Hey, Elixir fam it’s been so long since I last posted here. A lot has to do with the fact that I didn’t get a role in Elixir but instead Ruby on Rails and have been diligently working with a company since then.
However recently a new company reached out to me who are looking to hire Junior Elixir engineers, they pretty much want to translate their current code from Erlang into Elixir
Essential requirements:
• Some familiarity with Erlang/Elixir and a desire to work with it
• Interest in building highly scalable platforms that can process millions of events
• Ability to work independently as a remote Developer.
• Previous contributions to open source
• Strong English communication skills
I have been an active community member, I post topics that I learned on my Linkedin, and create small projects in Elixir on Github. Learn as I go, as well as post on Elixir forums for assistance and learning/growth I feel a bit nervous as I wanted this role for a while, and now it landed on my front step.
Question: What topics Can I talk about that would make me stand out as an engineer during my interview?
writing scalable software that is both dry and functional in processing millions of events. This would imply a good foundational software architecture using layers of Web Servers, Database Servers, Load Balancers, Shared File Servers.
In order to achieve this one would increase system capacity through replication
Yes I agree with you but I am just nervous as I have hoped this day would come for a long time. Now I haven’t practiced Elixir enough since I got hired full-time for Ruby on Rails.
I am doing a few refreshers and re-reading everything I worked on here with you guys, as well as just reading up in general.
I honestly think its a lot of anxiety on my part and imposter syndrome that’s killing me and making me thing I am not good enough. I just need to breathe and give it my best =)
Hear goes the best advice I, as a senior Elixir developer, can think about: chill out.
From my experience you can’t be prepared for everything. One time my application was rejected not because I don’t had required Elixir skills, but because they found a similar applicant who knows hockey rules - yes, this offer was from Canada.
As long as you have a job (i.e. a stable source of income) you don’t have to worry… It’s just a matter of time when you would get an Elixir-based job. Sometimes it’s just really a matter of luck.
Unfortunately I also need to say 2 bad things about getting a job:
When they are reaching you (instead of you reaching them) your chances drastically increases.
The above works especially if a message wasn’t generic and somebody really took a look at your profile.
Looks like all of above matches your case. That’s already a good start!
If none of above would match your case then you should not worry about such job. I don’t mean not to apply, but don’t take it so serious if you are rejected and especially in case:
there was no reason
there was a stupid reason
you even not received a reply, because before you have ever applied, they already found someone and therefore they have finished whole recruitment process
Well … looks like I was “unlucky” many times as all of above happen to me at least once and I simply learned to “deal with it” - no matter how bad this sounds.
Per aspera ad astra! It is a game. In principle, both sides lie and no one should tell the truth at all. The company talks about what high standards, processes, workflows, work-life balance they have while they expect from the applicant high quality work, clean and bug free code, 10 years of experience, expert for each technology, linguistically gifted, communication miracle, leadership, etc.
In the end you need only a piece of luck, and after a poor onboarding of maybe one hour, you find out, that it is like everywhere: scrum is an endless sprint from week to week, no body has understood it. The C level does understand you and does follow the own rules about software development, the frontend does not understand the backend, the backend does not understand scaling, the admins don’t understand the backend and don’t care about scaling. The post mortem or retrospective discussions can be copied from the last one, because nobody reads them. To make the long story short: they still put their trousers on one leg at a time. No magic, no miracle. Good luck
