4 ms·

Not all too much - I think I’m pretty personable but what kinds of things should I maybe watch for or try to prepare for?

byoung2 7y ago
Former director of engineering here... When I interview a candidate what I'm looking for is creative thinking, ability to solve problems. I like to hear about programming challenges you have faced, and how you solved them, or creative ways you've found to make processes more efficient. I'll ask you to describe some complex system you built in simple terms. I'll ask about ways you've found to save the company money, or use fewer resources. Even if your interviewers don't ask you these, you can work them into your answers and really set yourself apart from other candidates who only know algo and nothing else. An easy way to word these if you're no Shakespeare is to use the SAR (situation, action, result) format. For example: Interviewer: Tell me about a major project you led [that saved the company money|made operations more efficient] You: At my last company, we had a series of 100 web crawlers running on EC2 at a cost of $5000 per month. I realized that they sat idle 80% of the time since requests were unpredictable. I changed the architecture to make use of AWS Lambda instead, and reduced overall compute costs by 40%, while reducing a potential security risk.
- jppope 7y ago
  well said. good advice
jppope 7y ago
*Agree w/ using the SAR format... particularly the outcomes are a big deal. First, if you aren't looking up what questions they are going to ask on the internet you're doing it wrong. Obv, not every company has had people post the questions online, but if they're up you should read through them. When you tell your stories, make sure each story has a beginning, middle, and end... too often people lose track of their point towards the end and just keep on going on. Depends on the company, but dropping the names of packages and frameworks gives companies some familiar ground to evaluate you. The guy that hired me at my last company actually referenced that as a deciding factor for him. I think we can all admit there is a trendiness to our work sometimes. It's also really important to force the interview into a conversation... you need to be asking questions throughout the process as well, and making them have to think about how they should be impressing you too. You should be "Interviewing the Interviewer"... This is important because talented people are more worried where they will end up for a few years. It's also a signal that you aren't desperate.

byoung2 7y ago

Former director of engineering here... When I interview a candidate what I'm looking for is creative thinking, ability to solve problems. I like to hear about programming challenges you have faced, and how you solved them, or creative ways you've found to make processes more efficient. I'll ask you to describe some complex system you built in simple terms. I'll ask about ways you've found to save the company money, or use fewer resources. Even if your interviewers don't ask you these, you can work them into your answers and really set yourself apart from other candidates who only know algo and nothing else. An easy way to word these if you're no Shakespeare is to use the SAR (situation, action, result) format. For example: Interviewer: Tell me about a major project you led [that saved the company money|made operations more efficient] You: At my last company, we had a series of 100 web crawlers running on EC2 at a cost of $5000 per month. I realized that they sat idle 80% of the time since requests were unpredictable. I changed the architecture to make use of AWS Lambda instead, and reduced overall compute costs by 40%, while reducing a potential security risk.

jppope 7y ago
well said. good advice

jppope 7y ago

*Agree w/ using the SAR format... particularly the outcomes are a big deal. First, if you aren't looking up what questions they are going to ask on the internet you're doing it wrong. Obv, not every company has had people post the questions online, but if they're up you should read through them. When you tell your stories, make sure each story has a beginning, middle, and end... too often people lose track of their point towards the end and just keep on going on. Depends on the company, but dropping the names of packages and frameworks gives companies some familiar ground to evaluate you. The guy that hired me at my last company actually referenced that as a deciding factor for him. I think we can all admit there is a trendiness to our work sometimes. It's also really important to force the interview into a conversation... you need to be asking questions throughout the process as well, and making them have to think about how they should be impressing you too. You should be "Interviewing the Interviewer"... This is important because talented people are more worried where they will end up for a few years. It's also a signal that you aren't desperate.