So I have an interview coming up! 😳
I am definitely excited and would like to use this thread as a reference on what people do in order to prepare for an interview, or even advice. The one I have is software related but this discussion is open for any general interview. Thanks!
Top comments (16)
Good luck!
Here are a few articles that might help:
Coding Interview Tips
Parker Phinney
Technical Interview Teardown
Serena
11 Mistakes To Avoid On A Technical Interview
Elena
Thank you for all the great articles.
Get plenty of rest the night before.
Try not to stress yourself out. It's only a job. In the grand scheme of things, there are many things in your life that are far more important.
Deep breath. Hold. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Release.
Personal hygiene is important.
Know the dress code. If it is a suit-and-tie kind of place, interview with a suit-and-tie. If it is a cut-offs and t-shirt kind of place, interview with slightly nicer apparel but still in the same vein. (I almost did not get a job because I wore a suit-and-tie to a place that was flip-flops and tank-tops.)
Best foot forward. A good portion of any job is connecting with people... and those are social skills. Saying hello, goodbye, thank you, shaking hands, being polite.
Never ever try to bullshit anything. If you don't know something, say you don't know. Interviewers can smell bullshit a mile away.
Follow up the interview with a thank you message.
If it becomes clear to you that the job is not for you, you are empowered to cut the interview process short. Don't waste your time, nor theirs.
Yeah thank you for the advice. I notice I do do that sometime. Like stepping back and slowing down makes a huge difference. It helps with thinking the problem through. Helps avoid little mistakes. And compose thought better explain what you are setting up to achieve. I think this comment although pretty basic is something that can't be overlooked and is invaluable, thank you.
Read up on the company you are interviewing for. Think of what you want out of the job. Come up with sensible questions to ask your interviewer about your role, their way of working, their product and market, etc.
That's it. Companies need to be pretty much begging me on their knees for me to even show up for an interview; so not going to put a lot of effort in them. Really, interviews are about deciding whether you want to take a job that has been offered to you. If they have somebody better (doubtful), I encourage them to sign them as quick as they can.
This definitely will help. I didn't really know too much on the company before applying. I encourage anyone to practice this.
Awesome. Hope the interview goes well!
For a first "meet and greet" type interview my advice is to research the company. Who they are, what they do, who their clients and/or what their products are and prepare a couple of questions about that. This will allow you to show that you prepared for the interview during it by asking something like "when I was reading your website I saw that you have X product/client/philosophy, it looks very interesting, can tell me more about that?".
I will also prepare questions about the role itself by reading the job description and asking some questions about the skills, experience, and type of person they are looking for. Not only find out more details, but when there are matches this gives the opportunity to mention that.
For example (web context): Q: "I see that you are looking for a back-end focused developer who can do some front-end as well, is that correct?" A: "Yes". Follow up statement: "Great, I used to be full stack but have been working in back-end focused roles for a few years, so that's definitely my area of strength".
Where possible I try to give examples of where I have used those skills or worked on similar projects, or with similar clients that they have.
Regardless of how much experience (or not) you may have, the key thing is to be positive and interested in them and what they do. If at the end of the interview you would still like to work for them, then say so - let them know that you are very interested and keen to progress to the next step of the interview process.
Thank you, and yeah great examples.
This is huge! I used to get nervous and anxious before interviews. I think my perspective changed when I read an article that went something like "they need you just as much as you need them". It made me realize that the interview goes both ways. In an interview it's important to not forget that you can deny the company as well. It becomes less I hope I make it in to lets see if we can collaborate.
Best of luck, here's my take on it...link to article
Really get to know the company. Demonstrate how your skills and knowledge apply to their needs and goals. It's all about fit.
Thank you article definitely helped.
Good luck!
Best thing you can do - rest before the interview. Also to obtain some more experience on how to pass an interview you can easily find in google previous experience of other people or even assign few interviews and participate in all of them :)
The thing is that you can never be prepared for 100%
Yes! Thank you so much for the advice. And yeah I keep feeling theres going to be a curve ball thrown in.
I'm biased but I would suggest to check the FullStack.Cafe - Distraction Free Tech Interview Preparation App for FullStack Devs I've launched and working on as a side project. It currently contains ~1500 Tech Q&As plus a lot of helpful articles and designed for high-focus interview preparation. Good luck!
Check this out -
dev.to/_anshuman26/how-do-i-prepar...
Be human, be real. Show your interest in the technologies you are working with and the ones you could work with, with willing to learn and improve every day.
Good luck!