Programming Interviews For Dummies

John Sonmez, Eric Butow

• Publisher: For Dummies
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781119565055
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Computer Science
• Subtopic: Programming
• Index: Computer Science

Get ready for interview success

Programming jobs are on the rise, and the field is predicted to keep growing, fast. Landing one of these lucrative and rewarding jobs requires more than just being a good programmer. Programming Interviews For Dummies explains the skills and knowledge you need to ace the programming interview.

Interviews for software development jobs and other programming positions are unique. Not only must candidates demonstrate technical savvy, they must also show that they're equipped to be a productive member of programming teams and ready to start solving problems from day one. This book demystifies both sides of the process, offering tips and techniques to help candidates and interviewers alike.

• Prepare for the most common interview questions
• Understand what employers are looking for
• Develop the skills to impress non-technical interviewers
• Learn how to assess candidates for programming roles
• Prove that you (or your new hires) can be productive from day one

Programming Interviews For Dummies gives readers a clear view of both sides of the process, so prospective coders and interviewers alike will learn to ace the interview.

Part 1

Finding and Hooking Your Next Employer

IN THIS PART …

Find companies that are hiring programmers and learn how to show your value to a company.

Know how companies are preparing to hire their new programmers so you can tell the interview team how you’re the right fit.

Understand how to show interviewers that hiring you will make the company more successful.

Chapter 1

What Should You Expect?

IN THIS CHAPTER

Understanding the interviewing process

Tailoring and submitting your résumés and cover letters

Learning what happens after a company expresses interest in you

Dealing with one or more job offers

Congratulations on wading into the river in your knee-high boots to find your awesome programming self a new employer. The river is running fast, so you’ve got to look sharp to find the right catch.

In this chapter, you start your fishing expedition by understanding the process to get an interview. Next, you learn what your potential employer wants so that you can tailor each résumé you send for each position.

Employers are more likely to respond if you have an application and résumé that has what they are looking for. Once you get a nibble, then you’ll start to play the numbers game. That is, it’s rare that you’ll catch your fish on the first line or even the first ten lines you cast. There are a lot of other programmers fishing at the same time you are, even if you can’t see them.

Next, you’ll need to put a lot of applications in the water and see what comes up. Some companies will call you and others will email you. And that could lead to phone screens, interviews, and tests. We give you your fly rod, landing nets, wading boots, and all your other gear that may lead to a catch — a job offer — and we explain why you may not get one.

Understanding the Interviewing Process Funnel

If you’re new to interviewing, or if you haven’t interviewed in a while, you may be surprised to find out what happens during the interviewing process. The more prepared you are before the process starts, the better your chances of success. Yes, it’s trite, but if you understand why, then you’ve already taken the first step toward your new work site.

You can think of the interviewing process as a funnel that both you and companies use to find the best match. (If you need to go to the kitchen and get a funnel as a visual reminder, we’ll wait.) Employers advertise for a programming job, get a lot of résumés stuffed into the funnel, and then respond to the best résumés that come out the bottom of the funnel, enabling worthy candidates to proceed to the next level.

You’re putting a lot of employers at the top of your funnel, too — many are companies you’ve sent résumés to and some may be companies you’ve contacted through friends or colleagues who have referred you for an open position, advertised or not.

Before you start the process, you need to make sure you not only have your ducks (or the waterfowl of your choice) in a row, but also that you are careful as you align each duck. Fortunately, your authors are experts in the duck-alignment business, so we provide guidance on how to get your résumé error-free, how to polish your presentation so you aren’t nervous or unnerved by an unanticipated question, and how to ace your tests.

We’re going to use the funnel concept in this chapter, too. That is, we’ll take all the high-level information you need to know about finding your next employer in this chapter, which is at the top of the funnel. If you want to go down the funnel and concentrate on the topics you need to work on in detail, we tell you which chapters to bookmark for future reading.

Finding Companies That Are Hiring

Searching for companies that are hiring to fill the position you’re looking for isn’t as easy and straightforward as it may seem. You not only have to know which companies are hiring, but also which companies may be relying on their network of employees to find the right candidate. That means you need to network with those employees — yesterday.

As recently as 2017, estimates are that between 70 and 85 percent of open positions are filled through professional networks than through job opening advertisements (www.payscale.com/career-news/2017/04/many-jobs-found-networking).

So, what can you do to improve your chances of hooking the company you want to work for?

Meet online

The best place to start to meet other professionals online is the professional social networking site LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com), shown in Figure 1-1. LinkedIn offers the best opportunity for meeting like-minded professionals for two compelling reasons. First, LinkedIn has over 610 million users as of February 8, 2019 (https://expandedramblings.com/index.php/by-the-numbers-a-few-important-linkedin-stats). That being so, employers look at your LinkedIn profile as well as your résumé as they decide if they want to call or email you to set up a phone screen or interview.

Source: www.linkedin.com

FIGURE 1-1: Join LinkedIn by clicking Join Now in the upper-right corner of the login page, or sign in by clicking the Sign In button.

Second, you can use LinkedIn to search for the companies you want to work for and see the profiles of the people who work for them. You may get lucky and some of the employees’ profiles will include contact information such as an email address you can use to reach out and introduce yourself. If not, then you have two options.

You can send a connection request to the employee. Once connected, members can send and receive messages within LinkedIn for free. When you send a connection request, you should introduce yourself and at least say which LinkedIn user you both have in common to enhance your chances that employee will add you as a connection.

You can also sign up for a LinkedIn Premium account, which is free for 30 days (and $29.99 per month for the Premium Career plan after that). With a LinkedIn Premium account you can send an InMail message to introduce yourself, say what your skills are, and ask for more information about job opportunities.

When you view the employee’s profile, see if the employee belongs to any LinkedIn groups and join those groups. Then you can participate in those groups by starting useful conversations or sending thoughtful responses in other conversations. In time others will respond and the employee will (hopefully) notice that you’re a valuable group member and he or she should get to know you better.

If you already have a LinkedIn profile, then you should do a lot of what we suggest above — now. If you don’t already have a LinkedIn profile, get one set up and start networking! In either case, craft your LinkedIn profile carefully and follow LinkedIn’s suggestions for creating a 100 percent complete profile. Employers will pass you by if they see that your profile isn’t 100 percent complete and/or missing crucial information you need to show to get an interview.

Meet in person

In addition to networking online, another way to help improve your chances of hooking the company you want to work for is to network in person. After all, people tend to remember you longer if they can talk to you face to face. Always be on the lookout for professional meetings that are happening in your area and go to as many as you can.

The latest issue of your local newspaper and/or business journal (if there is one) will have a calendar of upcoming events. Your local chamber of commerce website and social networking groups will likely have event calendars, too. The Meetup website (www.meetup.com) shown in Figure 1-2 is also a popular site for finding a list of in-person events about all sorts of topics.

Source: www.meetup.com

FIGURE 1-2: Click the Join Meetup button to create an account and find events that attract software developers like you.

If you go to any networking event, be sure to have business cards ready to hand out after you shake the person’s hand. The card should include your name and contact information and list your skills on the back side of the card. If you type inexpensive business cards in your favorite search engine, you’ll find websites that let you design and order cards in a jiffy, such as the VistaPrint website (www.vistaprint.com) you see in Figure 1-3.

Source: www.vistaprint.com

FIGURE 1-3: The VistaPrint website gives you plenty of options to design the right business card for you.

Look at company websites

You should look on the websites of co...