Getting the Job You Want - Jonathan Lorenzi

Your host: Joseph Maxwell, Founder and CEO of SwiftOtter

Special Guest: Jonathan Lorenzi, Director of Engineering at Corra, six-time Adobe Commerce (Magento) certified develope 

Show Notes

Jonathan Lorenzi is a shining example of an “irreplaceable developer”. He started at the bottom, committed to a life full of learning, and is now the Director of Engineering at a large agency, having the pleasure of handling some incredibly challenging projects on a daily basis. When he isn’t managing projects, Jonathan is consistently interviewing and hiring developers to fill various roles at his company. This has given him a unique perspective on what really makes a great developer and what sets a dev up for success in their pursuit of the “dream job”.

“Passion” really is an overused word. Why? Because usually people say they are passionate about whatever they are doing on a daily basis, in order to gain credibility and project a favorable image. But how does one actually discern a developer’s passion? Jonathan believes that the greatest evidence of “passion” isn’t how many hours a person works, but how little the time matters to them. For instance, to put it in Jonathan’s terms, a passionate soccer player doesn’t measure how successful their day was by how many goals they kicked, but rather how well they progressed towards their goals and how well they stretched their abilities. A good developer doesn’t work 20 hours per day. A good developer loses track of time, chases their curiosity on a regular basis, and learns something new every day.

Jonathan shared a great story about a developer he interviewed and ended up deciding not to hire. He was a great guy, but he didn’t quite have the skillset Corra was looking for at the time. He was motivated and determined to succeed. 2 years later, he re-applied and was hired due to his commitment to growing and hitting his goals. “If your goal is to have all of the certifications in Magento, when you reach the last two, you should potentially be thinking about your next goal”. Jonathan’s point is that the greatest developers never hit all of their goals, but are consistently dreaming up new ones, putting themselves on the track to achieve more than is expected of them. He briefly reminds us that there is really no skill level that you can possibly have that will disqualify you from learning more. Commerce is changing constantly and if a developer isn’t seeking to learn a bit more every day, they are going to miss out on phenomenal opportunities.

Interviews are stressful, but Jonathan reminds us that good developers don’t “stay on the market very long” and when he turns down a candidate, much like the story mentioned above, that doesn’t at all mean that he’s turning them down forever. Because of that, he encourages interviewees to get comfortable and be confident with what they really know. The more you stress about the interview, the more forgetful you will get. An interview is never supposed to be a trap where the interviewer wants to see you fail. On the contrary, the interviewer is very much wanting to find the right candidate for their team. They want the interviewee to succeed! Focus on the question, take your time answering, and develop a high-quality answer without adding anything extra. On the other side of the equation, Jonathan’s advice for the interviewer is to never ask questions that won’t really be asked of that person if they are hired for the job. This information is useless and doesn’t help anyone in the long run. It’s time to put the right person into the right job at the right time!

Jonathan’s last piece of advice to interviewees is to prepare a few questions to ask during the interview. Interviewees should seem legitimately interested in the company they are interviewing with, and they should really have a healthy amount of hesitation when they’re thinking about jumping from their current company to a new one. Of course they should do their research on the company first and their questions shouldn’t have obvious answers, but the point is that they should be curious enough about the company or the team they would be working with to ask a few pointed questions.

What is YOUR dream job? Are you prepared for that next interview? Are you being paid what you’re worth? Do you feel valued and appreciated by your current employer? Feel free to reach out to us if you need any insight on these things. SwiftOtter exists to be a helpful resource for you and we’ve got your back.

(Theme music courtesy of Trending Audio)