

Developer Job Interview Tips - jsonmez
http://simpleprogrammer.com/2013/03/24/10-developer-job-interview-tips-to-land-the-best-job-you-can/

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zerovox
Just thought I would give my impressions of how this _might_ go down if you
interviewed for the large start-up I work for. (I'm speaking from my own
experience, not on behalf of the company in any way.)

1.Why? You're resume will be glanced at, not much more. We just care about how
much experience you've had, so we can aim the right kind of questions at you.
(You like Haskell? Try this) As long as you don't claim to be a master in ten
languages after 2 years real world experience, it really wont matter. Just
list your alma mater, your previous companies, and what you like working on or
with, and you'll do fine.

2\. I'd recommend against it, you'll come off as creepy if you mention or slip
up any of the details. And whilst you're at it, avoid looking up common
interview questions for the company, everyone uses different ones and it's
extremely obvious if you already know the optimal solution. And if you do get
asked a question you know the answer, or someone else from the company has
already asked you, tell the interviewer and they'll ask you something else.
It's worth it, anything sneaky or underhand comes off extremely badly and is
usually enough to get you rejected.

3\. I've rejected many candidates from internal referrals, and usually people
are pretty honest with their referrals, they'll say if they don't know enough
about you. It's not in anyone's interest to hire someone who isn't a 100% fit,
so if you ask me for a referral, I'll only fight for you if I know you're good
for the job and my colleagues will do likewise. There's a difference between
asking for a referral and being asked to apply. If you really want an 'in',
find the companies GitHub and start sending pull requests, if your code is
good, you take the reviewers advice and get your patches merged, someone will
get in contact.

4\. Finally, one I agree with! You'll be asked a range of algorithm based
questions, coding based questions and more, so get comfortable with these
kinds of questions.

5\. Again, I agree. But it's usually obvious if you're feigning passion, so be
passionate and let it show. Push for the optimal solutions, if you don't get
there, ask what the best solution was. When they ask if you have any
questions, ask what they do, what their role is and what you could end up
doing. Figure out if it is for you, and if so, say so!

6\. Maybe this applies to other companies, but we wont ask 'trap' questions.
They aren't useful to us, they're too easy to avoid. However, avoiding a
question is never a good idea. Also, questions like "What was the result the
last time you and a coworker disagreed on a technical issue?" aren't trap
questions, they are real life situations. These things happen, and as long as
you can demonstrate that you are reasonable and mature, you'll do fine. Even
if you say, "I tested both hypothesis, and he was correct, so we went with his
way, I apologized and learnt from the situation", that okay! We're engineers
interviewing you, we realise people can be wrong, showing an ability to learn
is great.

7\. I agree! Don't lie. That should go without saying.

8\. Again, that should go without saying.

9\. Again, as with the algorithms one above, if you don't know what a linked
list is, you're applying to the wrong job.

10\. This probably the only non-trivial point of the article. Building things
is a great add a bit to your CV. I can't speak for my colleagues, but of I
have a candidate that has build something I can take a look at, I'll spare 5
minutes before the interview to take a look, especially if it sounds
interesting or complex. From me, expect a question about how you got round a
certain problem or how you built it. It gives you a great chance to show your
enthusiasm and show that you want to build and ship code.

These are just _my_ impressions, not definitive by any means, I'd be
interested to other experiences interviewing(or indeed being interviewed).

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joezhou
That picture diminishes the credibility of the article so much!

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mjibson
The first tip was to hire someone to create your resume. Who still cares about
resumes?

When I am screening resumes, the only things I care about, in order of
importance, are: github repos, well-answered stackoverflow questions, a
technical blog. I barely even read over the education and experience sections.
If a candidate doesn't have documented, public proof of quality, I have no way
of assessing their quality and always say no hire in this case.

~~~
head-chef
And you likely miss out on a ton of great talent. Not everybody can put up
code publicly or speak technically on sites.

~~~
mjibson
Then how can I judge them? Saying they did cool stuff? Everyone already says
that.

~~~
head-chef
You interview them and give them a lab.

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kellros
Pretty good article and I'm looking forward to watching your course on
pluralsight. My wifes' friend works as an IT recruiter and we discussed in
depth what myself as a developer looks for in recruiters (mixed interests -
recruiters favoring employers over hires, basic knowledge regarding the spec
the candidate is being interviewed for etc.). After our discussion, she
subscribed to pluralsight so she could gain introductory knowledge on some
technologies when she is looking for candidates - even though she is not a
developer, such knowledge is invaluable (ex. knowing a sharepoint developer
requires asp.net experience, or just some basics on JQuery/Scrum/Kanban etc.).

I've only been an interviewer a couple of times for dev positions, but I tend
to look at attitude, passion for the job/industry (incl. self improvement
regarding practice and learning via books/training courses), participation in
communities/projects and freelancing experience aspects. If someone can get
regular freelancing gigs that pay money, then it's a good bet that the
developer is able to earn his keep and is pretty self-sufficient.

~~~
jsonmez
Thanks!

I agree with you about the things to look for in a developer. Especially self
improvement. I often ask developers how they keep themselves current and I
either get really good answers or confounded looks.

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jaimebuelta
God... Those pictures... The.. Googles do... nothing!

