For Developers: How To Prepare for a Job Interview

Last week a friend asked me about interviews, it’s a good question because in our career we passed for a lot of interviews, sometimes to get a good job, change companies or probably you will be the interviewer, today I will try to cover both points of views to manage an Interview.
Interviews

I remembered my first interview was when I finished my thesis, it was for an internship at a financial company in Madrid, I was very nervous, I did not know how the interview process would be and I was not updated on trends in software development, it was after Easter week, I was only 21 years old, you know me I was ready to spend a relaxed time on the beach with some friends, but the interview changed everything for me, I decided to study and review some topics instead of drinks, celebrations, and fun with friends.

When you have an interview all of them has a process, the first step is talk to you and verify your information, like name, address, current job, and so on, the majority of time is with someone from human resources after that you will have a personal interview, it could be face to face or for video call, in both cases, the interview is very important to verify your experience, your knowledge, and your skills for the position you’re applying, then probably you will have a code living where you will show your skills to resolve problems or algorithms finally, you will have an exercise to resolved an interview case, sometimes you will have an extra interview with the Project manager or CEO that depends on the job position.

Some process takes a lot of time, like google or amazon, and it’s a long road to follow this process, so my first advice is “Be patient and keep calm”, you should gain time in each step to prepare for the next, especially in dev interviews so I will give some advice and recommendations for it.

Please review the job position to verify this position is for you.

Sometimes when we are searching for jobs we just join to participate in interviews but we don't review all the information about the position, for example, what are the responsibilities for the job? How long will be my job from home? Please try to review if the company and position fit with your requirements

Try to stay updated with trends in your career.

A big mistake is not follow trends and new technologies in your job.

Probably you are a developer, scrum master, or project manager with routines in your current job and same technology for all your projects, but please try to spend a small time every day to read and discover the technology world, in our career is very important because you should try to keep updated with new frameworks, new methodologies and more. It will make a big difference in your interview.

In face-to-face interview, or video call: Try to look good, and relax.

Appearance is very important: much like in a web application, you can have a perfect backend but if your application doesn’t look good, probably you can not sell your product.

It's the same with your personal look and feel: you should wear formal or semi-formal for your interview because you will show a good personal appearance and security for the position.

I know some people think.

“Hey, but I’m a genius, why should I care about my appearance?”

Well, if you're a genius, and look good, you will impress everyone!

Take your time.

Before your interview, you need to:

• prepare,
• review topics,
• do practice exercises,
• practice algorithms in hacker rank, or
• prepare your own speech for an English interview.

Some processes are long and take time. Take your time, earn the advantage.

You need to practice. 

This depends on your experience, but my recommendation here if you will write code, please write in the right way, you should apply best practices, clean code and review the final demo to refactor something or improve some features.

Show your experience, in a face to face interview or in your code.

Please try to show your experience, sometimes you have 1, 2 or more years of experience, but the interview is the perfect space to show it for your interviewer also this time is your opportunity to explain why the company should hire you.

Review basic concepts, methodologies, and good practices about coding before your interview.

Sleep well the day before the interview.

Please try to relax, it will help a lot to be focused the next day.If you don’t know the answer to some interview questions, please don’t lie, and be honest, it will avoid a lot of complications in the future and it’s a perfect time to review what are your weaknesses to improve.

Trust in your answers.

Don't doubt yourself. Ever.

You need to radiate security and confidence for everyone in your interview.

If you don’t have this skill you probably need to work on it. Confidence is as if you have the security to answer: "I don't know the answer, but I can learn it and respond then" that type of answer shows security and confidence.

Do a retrospective.

Each interview is different, but they all have almost the same process, so after that, you should take the time to review what was good or bad in your interview.

In conclusion, an interview is a good time to expose your profile, your brand or your work. I know that on the Internet you will have many posts with good interview tips or interview questions, but here I tried to tell you some hidden tips that not everyone shared.

In my next post: I'll explain the interview process from the other side: How to Get Into the Mind of Your Interviewer...

Until next time.

Also published here.