All of us have mistakes, mistakes that we’re not proud of. This is especially true in the field of software development, where mistakes are costly and sometimes even get you fired. However, mistakes are also opportunities for growth. Growth which happens when you reflect on your mistakes so you can avoid them again in the future. In this article, I will be discussing mistakes that I’ve personally made, mistakes which (I believe) Junior Software Developers make frequently.
These mistakes are not listed in any particular order.
improper understanding of what they should do
Perhaps the most common mistake developers tend to make is having an improper understanding of what they should do during their interviews. It can be hard to know what you’re supposed to do during an interview if this is your first time ever being interviewed. But it’s still necessary for you to try your best to have a general idea. Interviewing for a new job is important. You want to make sure that you at least have some idea of what you’re supposed to do.
Not understanding why they are interviewing
You might know that companies hire people all the time without conducting any type of formal interview whatsoever. An example of this would be getting hired as an intern or maybe even being taken on after graduating from college or high school. However, there are also plenty of places that will conduct interviews before hiring somebody. Not every company does the same thing when it comes to their process (interview(s) vs. test(s)).
The interview format/process
Mistakes mentioned in the previous point tie into this one, which is something that Junior Developers often don’t understand. Different companies have different formats and processes for their interviews. For example, some companies have a “take-home” test whereas others have a live coding session or a live whiteboard session. The difference between these means of testing a candidate’s programming skills comes down to proving a point.
Some employers just want to see what you can do when being tested in your own environment. Other employers want to see how you perform under pressure. The takeaway from this mistake is simply for you to be aware of what type of interviewing process the company has so that whether it be good or bad, you will be prepared for it.
Not knowing their interviewer(s)
This ties back in with the previous mistakes, mistakes that Junior Software Developers tend to make while having an interview. Not knowing who your interviewer(s) are can lead to mistakes if you don’t do any research beforehand. It’s important that when looking for jobs, you at least have an idea of who is doing the interviewing. If questions arise during the course of your interview, you know what types of answers would best fit their style and preferences.
For example, a company might have a person conducting interviews for them who has a background in mathematics but doesn’t really know how to program at all. Another company might have somebody else doing their interviews who learned programming from scratch and is more than happy to ask you questions on higher level concepts.
These mistakes are mistakes that we all make while having an interview simply because they don’t occur very often. We need to understand them better in order to know how not to do them. I hope you find this article helpful and wish you the best of luck in your next interview! [
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