The Tech Interview Behind the Scenes: Albena Zaharieva

The Tech Interview Behind the Scenes is an HRLabs series.
Let’s take a look behind the scenes of the technical interview process from the interviewers' perspective.
Our goal is to provide candidates with valuable tips and recommendations directly from professionals who conduct interviews for various technical roles.

“A successful candidate should be open to learning.” shares Albena Zaharieva, Chief Technology Officer at Digitoll Smart Infrastructure.

Tell us more about your career path.

My entire career path has been in the IT sector. I have worked in various roles, including Junior Application Developer, Senior Software Engineer, Product Owner, Senior Product Owner, Scrum Master, Development Manager, Senior Engineering Manager, and CTO.

I highly value new challenges and always work in the best interest of the business, focusing on the growth and development of people and teams. I love learning and diving into new projects and technologies. Sharing knowledge and experience is both valuable and enjoyable for me, and I take great pleasure in mentoring anyone willing to listen and engage in discussions.

One of my career goals is to create the conditions for building well-balanced, diverse teams.

As a candidate, have you had any strange interviews? What about interviews that impressed you?

For me, every interview holds value. The interviewee has the opportunity to assess themselves, develop their communication and presentation skills, and learn to perceive the final outcome as a personal benefit, regardless of the result.

Strange interviews, in my view, are those where:

• The interviewer spends part of the meeting on topics outside the context, resulting in feedback that the candidate did not use the time effectively due to going into too much detail—while, in reality, the interviewers did not manage their own time properly to ask all their questions. I believe it is crucial for the interviewer to guide the level of detail they expect from the candidate during the process.
• No questions are asked about a specific technology, yet the reason for rejection is cited as a lack of expected knowledge in that technology.
• The interviewers show a lack of enthusiasm and insufficient engagement during the process.

What skills and qualities do you look for in a candidate? How can a candidate stand out during the interview?

The skills and qualities I am looking for fall into two categories:

1. Core, Fundamental Skills

• The candidate's cultural traits and how well they fit into the company culture.
• Teamwork skills and communication style.
• Behavior and reactions in high-pressure situations.
• Type of motivation.
• Communication and presentation skills.
• Ability to address challenging situations and approach problem-solving.
• Capacity for learning and adaptation – I believe it is a mistake to seek a narrowly specialized expert with specific knowledge since technologies constantly evolve and change.
• Proactivity and self-initiative – I value and select individuals who take responsibility for their own development, seek opportunities for improvement, and contribute to business processes. I explain to my candidates that I do not develop them; rather, I create conditions for their growth, and how they take advantage of these opportunities is their personal decision.
• Ability to manage personal ego.
• Algorithmic and analytical thinking.

2. Position-Specific Skills

• Knowledge of specific technologies or processes related to the role.
  A successful candidate should be open to learning and possess a well-balanced combination of personal and technical skills relevant to the position.

What questions do you typically ask in technical interviews? Do you have specific tasks or problems that you often use to assess candidates?

Technical interviews are tailored to the specific requirements of the position.

Through my questions, I assess:

• The candidate's understanding of the technologies listed in their resume.
• Their theoretical and practical knowledge by assigning a specific task.
• The level of algorithmic and analytical thinking.
• The ability to ask meaningful questions.
• Personal awareness in deeply understanding the given task and the approaches to solving it.

I use both questions and implementation tasks to evaluate technical competence in key areas, including:

• Position-specific technical knowledge – Full Stack Developer, Front-End Developer, or Back-End Developer. This includes comparing technologies, experience with databases (SQL and NoSQL), and writing optimized queries.
• Algorithms and data structures, including algorithm complexity.
• Core concepts and principles for writing high-quality code.
• Personal experience and the ability to apply and develop best practices.

I respect and support a software engineer’s ambition to grow as a Full Stack Developer.

How important are good communication skills for a candidate? How do they impact the overall interview?

Strong communication skills are essential for a candidate's positive presence within the team, as well as for effective and productive collaboration in achieving business goals.

A high level of technical expertise loses much of its value if effective communication skills are lacking. A candidate who struggles with communication may find it difficult to integrate into the team, which can hinder the development of a highly effective and self-organizing team.

The presence of an individual with strong technical knowledge but poor communication skills can become a critical issue for the team, potentially leading to interpersonal conflicts and creating a single point of failure.

How important is cultural fit when making a hiring decision? How do you assess whether a candidate will fit well into the team?

Cultural fit is important, but that doesn’t mean searching for people who fit a specific mold.

The company’s cultural values define a framework that we must consider when assessing whether differences and deviations serve the business's best interests. For me, it is crucial to build a cohesive team of intelligent and strong individuals who are open to change.

What are the most common mistakes candidates make during an interview? What advice would you give candidates on how to prepare for an interview?

• Prepare a comprehensive and well-structured resume tailored to the job requirements.
• Include only the skills, knowledge, and experience you genuinely possess.
• Clearly and accurately list the sequence of your previous positions.
• Prepare examples that illustrate the complexity of projects or tasks you have worked on.
• Do not create unnecessary barriers for yourself—be honest if you lack experience with a specific technology.
• Research the company’s business, key products, and industry.
• Familiarize yourself with the company’s values and be ready to explain how they align with your own.
• Be able to answer the question: Why are you applying for this position at this specific company?
• Reflect on your strengths and areas for improvement.
• Be diplomatically honest.
• Listen carefully and analyze questions before answering.
• During the technical interview, outline the solution algorithm before starting the implementation.
• Avoid a copy-paste approach—every decision and code snippet should be justifiable and well-explained.
• Prepare thoughtful questions for the interviewers.
• Demonstrate active listening and avoid interrupting during the interview.

What advice would you give to candidates who want to improve their technical skills? Are there any resources you would recommend?

Enhancing technical skills should be built upon a solid foundation, and every candidate should have a clear understanding of how reliable their foundation is.

Practical application is key—developing solutions to real problems by applying learned and well-understood theoretical knowledge.

I also recommend the following activities to improve technical skills:

• Taking online courses on platforms like Coursera, Pluralsight, and Udemy for different technologies.
• Participating in technical conferences, blogs, and open-source projects.
• Engaging in active communication and proactiveness within the team.
• Actively participating in code reviews.
• Working with a mentor and reading books suited to your level.
• Analyzing existing development work to understand and adopt best practices.

Share more about the best (or worst) interviews you've conducted.

For me, the best interviews are those that:

• Have led to extending and accepting an offer from talented candidates who have become part of my teams.
• Have been an opportunity to provide guidance for a candidate’s further development when I decided not to proceed due to gaps in their technical knowledge.

Looking back, I wouldn’t describe any interview I’ve conducted as a bad one because I have always ensured that such situations don’t arise.

How do you evaluate a candidate during an interview—based solely on their theoretical knowledge, or is their approach to solving a problem/task more important to you? What other factors do you consider when making a decision?

The evaluation of a candidate during an interview is based on a careful and in-depth analysis of how they think while applying their theoretical knowledge.

Other important factors for me include:

• Creativity, flexibility, and analytical skills in solving the given task.
• Ability to think logically, ask the right questions, and handle situations where knowledge is lacking.
• Communication style and explanation skills.
• Depth of technical knowledge.

What would you like candidates to know about the interview process in your company?What could be helpful for them in their preparation?

The interview processes in my current company follow the already described practices and requirements.

Share a funny story from your experience as an interviewer :)

During an interview, I asked a candidate why they were applying for this position at our company. Their short answer was:
"Because I want you to develop me."

To their surprise, my response was:
"I won’t develop you—I will create opportunities for growth, and it’s up to you how you take advantage of them."

At that moment, the candidate stood up, bowed, and left the interview, saying:
"Then this is not the right place for me. Goodbye."

In another interview, I asked a candidate:
"What does MVC mean?"

Their response was:
"I don’t know. Do you know? Maybe you can explain it to me."