Setting Up & Preparing For Interviews
Once you have decided which companies you'd like to interview with, it is now time to make sure you're prepared for each of your interviews. I know I can’t cover everything, but I have done my best to reflect on and note everything that I think may help you in your journey to find your next role. I’m rooting for you!
Tips for setting up your interviews:
If the company tries to get me to say my desired salary, I always decline and instead try to urge them to tell me the salary range for the role. Every time I have done this, the salary range has been significantly higher than my desired salary. If I had given the company a number first, I would have sold myself short. This is especially true for people that are underpaid.
Ask the company for a schedule so you'll know what each interview covers and what job title the interviewer holds.
Ask what is expected of you in the interview -- some companies told me they wanted to see how I work through problems, while other companies wanted to see how well I collaborate with interviewers or how swiftly I could create a working solution.
Ask if you will be expected to use a particular platform or tool during your interview. If so, get acquainted with that tool before your interview. If you prefer to work on your own machine, some companies will allow you to do so.
If it's a technical interview, ask what types of questions they ask (ie: coding katas vs. real world problems), if you're allowed to use Google during the interview, and if the interviewer should be viewed as a collaboration partner or spectator.
Figure out how you prefer your interviews to be scheduled. Companies would often give me the option to do multiple interviews in a day or spread the interviews out. At first I preferred to spread the interviews out, but keeping multiple companies on the same schedule is difficult so I eventually opted to do multiple interviews in a day (aka "on-sites") with multi-day breaks between on-sites.
Tips for preparing for your interviews:
Don't get too tied to a role. I highly recommend having more than one interview in the works. That way any negative feedback doesn't hit so hard.
Have connections at the company? Ask the connection if they have interviewing advice for you. If you have the names and titles of the folks you're interviewing with, ask your connection if they know the interviewers. There were times when I realized my interviewer knew some of my closest friends. While this doesn't guarantee me a job, realizing I have some connection with the interviewer put me at ease and it removes some of the uncertainty that comes with interviewing.
Make sure you can speak to every bullet point on your resume -- don't get caught slippin'.
Google common soft skill or management (if you're going for management roles) questions for your role and have answers for them as well as examples.
Prepare questions that are tailored to your interviewer
Prepare questions that give you a sense of if you'd enjoy working on this team
For system design preparation, imagine you’re building the company's platform from the ground up and make a rough architecture design. Then imagine adding functionality to the platform. You obviously don't know the ins and outs of their platform, but do your best to come up with hypotheticals.
When I first started interviewing, I made myself do katas every day, and I quickly grew tired of that. I then realized there are other ways to keep your mind active -- play intellectual games, do tasks with your non-dominate hand, do a task in the dark, read, etc. I found switching up tasks to be an easy way to stay motivated and mentally active
Overall technical interview study material:
While I have never read this book from cover to cover, being able to read specific sections of Cracking the Coding Interiew at various points of my interview process was helpful.
System Design Interview Study Materials:
System Design interviews terrified me until I read System Design Interview. I loved how Alex started the book by talking about the different common pieces of an architectural design and then walked through several problems piece by piece. This allowed me to first get a high level picture and then focus more narrowly on exactly how I'd walk through a design in an interview.
If you're studying for more advanced technical roles and want to dig deeper into scalability and maintenance, check out Designing Data Intensive Applications
AWS's Well Architectured Tool
Tips for caring for yourself during the interview process:
Figure out how you like to prepare for your interviews. Do you prefer accountability partners or solo studying? How do you absorb information the best? I opted to mainly study alone, but I had a weekly coding nights with close friends to keep me accountable. I realized I learn best by reading some general information about a subject and then coming up with simple real world implementations.
Interviews can be stressful, how do you like to decompress? For me, I love a nice walk through nature, time with my innocent and adorable nephews, working out or giggling with loved ones.
Job offer rejections can also hurt your confidence, and since confidence is a great asset to have during interviews, try to find ways to keep your confidence in tact. What things in your life recharge you and add to your self confidence bucket? I have an abundance of brilliant and kind people in my life, and they all believe in me. So when I knew I would have a string of interviews, I'd plan to end my day with at least one of those amazing people that I admire. Hearing them believe in me on days when I didn't fully believe in myself kept me going. I'd also occasionally write down the accomplishments I was most proud of. Or reflect on times when I didn't think I would succeed, but I did. These little reminders are invaluable.
If you're doing multiple job interviews, sometimes you need a break. And that's okay! Take care of yourself so that you can bring your A game to each interview.
If you bomb an interview and you're feeling a bit bummed, check out this long thread of other folks telling stories about when they bombed an interview. Interviews are tough so you're bound to have some that don't go your way. It's completely normal. Eventually you'll find your perfect role.
The hours leading up to the interview:
Pour yourself a glass of water and have it ready at the desk you'll be interviewing at. Talking while nervous can make your mouth surprisingly dry.
I like to physically surround myself with mementos that remind me that my loved ones believe in and love me. So before the interview, I place a few small ones on my desk.
Do something relaxing -- meditate, go on a walk, stretch, read a book.
If you have a lot of anxious energy, do some pushups or jumping squats
Test your setup to make sure there won't be any technical issues (ie: open Google Meet or Zoom).
Have your computer charger plugged in and ready for action.
If you're interviewing virtually, make sure your area is well lit so you're clearly visible in the video chat. It can be hard to connect with an interviewer if they're struggling to see you.
During the interview:
Remember that you're interviewing them too. Always lead with kindness, but ask questions to try to assess if this is indeed a place you would like to work.
If you're nervous, I suggest admitting it to your interviewer. I received a lot of positive support when I was open about how anxious I was.
Double check expectations. There can be a lot of moving pieces with interviews so there have been times when I realized the recruiter and the interviewer were on entirely different pages. Because of that, I would double check expectations before diving into technical interviews.
In line with double checking expectations, it's okay to ask clarifying questions if you think something is awry. For example, you may think the interviewer is interviewing you for the wrong role (ie: they're asking you Business Analyst questions when you're a Software Engineer 😬). Asking up front can keep you from having to do additional interviews.
You may feel the need to immediately answer every question, but it's okay to say "That's a good question. Let me think about that for a moment".
Try to keep your answers as concise as possible. If the interviewer has additional questions, they will ask
If you're working through a problem, ask clarifying questions and talk about alternative solutions as well as tradeoffs.
This one is kind of bold, but I have found it to be useful: at the end of the interview, ask the interviewer if anything you said made them feel like you weren't a good fit for the position. Some folks will say yes and this gives you an opportunity to quell any of their concerns.
I know it's impossible to cover every single bit of interview advice in one post, but I hope this brain dump helps at least a few folks go into their interview more confident. I am wishing each and every one of you success in your job hunt. Cheers folks.