidates expect during the interview with senior engineers?
-Candidates can expect coding interviews on tools like Terraform, system design interviews, or a combination of questions about tools such as Ansible, Jenkins, CI/CD pipelines, cloud platforms like AWS or GCP, and company-specific scenarios.
Who is most likely responsible for stopping candidates from getting an offer?
-The senior engineers conducting the technical interview are most likely responsible for stopping candidates from getting an offer if they do not perform well.
What should candidates focus on when preparing for an interview for a DevOps/SRE position?
-Candidates should focus on preparing for the technical interview with senior engineers, as this is the most critical part of the process and the biggest hurdle in securing an offer.
Does the speaker suggest that candidates should worry about the recruiter or hiring manager interviews?
-No, the speaker suggests that candidates should not stress too much about the recruiter or hiring manager interviews. The technical interview with senior engineers is where the real challenge lies.
What is the speaker’s main message in this video?
-The main message is that candidates should focus their preparation on the technical interview with senior engineers, as this is the stage that most often determines whether they receive an offer.
Outlines
🎤 Introduction and Personal Experience in DevOps/SRE
The speaker introduces themselves, sharing their background in DevOps and SRE. They have over five years of experience as an operations/SRE manager, managing around 27-28 people with only one person leaving during that time. They have also interviewed many candidates and been through multiple interviews for DevOps and SRE roles over the past seven to eight years. This introduction establishes their credibility and sets the stage for discussing the interview process.
🤔 Understanding the Interview Process: From Recruiter to Hiring Manager
The speaker explains the typical interview process for a DevOps/SRE role. After a recruiter forwards a resume to the hiring manager, the candidate's chances of advancing are around 50-60% if their qualifications align with the role. Recruiters are incentivized to push candidates forward, so rejection usually doesn't happen at this stage unless the candidate's resume is a poor fit. The speaker emphasizes that hiring managers are often eager to fill the role since it may have taken time to get approval.
🧠 The Importance of Technical Interviews with Senior Engineers
The speaker highlights the significance of the technical interview with senior engineers. While the initial interview with the hiring manager may include some non-technical questions, the real challenge comes in the technical interview. Senior engineers are highly motivated to hire competent candidates who require minimal training and can quickly integrate into the team. They ask tough, detailed technical questions, and their judgment often determines whether the candidate moves forward or is rejected.
💡 Key Takeaway: Focus on Preparing for the Technical Interview
The main message of the video is clear: candidates should focus their preparation on the technical interview with senior engineers. The speaker explains that this is where most candidates fail to advance. They advise preparing for potential coding tasks (e.g., Terraform, Ansible, Jenkins, or CI/CD pipelines), system design questions, and cloud-related challenges (e.g., AWS, GCP). The speaker reassures candidates not to worry about recruiters or hiring managers, as the senior engineer interview is the primary hurdle.
📢 Conclusion: Final Thoughts and Call to Action
The speaker wraps up the video by reiterating the importance of the technical interview in securing a DevOps/SRE position. They encourage viewers to focus on their technical preparation and thank them for watching. In conclusion, the speaker asks viewers to like and subscribe to their channel, as it helps with YouTube's algorithm, and expresses their hope that the video was helpful.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡DevOps
💡SRE (Site Reliability Engineering)
💡Recruiter
💡Hiring Manager
💡Technical Interview
💡Panel Interview
💡Senior Engineer
💡Coding Interview
💡System Design Interview
💡Attrition
Highlights
The speaker has over five years of experience as a DevOps/SRE manager and has managed around 27-28 people, with only one person leaving the team during this time.
The speaker has conducted interviews for DevOps and SRE positions and has been interviewed several times for similar roles over the past seven to eight years.
The hiring process begins when a recruiter presents the candidate’s resume to the hiring manager, and the recruiter’s goal is to pass as many candidates as possible to the hiring manager.
If a candidate reaches the hiring manager, there's a 50-60% chance they will progress further, as the hiring manager is often eager to fill the position.
The hiring manager interview often consists of both technical and non-technical questions. If successful, the candidate will likely proceed to a panel or serial interview with senior engineers.
Senior engineers are key decision-makers in the hiring process, as they have a vested interest in hiring someone who is already skilled and requires minimal training.
Senior engineers ask tough technical questions and are the ones most likely to stop a candidate from receiving an offer.
Candidates should focus less on impressing the recruiter or hiring manager and more on preparing for the technical interview with senior engineers.
The technical interview may involve questions about coding (e.g., Terraform), system design, or specific tools like Ansible, Jenkins, and CICD pipelines.
Questions may also cover cloud platforms like AWS or GCP, or real-life scenarios the company has faced.
The speaker emphasizes that the senior engineer interview is the most critical part of the hiring process for DevOps and SRE roles.
The speaker advises viewers to concentrate their preparation on technical areas relevant to the senior engineers’ expectations.
The speaker shares insights from personal experience, having seen multiple interviews and hiring decisions over their career.
Understanding the structure and focus of the interview process is essential to succeed, particularly in the technical rounds.
The speaker wraps up by reminding viewers that preparation for senior engineer interviews should be their top priority when aiming for a DevOps/SRE position.
Transcripts
hello everyone today I'm going to talk
to you about interviewing for devops SRA
position so just in my my background
I've been in operation slash SRE manager
uh for a good five years plus
um I've had about 27 or 28 people work
for me in those five years and in those
years I've only lost one person to three
attrition in in those five years so
basically only one person has quit on me
uh I the whole time that I've been a
manager for either devops SRE or
operations manager in general uh in the
process I have interviewed a good 20
people uh and I myself have been
interviewed for devops and SRE roles
several times in the last uh good seven
eight years so those are my experiences
that
um tells you where I'm coming from I
wanted to tell you uh today what is the
most likely reason uh or we're in the
process you are getting denied an offer
uh the answer may surprise you so the
way the process works is once a
recruiter either internal or external
places the resume into the hands of a
hiring manager the hiring manual takes a
lot like the resume if he or she sees
what their he or she likes then you get
an interview with the hiring manager
generally when you talk to the recruiter
they're paid based on how many people
they can actually move up so their
incentive is to push you up the channel
to the hiring manager so they almost
never deny you in an interview with with
hiring manager unless your resume or
your experience doesn't really match
what they're looking for now once you
have
um made it to the hiring manager your
chances are probably around 50 60 to get
to the next level Because by the time
you get to the hiring manager he's
probably been trying to get this
position filled for a while it was
probably wasn't approved for months and
finally it's approved finally the
recruiters got you got somebody that
could potentially hire so he's actually
eager to hire somebody like you unless
you fail the interview with the hiring
manager where you might get a mix of
non-technical and non-technical
questions he will probably pass you on
to a panel interview either with maybe
two or three engine senior Engineers or
serial interviews basically you can have
one after another maybe two or three
senior engineers in the company
generally speaking non-engineered
interviews are not hard they probably
passing on passing you on so you will
get interviewed by one or more senior
Engineers senior sres
chances are this these sres have a
vested interest to hiring somebody
really good because they're not they
don't want to spend time they want to
spend as little time possible training
and coaching you and giving you the
tribal knowledge that that they have in
the company so their interest is it is
in in in hiring somebody who's already
good right so when you go to the
interview they're the ones who who are
going to ask you the tough technical
questions and they're the ones who are
going to stop you from getting an offer
so just so you know how this process
works right once you pass this the
interviews with the Senate Engineers you
come back to the hiring manager probably
or or the director who who the survey
manager reports to so my point of this
video today is you're you you should not
stress too much about the recruiter you
should not stress so much about the
hiring manager your job is to get ready
for this interview to technical
interview with the senior manager
married maybe it's a coding interview
for terraform or what have you or maybe
it's a system design interview or maybe
it's a combination of all those things
maybe some ansible maybe some terraform
maybe some
um Jenkins or maybe some cicd pipeline
questions maybe some Cloud question with
AWS or DCP whichever one they happen to
use or some scenario questions that may
have come up in their company already so
again the the whole point of this video
is to let you know that you should be
preparing for the senior engineer
technical interview that's where you're
getting stuck that's who is stopping you
from getting an offer as a junior or
even a senior devops SRE engineer so I
hope this video has been useful to you
and if you did please like And subscribe
and that really helps me with me with
the YouTube algorithm and I will see you
in the next video
foreign
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