In the US, a person’s integrity and honesty matter more than hard skills. A person who claims the same values both in his personal life and at work is more likely to be hired than someone who has different behaviors on and off the job.
Often change jobs – they do not trust you
The CV of the candidate for the interview should contain a list of previous jobs with dates. If a person has worked in the last places for six months or less, this causes concern for the company and may lead to a refusal at the preliminary stage. Developers require a large investment from the company at the start. A person needs at least two months to immerse himself in the processes and understand the product. After three months, he feels comfortable, and after six months, he begins to bring results. If a programmer leaves after six months, the company loses all investment in him. That is why US companies are willing to spend more time evaluating a candidate and avoid those who can leave for a high salary. Candidates for full-time software engineering jobs are considered with an eye of three years.
Why are there always several people interviewing you?
Talking to one person at an interview is a risk due to the influence of the human factor. The recruiter may be in a good or bad mood, which can influence the decision. Some companies are willing to take the first available to close the vacancy, but this can lead to problems in the future. If only one person conducts the interview, this may only be acceptable for a small startup or in case of a crisis in the company.
CV plays a huge role
In the US, there is a problem of a lack of developers with specialized education, which makes the market available for people with non-IT education profiles, but there is a nuance. Large US companies such as Google, Facebook and Amazon usually prefer to hire developers with specialized education, but there are exceptions. For example, if a candidate has a successful application with a large number of downloads or work experience in a US company, this may compensate for the lack of specialized education. European work experience in this case is not a criterion, since for American employers this market is not as familiar and understandable as their home market.
The conclusion from this is this: if there is no specialized education, then it will be much more difficult to find a job on Google or Facebook. This is true, no matter what company or HR agency says about this.
In small companies and startups, things are a little different. If you go to such a company, then, most likely, there will be more interesting tasks for you than in large ones, and they look more at how you can work in principle, and not at an academic degree.