Job Interview Tips: How To Best Showcase Your Skills!
đ Prepare for your job interview with Logicworks! Learn how to best showcase your skills, build a stand-out resume, and more!
đź Prepare for a job interview and learn how to showcase your skills with these tips from Jessica Cowle, Technical Recruiter at Logicworks, who will go over Logicworksâ application process and give you some insights into preparing for your interview.
đź The best way to prepare before a job interview is to think about how to clearly and concisely showcase your background and skills. Logicworks' interviewers will ask probing questions that dive deeper into your experiences. Long-winded responses lead the interviewers to believe that you are trying to manufacture an answer. So if you don't know something, it's best to admit it! When asked about specific projects or experiences you've had, make sure you give examples of times when you demonstrated your earned skills in the workplace. Tell meaningful stories, focusing on context, action, and results.
đź Apart from the job interview, your resume is another way to showcase your skills. There are many different ways to make your resume stand out from the pack. Typically, a resume with certifications like AWS Cloud Practitioner, Solutions Architect, or Azure Fundamentals will stand out more than a profile without any. These credentials prove you have the desire to go above and beyond to sharpen your skillset (even outside your role). And at Logicworks, recruiters like to see strong tenure. So if your profile is a bit hoppy, their team might scrutinize it a bit. They're also looking for candidates that have worked in customer-facing roles. When hiring for a non-technical position, like Accounting or Sales, recruiters like to see intellectually curious candidates!
Ace Your Job Interview At Logicworks - Showcase Your Skills And Shine!
There are a lot of things that Logicworks recruiters look for in candidates. One of them is professionals who embody their core values. Logicworks is a people-first business with a grow-or-die mentality. Suppose someone lacks specific technical skills but makes up for it with personality and attitude. In that case, recruiters will most likely be interested in hiring that person and invest the time to train them on technical skills. So, if you feel you could be a fit for Logicworks, even if you don't check 100% of the boxes, don't feel discouraged to apply!
đ§đź Are you interested in joining Logicworks? They have open positions! To learn more, click here.
Get To Know Jessica
Jessica is a Technical Recruiter, Content Creator, Licensed Mechanical Bull Operator, and former Musical Theatre major with a Master of Science (M.S.) focused in Marketing Communication Management from Manhattanville College School of Professional Studies. And sheâs a proud AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner. Ask her about coffeeâď¸, skiing đż , musical theatre đ , or punk rock music đ¤đźđ¸! If you are interested in a career at Logicworks, you can connect with her on LinkedIn!
More About Logicworks
Logicworks helps customers migrate, run, and operate mission-critical workloads on AWS and Azure with baked-in security, scalability, and efficiency. Their Cloud Reliability Platform combines world-class engineering talent, policy-as-code, and integrated tooling to enable customers to confidently meet compliance regulations, security requirements, cost control, and high availability. The team of dedicated certified engineers with decades of IT management experience at Logicworks ensures their customersâ success across every stage of the Cloud Adoption Framework.
5 Questions from Logicworksâ Donovan Brady to Help Grow Your Career
Donovan Brady knew heâd found the company he wanted to work for during the 2014 FIFA World Cup.
He was doing his first internship at cloud services company Logicworks, and his coworkers brought him to the dedicated conference room for watching the games.
âIt was playing on a projector all day, everyday. People were getting work done and going to check on the scores in their free time,â he says. âI felt like I didnât have to be just a cog. Logicworks truly embodied the value of âremember to always have fun.â I didnât have to wake up everyday not wanting to go to work. That was really meaningful.â
Now, seven years later, Donovan is the Director of Solutions Architecture at Logicworks and sees plenty more growth opportunities in front of him, whether thatâs evolving the companyâs diversity and inclusion group (for which he serves as chairman) or enabling his team to be more strategic partners to their customers. Donovan has come a long way from being an intern, and we sat down with him to hear more about his career path at Logicworks and his advice for others looking to make the most of opportunities in front of them.
Helping Technology Drive Business
As a kid, Donovan and his best friend Alan were big into video games. (Donovan still enjoys playing them; his all-time favorite game is Dark Souls, he says, because itâs extremely hard to play until you understand how it tries to trick youâjust like life.)
Alan taught Donovan to program, and the two launched a business building computers and fixing Xboxes for their classmates. It sparked something in Donovan: âI decided that this is what Iâm going to do. Iâm going to start a technology conglomerate thatâs going to combat Apple,â he says.
That dream stayed with Donovan until college, where he decided to study computer science and economics to build the core two skills needed for his business, but he quickly realized that other companies had filled that market. (Amazon and Microsoft among them.)
So he decided to pivot and find a role where he could apply his technological skills. His part-time job at his collegeâs career resource center meant he had an up-close view of the latest internships and job postings, and when he saw a role in cloud computing at Logicworks, he decided to apply.
âIt sounded like that might be the direction the world was going, with âthat cloud thing,ââ he says. âSo I applied. I had a giant afro at the time and I showed up in a suit. Everyone made fun of me [for being overdressed]âthey were in sweatpants. But I had to look good!â
He got the internship (and wore the suit again for his first dayâthen put it in the closet until he became a solutions architect, but more on that later). His area of responsibility was network engineering, which he didnât love. When he flagged that to his manager, she invited him back the next summer to try their DevOps and software engineering internship, which he did.
Immediately, Donovan knew heâd found his subject area. âAWS had just come out with Lambda, which was serverless technology and just mindblowing, game-changing stuff,â he says. âI was tasked with deploying our first Lambda function, and I felt really proud of myself for being a pioneer in this space.â
It was Logicworksâ commitment to his growthâlistening to his interests and inviting him back for another internship that more closely matched themâthat convinced Donovan to join Logicworks full-time after graduation.
In his career there, heâs found that commitment to continue.
First, it was with his coworkers and mentors, Dakota and Phil, who introduced him to solutions architecture. The company had just introduced the solutions architect role, and Phil was the first one to fill it. The combination of business strategy and on-the-ground technology fascinated Donovan.
âIt seemed really interesting. Just like architects for buildings, cloud solutions architects design the blueprint for what a customerâs cloud environment is going to look likeâthey're the producer and visionary, and the rest of the team carries out that vision,â says Donovan.
He couldnât get the idea out of his head, so he talked to a few mentors in sales about transitioning into a sales and delivery role, and eventually to the companyâs CRO and CEO about the solutions architect skillset.
âThatâs why I love Logicworksâ culture,â says Donovan. âWho was this 23 year old kid talking to the CEO about his career plans? But they all made time for me and gave me advice.â
Stepping into Leadership
Donovan ended up joining as the companyâs third sales solution architect. The teamâs processes were undefined and messy, so Donovan raised his hand to build clear deliverables and processes. That set him up to step into a team lead role about a year and half into his new role, which gave Donovan exposure to cross-functional strategy and prioritization.
Two years into that role, Donovan was asked to take on a director role.
âItâs still a learning curve, but if youâre not learning, youâre in the wrong place,â he says. âWe worked it out so that itâs a player-coach role, so I can still work with customers doing the work I love, but also be intimately involved with my team and their opportunities.â
The best parts of each week, says Donovan, are his 1:1s with his team. âI love helping people and solving problems,â he says. âI have a great team, and creating opportunities for them and allowing them to succeed is really a highlight.â
Now that heâs also the chairman of Logicworkâs diversity and inclusion group, Donovan is extra motivated to keep making the companyâs culture one that works for everyone. Current initiatives include running solidarity sessions that take place every other week for underrepresented employees to talk about things that are bothering them or to raise awareness of issues they face, and creating cultural learning opportunities to share cuisines, history, and art from different groups.
âThings happen in the world all the time,â says Donovan, referencing the deaths of George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery last year. âThat doesnât mean that the world has to stop, but we should also acknowledge the current political and social climates and how they affect our coworkers with respect to their jobs. I wanted to create space for Logicworks employees to come together and discuss what theyâre experiencing to raise awareness for those of us who are unaware of these struggles. I am a firm believer that the only way to grow is to grow together, and I wanted to facilitate that growth at Logicworks.â
5 Questions to Find a Company Where You Can Grow
Donovanâs internship at Logicworks grew into a return offer for another internship, then a full-time job offer, and then several promotions, all the way up to his current role of Director. As he navigated that path, he came up with a few guiding questions for other entry-level or new hires who are evaluating whether or not they see a long-term future at their first company:
- Do you like the culture? âSearch for culture first. How do you fit in with the people, with the company, and with what theyâre trying to accomplish?â he asks.
- Are they flexible when it comes to transfers and promotions? âSome companies say you have to stay in a role for four years before you can move,â says Donovan. âItâs very rigid and structured. At Logicworks, I said I wanted to do something else, and they said, âGreat, letâs see how that looks.â Theyâve rewarded me for being hungry.â
- Are they on your side? Donovan was nervous to ask for a raise when he transitioned from software engineering into solutions architecture. âMy heart was racing, and I didnât know what to do,â he says. âI asked for a number that I thought was in line with the market, and my voice was trembling the whole time.â But Donovanâs manager took it seriously and told him theyâd work it out.
- Are there people youâd want to learn from? Donovan has half a dozen mentors at Logicworks alone who have helped him determine his career path, and he encourages people to look for their own. âYou need somebody you can turn to for advice when otherwise youâd just be alone in it. Find people in your corner that you can talk to and bounce ideas off of, because theyâre going to help you go further faster.â
- Can you envision yourself succeeding at the company? âDon't be afraid to ask the hard questions in interviewing,â says Donovan. âYou can ask, âWhat's it like to be a Black person at this company?ââ
Interested in growing your career at Logicworks? Check out their open roles!
