Nothing is more exciting than getting a first interview for a new company. Maybe the company is one you’ve always admired, or it could be an exciting company you recently heard about.
As with many bootcamp students and early career software engineers, your experiences may be similar. With such a large pool of similar candidates, how can you stand out and ace your software engineering elevator pitch?
Why Does Everyone Sound the Same?
Many software engineering bootcamps follow the same learning formula and curriculum. This is not because bootcamps are lazy or unimaginative. They’re similar because of the standard course material and progression work.
1. You must understand coding and syntax basics before moving to front-end design.
2. You need to understand how to consume an API on the front end before you can build APIs on the back end.
3. Each layer builds on the previous layer, so having similar topic progressions is necessary to make learning to code work.
Beyond a bootcamp, many early career opportunities will be similar. There are many front-end-focused jobs for early career developers because they require the least amount of deep computer science knowledge.
If you’ve only been coding for a year, you have probably edited website designs, maybe built some modules, and potentially built out a serializer and endpoint to support work on the front end.
Again, these are fundamental tasks required to become an experienced developer. If everyone is doing the same thing, how do you stand out? You must be able to differentiate yourself through a unique elevator pitch.
What are the Parts of an Elevator Pitch?
Don’t worry if you’ve never heard of an elevator pitch before. The term may not be common outside of interviewing, but if you have ever caught up with a friend, neighbor, or relative, then you have practiced some version of an elevator pitch.
Xometry defines an elevator pitch as “a succinct way to explain one’s goals and skills and why they stand out from the crowd.”
Elevator pitches are a way to answer the questions of who you are, where you see yourself in the future, and why you fit a position, team, or company. There are a few base questions you should always address. These questions include:
• Who you are
• Where do you want to go
• Your skills, accomplishments, and experiences
Who you are could include current positions held and related education. Often, this may come as a reference to what college you attended and the degree you earned.
The next part is where you want to go. This should include some tie-in with the position you are applying for. If you are a recent bootcamp graduate applying to a front-end position, you would want to talk about a desire or interest in creating user interfaces and overall great experiences for users. It would help if you mentioned how this overlaps with the company’s product or focus.
The last question you should answer is why you are a good fit for the role. This should include your bootcamp or college degree and any projects that overlap with the needed skills or the company’s offerings.
When do I Give my Elevator Pitch?
While you will give some variation of an elevator pitch to each person you meet throughout an interview process, one of the most critical pitches will come during the technical screen. A technical screen is usually the first step of the interview process when you meet with a technical or non-technical recruiter to get a better feel for the company and the position.
The recruiter uses this as an opportunity to determine if you broadly meet the job posting criteria and would be a good fit for the company and team. The most common question during this interview is “Tell me a little about yourself,” which is the prompt that triggers your elevator pitch. As simple a question as this seems, how you answer it largely determines if you will get moved on to the next round of interviews.
What are Recruiters Looking For?
To get the best advice for preparing for an interview, we spoke with a Technical Recruiter at Boeing. There are a lot of electronics and IT systems involved in aircraft, so Boeing hires many software engineers. After hearing the advice of this Technical Recruiter, here is what we can share with you:
First, you need to have passion - Sure, only some jobs or industries may be your dream. Many development jobs solve mundane problems, but that doesn’t mean the development is boring. Learn about the industry and the team to discover why you are passionate about them. Maybe there is an upcoming project you are excited about or a set of skills you look forward to developing. Show excitement and passion for the position you are trying to get.
Next, know what the job entails - You can’t know everything about the position and company at this point of the interview, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t learn everything you can from the job posting and public-facing website. You should know what tech stacks the company and team use. You should know the role, including the teams you may cross functions with to the systems you are expected to work in and master. If the information is public, you should know it.
A final point for standing out is to include impact numbers with your accomplishments - Instead of saying you built a new widget for a service, mention the percent click-through rate increase, the new user acquisition metrics improved, or the reduced time for querying results. Projects and tasks prove capability, but numbers will stick in a recruiter’s head.
Practice Gets You Hired
A final note on elevator pitches is that you can never practice them enough. If you go into a technical screening only ever writing down the components of your pitch, don’t be surprised if your pitch goes off track. To perfect your pitch, you will need to practice it repeatedly.
How will you know when you’ve practiced enough?
As you practice, you should notice that some sections of your pitch start to become stable and barely change. Other sections may require more repetition as some parts of your experience don’t sound as impressive or fit with the position and must be removed. You will be ready for the technical screen when you can give your elevator pitch multiple times with little to no changes.
Finding a Bootcamp that Stresses Career Development
If you are looking into software engineering bootcamps to master programming, ensure your bootcamp stresses professional development. Just knowing how to code won’t get you a job. You will also need to be able to sell your skills and passion to potential employers. Thinkful is an excellent option for software engineering bootcamps as it joins programming fundamentals with professional development, including an entire module focused on personal branding, technical interview prep, and networking.