FDE Times: FDE job ads want real API depth, not just the word 'REST' on a CV

FDE Times looked at how forward deployed engineer job ads describe API skills. GenLogs' FDE ad, for example, asks for deep experience with REST APIs, webhooks and OAuth2/SAML/Auth0 flows, and also expects FDEs to turn customer needs into API specifications and data models and lead integrations with external systems. Databricks' AI FDE ad, by contrast, never names APIs, which the piece reads as an implicit requirement rather than a missing one.

The article's core point is that listing "REST" on a CV says little, because almost every description of the FDE role treats APIs as basic engineering. What stands out is evidence of having handled the places integrations break: rate-limit errors partway through a paginated sync, an access token expiring mid-job, and webhook events that arrive twice or while a service is restarting.

It suggests concrete fixes: build a small service against a public OAuth2 API that syncs paginated data, retries when rate-limited and refreshes its token; rewrite CV lines to say which systems were connected, which auth flow was used, which errors were handled and what the result was; and watch the verb in each ad, since "write API specifications" or "lead integrations" signals design ownership rather than just calling endpoints.

For engineers aiming at FDE roles, it is a practical checklist for turning a generic skills line into proof that you can make two real customer systems talk to each other.