
Get Certified
I may be jaded, but when I interview a candidate that is not certified, I immediately give them a demerit. Is that harsh? No, because I always offer a remediation plan. The demerit is wiped away if this plan is accepted and they get certified.
Why is certification necessary?
- Certification shows you are willing to invest in this platform. You might consider a certification worthless. But you are missing the most critical audience: those who come across your profile. Your certification shows you have achieved a baseline of knowledge. You know much more than the baseline, but this puts you at or above a set level.
- Certification increases your experience. The certification badge is worth 10% of the total value gained. Your certification efforts will galvanize what you know. Do this in the months preceding a job hunt process, and you will be fine in your interviews.
Certifications take time. Plan on 2-3 months to get an Expert level (if you have 1-2 years of experience). If you don’t think you can achieve Expert, get the Professional level. Suppose you do well, set aside three weeks of intense study, and go for the Expert. Once you get the certification, begin the interview process.

Take a few hours to refresh yourself on critical areas of Magento—including those annoying ones, like uiComponents. If you can concisely and confidently summarize areas of Magento, you will set yourself apart.
I recommend taking the following approach to building these overviews:
- Review the below list of topics and self-identify your weaknesses.
- Build a scenario (like placing an order), set breakpoints, and step through the process line-by-line. Take detailed notes.
- Summarize these notes into paragraph form.
- Review and generally memorize these notes. Master your study enough that this comes from your DNA. If you simply recite from your notes, you’ll come off worse than saying, “I don’t know.”


Arrive 5 minutes before the interview
Never, ever, ever, ever be late. You should be on the video call at least 5 minutes before the interview. I once had an interview set up for a candidate who never showed up. They finally got back to me and explained that they had a plumbing emergency and “lost track” of time. While I understand that life is unpredictable, leaving the interviewer in the dark is inexcusable and is a great way to ensure your interviewer loses interest in helping you.
The entire hour before your interview should be solely dedicated to doing your best for the interview. No matter what it takes, you have to be completely ready. This is like taking a certification exam—except there is a human being on the other end of this exam. If you are distracted or not present, your interviewer will take notice. This brings us to our next point.

Be honest and authentic
Trying to be someone you aren’t is tough. Only a few people can do this (outside of movies). They are called spies or moles. They live two lives.
A massive turnoff is when it’s obvious a candidate doesn’t know the answer, but they try to make up one or are clearly searching online for an answer. Don’t do that. BS doesn’t take you anywhere. If you don’t know the answer, just say so. There is no shame in not knowing an answer. Honesty is refreshing. If you want to stand out and show that you are hungry, explain your plan for immediate remediation of this deficiency and say you’ll get back to the interviewer with a concise explanation.
Don’t lie. Body language experts explain how to detect lies. You may be able to skate through an interview, but the truth will eventually become apparent. How would you describe being fired from a previous job because you were dishonest? That won’t go over well.