What do you look for in a full stack dev bootcamp grad with 2 years of experience? Planning on getting back out there this year, and want to prepare in the coming months 🙂

I can give you my 2 cents. These are my person answers with 15 years in industry, 8 years at Meta, trained interviewers, attended hiring committee, etc... but disclosure that my company works with your demographic for interview prep (career-side and technical side) so I have professional bias. *- What would you expect an engineer with two years of experience to know?* It's not about knowledge. You are expected to be able to take a large feature that is 2 weeks to a month of work, break it down and get it done independently (which means unblocking yourself by asking the right people). *- Does seeing a bootcamp on a resume turn you off/do you prefer a degree?* In this market, and if you have less than 2 YOE then yes. You are borderline so it depends on your job/company. And regardless, the company should be front and center and 50% of the page. *- Is having a portfolio of side projects important, or is professional experience enough?* You'll hear arguments on both sides. Generally for top tier companies, portfolio doesn't matter. For startups it matters more to stand out and get a foot in the door - if you have relevant projects to the company. *- Are there specific design patterns you'd expect me to be comfortable discussing?* Less so but general understand of data structures is expected. *- How much system design knowledge is typically expected at this level?* Yes. Take a look at Hello Interview's free content on their blog (a competitor of mine) for a good list of the topics. *- What are the biggest red flags you see from candidates with \~2 years experience?* 1) Overconfidence. "I'm a senior engineer". It falls apart right away and you are immediately no hire. Which I totally understand is why you feel so nervous, but you CAN be confident in what you know and what your DON'T KNOW. And this is why my company exists and adds value, because this is extremely hard to get right and takes practice. 2) Lack of career trajectory. If you don't have promotions or increase in responsibility after 2 years that can be a strong yellow flag.

I didn't mention this in my very long reply - but building on the 'self study while at the company'. If you haven't been promoted yet I might stay and push hard for a promotion and then job hunt because that will make a world of difference in getting interviews.

This is a good starting point for them: [https://www.hellointerview.com/learn/system-design/in-a-hurry/introduction](https://www.hellointerview.com/learn/system-design/in-a-hurry/introduction)