Interview tips

How do I prepare to talk about my dream job? This question seems to spend sleep with the eyelids very often. Not only people who are just taking their first steps in their careers – even those already quite familiar in the IT market.

In this post, I will try to give you some basic tips that will certainly help you prepare properly for the conversation – so let’s get started!
The first step is behind us. Or the first steps. We sent the CV, we went through, more or less, a detailed screening. Now we have a face-to-face meeting with formidable recruiters. We will try to tell you how to prepare for the conversation itself. What to look for, what is crucial and what is less important.

First: logistics

Remember where and at what time you have an appointment. Check if you really know the exact address – many times we have had to deal with the situation that the candidate instead of appearing at the time came 30 minutes later. Or an hour. Or not at all, explaining that he was late for the tram. Or that he went to the wrong address.

Truism, truism, but it’s really worth trying to get to the address you want at the right time. Notorious translation of the conversation, being late, bumping into the last minute does not look promising for a potential employer. Oh, it’s also worth planning whether the city’s traffic will thwart our plans.

Second: interview

If you did not do this before sending your CV to the desired company, then now is the right time to collect all the information you need. For example, what a particular company does. What projects does it carry out. What technologies they use. Do they allow you to devote part of your working time to self-development. Whether the employer (co-)funds trips to conferences or trainings. Whether a particular company supports/uses open source (then there is a good chance that the created code is made public, which in turn gives you a chance to evaluate somehow the code produced in the company).

Check if a friend is not working (he worked – although former employees often provide not very objective information) in the same company where you go for an interview – first-hand information is always the most accurate. During the conversation, you may have the opportunity to shine a erlib knowledge of the company, to show knowledge of what your future employer is doing. And that really helps – it’s not uncommon for a huge commitment on the candidate’s side to be his card titled out of jail free card welcome on board!

Third: You

Collect and prepare information about what you have done so far. Make a short summary, include everything that constitutes your strength (projects, roles and responsibilities in projects, experiences gained from studies, etc.), everything you want to boast about (note that you can cleverly bypass what you do not want to talk about), all that you want to talk about.

Fourth: again you

We will say this straight from the bridge: it is not worth coming for an interview after a sleepless night (because then it turns out that candidates of the kind of „firecracker” turned out to be a simple misfire), or after a night during which lightly carbonated water was not the only drink. It has often happened to host a candidate for a conversation who was not in his best psychophysical condition. The fact that it looked unprofessional is still a small beer. But the fact that you can lose the receipt of the „welcome on board” card with this attitude is probably a bigger problem. Opinion in the WORLD of IT can drag on for many years, and probably stupidly by such stupid behavior to get yourself into trouble.

Relax.

Fifth, the most important thing: no spins

We assume you know this and that from programming. That you don’t have to read how the loops work and what it is if. Therefore, we advise – approach the conversation, or at least its technical part, with such knowledge in your head as you have, for example, a few days before the meeting. Once, that you give a full picture of your person to a potential employer, two that you minimize the risk of falling into the trap of „something dawns there, but I do not know where / what” – many times during conversations we saw that the candidate only briefly became familiar with the issue. Be just a look at the book, or hear it and that from someone. But definitely not used in practice, and this unfortunately becomes noticeable very easily and very quickly. And unfortunately your quotes at such moments sharply descend down.

Therefore, we advise – approach the conversation calmly (I know, I know – it’s easy to write while sitting in front of the computer). Show your true side, use well-established knowledge, don’t learn at the last minute. And possible mistakes do not worry too much – when applying for an adequate position to your knowledge, or the experience of recruiters take into account the answers given, and their content.

After all, there is no person who knows the answers to all the questions.

With this philosophical statement, I will slowly finish the first entry, designed to help you prepare for the interviews. Of course, more details are happy, and how!, we will give personally or any electronically – feel free to contact us!