Interviews are hard. No matter what level you're at.
Over the past 2 years, I've applied to over 300 companies, got my first (and second) software developer job, and been on both sides of the interview.
As a candidate, once I started using these strategies to approach interviews, things became a lot easier.
Check out this video for further detail:
The framework I use to approach interviews
- Build a mental model, engage your interviewer, ask questions/assumptions
- Pseudocode, think aloud, break down each step
- Write out actual code, demonstrating your thought process to the interviewer
A big mistake that I made, in the beginning, was to be silent throughout the whole process while coding. In my opinion that was a mistake, because it gave the interviewer no insight on my thought process, how I approach problems and didn't open up the interview to any conversation.
An interview is much more than perfecting the technical portion - it's also about your soft skills, communication, and general proficiency. First impressions are everything - if you're silent, you'll really hurt your chances of getting the job.
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What are your biggest challenges in interviews? Thanks for reading!
Top comments (8)
Hey Matt great article! I stopped the video to attempt the problem myself since I am in the job search at the moment. Keep up the great videos they've been really helpful! Any resources for other types of problems a React front end developer could face when interviewing? I'm very interested since I am in Silicon Valley myself. Thank you!
This is pretty much the goldmine of questions - you definitely don't have to go through all of them, but it's worth being familiar with it. Thanks so much! What kind of companies are you applying to?
github.com/sudheerj/reactjs-interv...
I prolly gonna apply to 300 companies too 😂 although I have some projects built already so it shouldn't be that hard.
Nice definitely looking to apply to a lot too! What kind of projects have you built?
Haha, nice! What technologies are you using? What companies are you applying to?
Sass (if that stills relevant) and I have a few projects on React, one with plain JS and others with plain HTML+CSS, using Grid and Flexbox. I've tried with some somehow-big companies (Hostinger, Avature) and others not so big, like 12/14 different companies. I'll update my resume with some more projects (by now I don't have any React ones listed) and send it again to other companies.
Great post, Matt! Thanks for sharing your video.
I find it fascinating that you applied to 300 companies in two years. The amount of time that goes into the admin for applications is huge, as are the interviews and onsites.
One thing we've noticed is that the more prepared candidates are for the interviews, the better. We even allowed a candidate to push their interview a whole week so they could practice their algorithms (though not every recruiter would agree with that).
Not everyone would agree with the way I approached the job search, but as someone with no experience on my resume with an irrelevant degree, the world was against me. So I focused on upping the numbers, along with honing my skills and studying. It was the best way I could think about increasing my opportunities. From my experience, the people who got solid offers out of a bootcamp generally had to apply to ~100+ companies. I wasn't in a spot where I could continue going without work, so it was survival mode