Being a job interviewer👩🏻‍💻

  • I got a chance to do a job interview as an interviewer for the first time! This is both exciting and nerve-wracking. For some context, the candidate already went through 2 rounds of interviews. The last one joined by 2 product managers and myself were to evaluate whether the candidate would gel with the team culture and be a good fit in a leadership role. Unfortunately, my design mentor had a fever that day and wasn’t able to join the call. Meaning I ended up being the sole designer of the team.
  • I am honestly VERY grateful to have this opportunity being on the other side of the room (figuratively speaking because it was a remote meeting). During our debrief session, one of my mentors gave me advice on what to look for in our candidate. Soft skills such as being able to express complex ideas into simple words and being able to have difficult, transparent discussions amongst colleagues go beyond technical proficiency. Some more hidden skills like being able to interpret team dynamic and being able to take the lead OR take a step back are equally important.
  • Happy that the interview went well and I also got some positive feedback from the team. I was involved with asking questions and giving evaluation on the candidate. It’s a huge learning curve after all and I remember second-guessing myself during our evaluation meeting. When my imposter syndrome kicks in, I would usually say “Well I think blah blah blah, but take my words with a grain of salt”. My biggest takeaway is that despite being a junior, I should OWN my role and believe that I can contribute to the team.

What did I do this week?

  • Other than the job interview, I joined a lot of our weekly UX meeting, delivery meetings, stand-ups, breakout sessions and backlog grooming meetings. I got to do a deep dive into understanding SEO and our quarterly product roadmap.
  • When in doubt, I jotted down my questions and asked my mentor questions during our 1:1 meetings.
  • I also completed by my 2 warm up tasks which involved adjusting some of our application function and sending it out to developers for update. Excited for the next several weeks to come!

Weekly meeting with the lovely Vancouver UX team!
1:1 meeting with mentor (screen blurred for confidential info)
Slack chat screenshot. Yay Thursdays are my Fridays