After lots of peer pressure about opening a telegram channel, the day has final come 😁. I’ve been thinking a lot about careers, people, growth, and the parts of tech we don’t really talk about.

I have lots of friends that took everything I know and can contribute too so I took my time into finding a small niches where I might not be the best candidate but also not the worst one 😁. For the other sides of the tech community like building projects, or into DSA or Prodcut Management, there are lots of better candidates than me so I will leave that space to them but barj in sometimes 😆

So I’m starting a Telegram channel.
Soft skills, HR stuff, lessons I’m learning, mistakes I’ve made, and sometimes just my thoughts.

Not polished. Not perfect. Just honest.
If you’re into that kind of space, feel free to join.

Let me give a bit of introduction about myself. My name is Mr. O for now 😁 and I'm a software engineer at a certain company called Y. Why I'm focusing on soft skills and HR perspective when I am a software engineer? Good question. Prior to my current role I've worked as a developer specifically backend and product manager. So one of the projects I worked on is related to outsourcing and I've worked on it from the start. So during that time I've seen hundreds of resumes and also conducted bunch of interviews some for actual roles and some for mocks to help people get better during interviews. I also gave a a couple of workshops related to resume and soft skills as part of my role. Anyways I'll talk more as we progress 😁

Let's start small. The first thing is "Don't sell yourself short". Here is a simple scenario. Let's say you've a product and want to pitch it to investors. You start saying like "I know you might have seen a lot better product than this but...." and you lost the investors at this point because why would they invest in you if there are other better products or candidates. Interviews are the same you are there to show why you're the best fit, why who ever is hiring takes there time and resources to hire you is worth it. The reason why I've this first is as Ethiopians we think selling oneself short is being humble but it is not being humble and It'll have its own consequences.

For today let's go over the other extreme of "selling onself short" which is "overselling oneself". This is a bit tricky because mostly you're competing with hundreds of candidates if not thousands. So maybe to oversell yourself is one of the options you've got. But here is the most common issue I have seen when people do that and it is you'll most likely fumble over a simple question for the things you said or wrote. For example, when writing an experience it is recommend to use the XYZ mechanism which is I did X using Y resulting in Z and mostly the Z part is quantified. Now I've seen people being asked how did you find this number, how did the metrics for it works and usually developers are good at technical parts but forget to navigate those simple questions. So my recommendation is to know your resume and what you're talking about. If you don't know them then study them before or after the interviews.

Went to work after 5 days of full rest and now I'm feeling sleepy through out the day 😭😭😭. Luckily I found that eating keeps me awake So I've been drinking and eating and will continue to do that 😂😂.

Until I find a good logo let's stick with this one ig 😁

Usually people forget that inteviews are two ways. As much as you're being interviewed, it is also a chance for to interview them. There are at least three ways to make your mark that I know. The first one is to be the smartest of all which is quite hard to guess when you don't know all the candidates. The second one is to be the dumbest and I wouldn't recommend that 😂. The third one is asking the interviewer simple but good questions. The questions could range from technical part which the interviewer might mention in the introduction or could be personal or stms ask them the questions they asked back by just rephrasing it. This shows your curiosity and also your ability to convey your questions clearly which is bonus as part of your communication skills.

Things to keep me awake in the afternoon 😁😁😁 and that's not coffee

Don't show being desperate in interviews. When you show desperation, you'll try to show how smart you're, how well fitted you're by trying to be complex. But most of the things the interviewer wants is first obviously are they technically fit to work here which is judged by your technical solutions to given problems. The second one is would I be happy working with them in the same team. So this is not judged by your technical skill but also how you can communicate and also how can you explain things simply as they're without making them complex. The smarter you try to look the more complex you've to be or people think so but not rather It is the opposite. Make It as simple as possible so they can understand you as well. Simple doesn't mean easy or dumb 🤝.

Yesterday I was hearing "ketay amet engenagn" joke in the office and I guess this is everywhere 😭😭😂😂

Happy New Year. This year I'm actually celebrating two new years and also getting off day for both 😁. Anyways May all of your plans succed and your wishes for 2026 come alive. Always be humble enough knowing that you're not here because you're great or well deserved but there is greater being keeping you safe and giving you the most. Be bold on things you believe in and stand for. Know your worth but don't be cocky about it. Cheers everyone 🥂🥂🥂🍻🍻🍻.

Story time coming up soon.....
For those of you who don't know what story time for me is pleas allow me to explain. This is a trend I have on ig where I tell people a tiny recent actual story about me sometimes it could be complaining about things in a funny way because it makes people laugh and correlate but I don't like to actually complain tbh unless it is funny. The other could be non serious staff that happened to me which might be funny.

Be genuine in interviews and don't try to be perfect. Admit that you made a mistake and always will make mistakes. But always guarantee that you'll have a well suited rationale behind it and you'll always hold yourself accountable to it. Don't sound like a robot who tries to be perfect just don't do silly mistakes 🙌.

For the first time in decades, I started using Mac again but it's not for the weak till you learn the ins and outs of it 😭😭😂😂

Actually I've got my own story of this. During one of my interviews, I was asked an easy leetcode question. But it was not asked directly in the interview. The way they asked me was in a follow up manner. So the first question was so easy I came up with the solution right away and the solution was an optimal one but me being me to show how smart I was I asked the interviewer If I can optimize this. So to give you context the solution I provided was O(n) time complexity and O(1) space complexity. Thank God the interviewer was a technical person and asked me how can you optimize this and what's the time and space complexity of your solution. I told the person the time and space complexity. Then they're like how can you optimize this from what you've now. I was like 😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫 and then I said actually I can't optimize this from here. Then they continued with the follow up question. The question tag was easy because you can come up with the solution right away but it had lots of edge cases and if I hadn't know the question prior, I might have not passed that interview. Anyways follow your interviewer smts 😁.

So we're hiking today so bzum mkr yelem zare. Just be confident. If you don't think you've one, then build by taking small steps and celebrating small wins. But always differentiate the difference between confidence and arrogance.

Story Time

This happened on the new year eve. As usually me and my buddy didn't have any solid plan for the eve so we talked on the eve to go out and have fun. He, his team mate and I decided to go to new year eve party and apparently ID is required which I totally forgot. So I went to his place as we move from there. I rode bike for more than an hour cause maps decided to take me in a closed road 🤦‍♂️ and it was like 0°C and I had to have my phone on that freezing weather because it became unreliable 😭. Then I sat there for like 5 minutes and he tells me I should have my ID with me so I have to back to my place. This time I decided to take tube than ride a bike. Now all is good, went back and met them at the place. The place had a wide range of people where some are 18 and some are like 50+ 😂. Those 18 kids are giant besmam. I feel like they can see through my middle head into my skull 😭😭😭. Terrifying experience. Now the cool part was we started to dance when the music starts. For the first time ever I got compliment for my dances 😁 and fyi they're not my friends nor black 🙌. Sensetional isn't it 😂😂 gentlemen hide your ladies from me 😂😂😂.

Today marks the first week Since this channel is created and we've about 190 subs. Thank you everyone and hopefully it has been helpful and fun so far 🙇‍♂️.

🎉🎉🎉🎉 For DSA and A2SV related staff highly recommend channel 🙌🙌🙌.

Keep up brother.
👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇

Today is one year of baka codes🎉

@bakacodes