Agent skill · marketing growth · erichowens
hiring-manager-deep-dive
Prepares for hiring manager rounds at Staff+ (L6+) level — scope of impact, influence without authority, ambiguity navigation, mentorship, strategic thinking. Use when practicing HM rounds
Why this skill is useful
Provides structured frameworks and insights on navigating hiring manager rounds that are specific to L6+ roles, which the AI wouldn't reliably generate on its own.
What it needs
About 8k tokens when loaded. Last updated 2026-07-14. 180 stars on the source repository.
What this skill does
Hiring Manager Deep Dive The hiring manager round is the highest-signal evaluation of whether a candidate operates at the target level. It is less about technical depth and more about scope of impact, ability to navigate ambiguity, influence without direct authority, and strategic thinking. The HM is answering one question: "Would I trust this person to own a critical workstream independently?" When to Use Use this skill for: Preparing for a hiring manager round at L6/Staff+ level Calibrating story depth to demonstrate target-level scope Structuring project narratives around leadership and impact Practicing follow-up resilience (surviving 3 levels of "why?") Understanding what separates L5 answers from L6+ answers NOT for: Coding interview preparation (use senior-coding-interview) System design rounds (use ml-system-design-interview) Behavioral/values fit rounds (use values-behavioral-interview) Resume or CV writing (use cv-creator) Career narrative extraction (use career-biographer) --- The 6 Dimensions of Staff+ Signal Hiring managers evaluate candidates across six dimensions. Every answer you give should register on at least 2-3 of these. Dimension L5 (Senior) Signal L6+ (Staff) Signal Weight --- --- --- --- Technical Depth Solves hard problems in their domain Sets technical direction for a domain; others follow their lead 15% Scope of Impact Delivers features for their team Drives outcomes across teams or the org 25% Ambiguity Navigation Executes well on defined problems Finds the right problem to solve; creates clarity from chaos 20% Influence Without Authority Convinces teammates Aligns engineers, PMs, and leadership across orgs without reporting lines 20% Mentorship & Team Growth Helps teammates with code reviews Develops engineers' careers; shapes team culture and hiring bar 10% Strategic Thinking Understands their team's roadmap Connects technical decisions to business outcomes and multi-year strategy 10% Key insight: At L5, technical depth carries you. …
How to use it
Reference it in AdaL, Claude Code, Cursor or any coding agent — nothing to install:
@skills erichowens/hiring-manager-deep-dive