Hey Reader,

Welcome back to Guided Growth where we talk about the skills that accelerate your career beyond just writing great code.

This is The Unwritten Rules #3: a 4-part series where I share the career rules that exist but nobody shared them with you.

Last month, I gave two candidates the same debugging problem. A piece of code with a subtle concurrency bug.

Candidate A stared at the code. Read line by line. Traced the execution manually. After 20 minutes, found the issue.

Candidate B looked at the code. Within 2 minutes, said: "This looks like a race condition. I'd normally paste this into Copilot to confirm my hunch, then write a test to reproduce it. Can I walk you through the test?"

Both candidates found the bug. I picked Candidate B.

Not because they were smarter. Because they showed me how they'd actually work on my team. They used AI as a thinking tool, not a crutch, not a replacement, but leverage.

Here's what most engineers don't realize: most job descriptions in 2026 don't mention AI skills. But hiring managers are silently watching for it. We won't ask "do you use AI tools?" We'll just notice you're slower than the person who does.

Three things give it away without me asking:

1. They describe workflows, not just solutions. "I'd run this through Copilot first, then review the output myself." Process, not just answers.
2. They question AI output. "AI tools hallucinate on edge cases, so I'd verify against the docs." They're thinking, not blindly trusting.
3. They talk about speed, not just correctness. "The fastest way to get here is..." Speed as a value.

I'm not saying become an AI expert. I'm saying use AI the way you use Google as a natural part of how you work. Because in your next interview, the person across from you might be watching for exactly this.

This was the 3rd Unwritten Rule. If this series helped you, forward the issue that helped you most to a friend who's interviewing.

That's the best way to help them and to grow this newsletter.

— Abhishek

The Guided Growth