Are you looking for solutions architect interview guidance, or cloud architect interview guidance?
If so, this video is for you. Hi, my name is Michael Gibbs, and I'm the founder and
CEO of Go Cloud Architects. And we're an organization dedicated towards building high-performance
cloud computing careers. Today, we're going to talk about some very common solution architect
interview mistakes. And we want to talk about them because we want you to get hired as fast
as possible. And these are some things we see very frequently with solution architect
interviews, and we want to keep you from making these mistakes.
The first mistake we're going to talk about is, do not ever say anything negative about
your past employer. It's extremely common for the employer to say, "Why do you want
to work here?" It's also common to say, "Why do you want to leave your current job?" And
this area is riddled with things that can go wrong. Do not say you don't like your job.
Do not say you don't like your manager. Do not say you don't like your company. If you
do, you will negatively bias the employer not to like you. Instead, say, realistically
speaking, you just [inaudible 00:01:05] a desire to improve.
There's limited opportunity at your current company, and you're looking for an organization
that could provide a long-term career path. Show that you're looking for more opportunity,
that you're motivated. No one can fault you for being motivated, but they can definitely
fault you if you don't like your past employer, or if you say negative things. See, when you
say negative things, people wonder, "Are you the source of the problem, or is the organization
the source of the problem?" So be positive at all times during your interview. If they
ask you why you want to leave your current job, don't say anything negative about your
current employer. Just say you're looking for new opportunities.
The next thing that I'm going to tell you on your job interview, a common mistake I
see for cloud architects, or solution architects is not getting to the point. Don't babble.
Your goal as a cloud architect or a business executive or anyone is to communicate with
as few words as possible to get the maximum amount of information contained. So don't
babble. We see this a lot of times. I'm going to ask you a direct question, ask a direct
answer, focus it, make it clear, keep the interviewer engaged, and you'll be hired.
But if you keep babbling randomly, it's something that's going to be hard to follow. And if
it's hard to follow, the employer might think you don't actually know what you really do
know. Be very careful. When you're explaining technology, what is the tech? How does it
work? And why did you use it? Frame it in that way, it's going to make sense that the
hiring managers are going to hear it and say, "Wow, I like this. This person is smart."
They need to hear that you understand it. And that's how you should frame it. Don't
babble, get to the point quickly.
Next, another common mistake we see is not reading body language. Here's what I mean.
When you're interviewing, someone's asking you questions. And when you answer them, you
have the opportunity to look at the interviewer and determine if they like it or not, and/or
change your tone. Communication, and Harvard did the work on this, and they found that
55% of communication is what you look like when you say something. 38% is what you sound
like when you say something. That 7% is actually what you say.
When you speak, look at the hiring manager, are they leaning forward, like they're interested?
Keep talking. Are they leaning back in their chair? Stop the topic. Are they crossing their
arms? Okay, if that happens, you've got to change what you're saying. And if their feet
are pointing towards the door, they're ready to end the interview, so don't hold them hostage.
That's your chance to salvage the interview. Don't ignore body language. Body language
gives you something interesting. So far, what did we talk about? Don't say anything negative
about your company, get to the point, don't babble, and read the body language of the
employer that's interviewing you because he might give you some good information to help
you tune your interview.
Next thing is dressing inappropriately. Make sure for all jobs, you wear a suit, a business
suit if you're a man, and if you're a woman, you wear the equivalent. Just because someone
says, "We're casual around here," does not mean you can walk in with a t-shirt like this
with a collar. It doesn't mean you can wear just a button-up shirt. Wear a suit for an
interview and make sure your shoes are shined and polished. Make sure your belt is shined
and polished if you're wearing one. Make sure you put yourself together. Remember the data
from Harvard. 55% is what you look like when you say something. 38% is what you sound like.
And 7% is the content. Give yourself the advantage. Wear a suit, it's considered the business
etiquette for any type of solution architect interview or cloud architect interview. It's
not only the following of the etiquette, but it will make people take you more seriously.
The next thing that I see commonly on solution architect interviews, and this is one of the
most common cloud architect interview mistakes and solution architect interview mistakes
is not listening. A lot of times when you find yourself on an interview, your hiring
managers starts to babble. If you find a babbling higher manager, this is a good sign. They
like to talk. Let them talk. Listen to them. Don't be trying to solve their problems. Don't
be trying to show them things. If they want to talk, let them talk. People that really
want to talk like people that listen.
If someone's talking to you, listen. A couple of things are going to happen. You're going
to hear things that may key you in on how you should answer certain interview questions.
You're going to hear things that are going to tell you whether you want to work at that
company, whether you're not. You're going to hear things for which you could establish
rapport with the hiring manager. You're going to hear a lot of things by listening. Cloud
architects, as a rule, should listen more than they speak because that's how we're going
to get the information to build our designs. But on an interview, listen, listen, listen.
If the hiring manager is talking, listen.
The next thing is not having some strengths and weaknesses identified ahead of time. Every
employer will ask you, "What are your strengths, and what are your weaknesses?" And it's pretty
common. If they ask you, "What are your strengths?" call out your strengths. You know what they
are. If they ask you about your weaknesses, you need to have an honest weakness. Don't
make it up. Don't say, "I'm so motivated. I take on every single project, and then I
get tired at the end of the day." No one's going to believe you. The interview is over.
What you do instead is basically tell them an honest weakness. People can tell when you're
lying. Tell them an honest weakness, but tell them a weakness that's not a show-stopper.
For example, "By nature, I'm not the most organized individual in the world. It's something
I've been working on my whole life. I have checklists and things like this." When I go
on an interview and say, "What are your strengths?" I tell them, "I'm highly motivated. I'm energetic.
I've been in tech for a long time. I have a lot of competency. I communicate well. And
I like people. And I like to bring out the best in others." And when they ask weaknesses,
what do I say? I say, "I'm not very organized. I've been working on that forever. I have
checklists." Why? Because it's a real weakness. I am not lying. And it's not a show-stopper
weakness. If you were to say, "I'm lazy." Or, "I have a bad attitude." Or, "I don't
like to work," you're not going to be hired. Give them a real weakness, but make sure it's
not a show-stopper.
The last thing that I've seen people do, which I've seen, and this is one of the worst solution
architect interview mistakes or cloud architect interview mistakes is on the interview when
they say, "Do you have any questions?" And they say, "Yes, tell me about work-life balance."
Let's be honest, an employer is hiring you because they've got a lot of work that needs
to be [inaudible 00:06:57], and they need help. They're hiring you to solve their problem.
They're not hiring you or going to pay you to solve your problems, they want to solve
their problems. The second you say work-life balance on an interview, it's over. They want
to know you're willing, you're motivated, willing to go above and beyond.
What a hiring manager desire, I'll tell you, I've pulled thousands of them throughout my
career. And they want technically competent, they want energetic, they want enthusiastic,
they want passionate, they want trustworthy individuals, and they want people that know
what they know and know what they don't know, and someone that's willing to go above and
beyond and work in a team. The second you ask about work-life balance, you don't sound
like someone that's energetic, enthusiastic, passionate, or motivated. That instantly could
end it. Now, if they start talking about work-life balance, listen. There's nothing wrong with
listening, but don't ask that question. If they ask you, "Do you have any questions?"
say, "Yes." "What are your goals, Mr. or Mrs. hiring manager? Because if I was part of your
team, I'd want to know that I could help you solve your goals." That's the way you should
answer that question.
Today, we talked about a lot of very common solution architect interview mistakes. We've
talked about not making any negative statements about your previous company or manager or
peers. We talk about not babbling, getting to the point quickly. We talked about, reading
body language is essential on an interview. It can give you lots of things. Even on a
virtual interview, you can still gain a lot of information. We talked about not dressing
inappropriately, wearing a suit, which is appropriate. We talked about listening to
when the hiring manager is talking, to what they say. And we talked about not asking questions
like work-life balances. And we talked about making sure that you have some strengths and
weaknesses that you can tell the employer.
I'd like to tell you about some services we do at Go Cloud Architects to help the cloud
architect community. Every Monday and every Thursday, we have a completely free, how to
get your first job webinar. And on this webinar, we teach you everything that you need to know
to get your first cloud architect job. And it's completely free. And we do it twice per
week. Now, every Tuesday, we have a cloud architect experience webinar. And we have
a lot of fun on these webinars. We typically bring you on, and we will present a complicated
architecture to you, and you build the architecture with our coaching live on these calls. They're
free, and we hold them most Tuesdays.
Not every Wednesday, but as often as I can, I get on YouTube live, and I answer any kind
of questions you can. I call it a live cloud architect career question and answer session.
I do it most Wednesdays at 9:00 AM, Eastern, and 2:00 PM, GMT, whenever I can. We do that
for you. We also have, if you're interested, a completely free AWS Certified Solution Architect
Associate Training program and book. The link is in the description below. We have a completely
free AWS Certified Solution Architect Professional bootcamp that we did. I'll leave the link
in the description below. And next month on July 13th, we are going to be [inaudible 00:09:49]
week. We are going to be holding a completely free and live on YouTube, AWS Advanced Networking
bootcamp.
See, I love networking. I'm one of the original CCIEs. In fact, my number is 7417. Whenever
we have a chance to talk about networking, it's fun for me. We're going to have a completely
free AWS Advanced Networking bootcamp coming up. If you're not a member of our channel,
please subscribe and hit the bell, so you're going to be notified of all these exciting
opportunities coming your way. It's an honor and a privilege to be a part of this cloud
architect community. I'm honored and grateful to be able to communicate with you with this
YouTube media, so we can help each other in our careers.
Thank you so much for watching this video. And I look forward to seeing you in a new
video next week.