In talking to my Glean agent last, I realized I’ve run 50+ interviews for Solutions Architect (SA) and SA Manager in the last three months. Reflecting on the candidates who were hired and those who came close, I wanted to share a few best practices. It really comes down to soft skills and strong fundamentals.

Hopefully this helps folks looking for a new opportunity. This is tailored to Solutions Architect roles in any tech company, but the same principles apply to TPM roles as well.

At Databricks, we take pride in raising the bar and bringing in the best in the industry. We will look for excellence in all of these areas!

Here we go…

1) Strong communication. Executive presence. Technical confidence.
Do you project confidence without sounding condescending? What’s your communication range? Can you speak crisply to the C-suite and then go deep tech conversation with practitioner (e.g. data modeling or MLOps)? Can you adjust tone and level of detail? Assertive, calm, thoughtful, easy-going. These are real skills we look for.

2) Foundational data knowledge matters.
Hard skills are teachable. Foundations take time. It can take months to teach someone the basics if they’re missing them. Relational vs non-relational databases, partitioning strategies, the small files problem. A strong foundation makes learning Databricks specifics much easier. You might know the flashiest GenAI frameworks, but weak data fundamentals will get you outcompeted.

3) Bring your POV.
Like the Challenger Sales approach suggests, always bring a point of view. Are you making me think? Are you bringing something unique? What skills or ideas do you have that actually raise the bar? For example, I shared my own ‘proprietary leadership formula’ during my management interview.

4) Cultural add over cultural fit.
I don’t hire for culture fit. I hire for culture add. What are you bringing to the table? Team mindset, bias for action, positivity. Those are table stakes. The no-asshole rule applies. No matter how strong the resume, I hire people who are genuinely invested in the success of others. Competitive, yes. But focused on growing the tide for everyone.

If I could recommend some ‘golden’ resources, these are the ones I’d suggest:

– Writing / Comm Book: Can Do Writing by  Daniel Graham
– Book: Solutions Architect’s Interview by Saurabh Shrivastava
– Book: Cracking the PM Interview by Gayle McDowell
– Sales Book: The Challenger Sale by Matthew Dixon
– Tech Book: Designing Data-Intensive Applications by Martin Kleppmann
– Tech Education: Graduate Certificate in Data Engineering or Data Science (E..g. Penn State, Harvard Extension, MIT)