I’m in the middle of sending out applications and considering all the things I should refresh on. Does anyone have some good resources or practices they run through to get refreshed or otherwise prepared for technical and skill/personal interviews?
Ex. Sites, blogs, yt videos to refresh on data structures and algorithms. Checklist of things to look for when researching companies. Questions to ask recruiters during an interview. etc.
Head over to the website of the company go to the about section and read about their values. They usually list something like teamwork, communication, working autonomously, speed, or quality. You pick 2-3 of these values and that’s what you talk about when they ask about yourself.
For the actual technical part it’s hard to prepare for. Most people don’t actually care about you being perfect but just want to see if you actually are familiar with what you said you are. So as long as you have an idea what you are talking about you will be fine.
Even if you don’t know the answer, just come up with something that could work. Don’t just say you don’t know. Explain your train of thought as to why your solution could work. And any other ideas you might have.
I usually skim the Gang of Four design patterns because that’s something people love to ask about despite it not necessarily being something folks need to memorize for work.
I think the most important thing is to think of or look up interpersonal questions like “tell us about a time you got negative feedback” and have moments ready to talk about. If someone is asking me about HTTP verbs I know a lot off the top of my head but things like that I usually have to actively think about to remember.
I’m here because I’m interested. I’ve put in so many applications but have had no interviews despite 3 years of experience and a masters degree. Y’all let me know
Post your CV
I think you can phrase a lot of these more strongly. For example,
Provided 24-hour production support resolving issues with said system one week out of every month. Resolutions involved checking production Splunk logs, issuing bug reports, and pushing bug-fixes to production
- Receive alerts and triage issues with Splunk to identify problems in a timely manner
- Perform root cause analysis of production issues and apply hot fixes to production to ensure timely delivery of critical notifications so customer value is not impacted
Focus on jobs that don’t do white boarding
fantasize of all the ways I can hand in my resignation.
Then 3 months go by and still no offer, lower the bar and fantasize of all the ways I can hand in my resignation - but nicer
The interview starts … the interviewer asks me “Tell me about yourself.” … I respond “Did you receive my CV? I put all important details about me … right there. What questions do you have about my past jobs?” The interviewer encourages me again to tell him about myself, my past projects, etc. … Me: Awkward silence. … Me to myself: Dafuq? Should I read the CV from top to bottom OR WHAT?
They’re asking not for the info, they are asking to see how you communicate (ie “soft skills”). Your response immediately demonstrates that you do not like people, are probably a PITA to interact with, and will have a hard time collaborating with any other humans who do not think exactly like you do. The good news is that soft skills are skills, and as such they can be learned and improved on.
I’d rather they ask me a question on something for which I’m an expert (myself) and that I can prepare for, than to fire off leetcode question.
Yeah, it’s a little bit redundant, but it can break the initial tension and get the conversation going. You can also use the time to emphasize some specific aspect of your work history that you think matches up with the job req, or shows why you actually want to work there.
If they don’t ask this question/prompt, what question would you want them to ask?