Knowing how one specific system really behaves. Docs only get you part of the way. Recently I spent a lot of time running an old Microsoft API side by side with its replacement, and a good part of the differences aren't written down anywhere. AI reads docs well, but it can't know what's missing from them.
An entirely new job? Or do you mean a new job as a different type software engineer? I'm afraid that in these days of AI software development the major differences between two capable software engineers is their AI skills and, perhaps, their physical appearance so, brush your hair, dress nice, smile and dazzle them with your ability to steer coding agents.
Knowing how one specific system really behaves. Docs only get you part of the way. Recently I spent a lot of time running an old Microsoft API side by side with its replacement, and a good part of the differences aren't written down anywhere. AI reads docs well, but it can't know what's missing from them.
As the candidate, ask good questions:
An Engineering Leader's Behavioral Interview Template (2025) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43799184
This was actually a great read!
Put yourself in the shoes of someone hiring a software engineer. What do you think you would be looking for?
So my main guess is on basically being able to map business requirements into business logic, but that is also hard to grasp on an interview.
What about system architecture, tradeoffs, handling ambiguity, judgment, communication clarity, domain expertise, testing strategy, etc.?
Yeah those are great points actually
An entirely new job? Or do you mean a new job as a different type software engineer? I'm afraid that in these days of AI software development the major differences between two capable software engineers is their AI skills and, perhaps, their physical appearance so, brush your hair, dress nice, smile and dazzle them with your ability to steer coding agents.
Yeah, more like the same role on a different project