Interviewing 10+ YOE

My manager and I have been looking to hire two contractors for a six-month project. Those we interviewed typically had over a decade of experience. Unlike when interviewing juniors, we asked more open-ended questions to allow these senior engineers to better express their strong opinions developed over years of being in the trenches. We wanted to know how they think. We wanted to know how they decide what tools and approaches to use. It was also an opportunity for me to see how well they can communicate and teach things I had no experience with. After all, if they are going to join this team, I will need to learn from them.

We eventually found the two contractors to hire. The following is what I noticed during these few weeks of interviewing, reinforcing what I had already observed in the industry.

Not all “senior engineers” possess the deep technical knowledge and soft skills to effectively share this knowledge that are expected from their title and years of experience. There are levels to this: a senior in one company may be far from being senior-level at another company. Similarly, I have seen (on LinkedIn) engineers with only a few years of experience being promoted to principal engineers in defence companies. It’s hard to assess expertise based only on titles and years of experience, but well-conducted interviews can be revealing.