May 25, 2020
Hello all, long time no hear 👋
During all the chaos that is happening in the world at the time of writing this, I decided to change jobs.
Before I did, I had the opportunity to conduct a few interviews and there was one common thing I noticed among all the rejected interviewees, it was that they didn't ask us (the interviewers) enough (in some cases even any) questions and seemed uninterested in the whole process.
They just looked like they wanted to get it over with, which I can understand, interviews are never fun as you and your knowledge is being put on the spot. You are being judged by every decision you make.
Yet, that doesn't mean you shouldn't look at it as a good learning and fun experience.
You get to see how another company handles the process, you get a chance to ask the people who worked on it and see what made them make certain decisions, show them how you are eager to understand and curious about the processes.
Try and understand their tech stack and how it all works together (broad overview, of course).
At the end of the day, you are looking at your potential future colleagues and the team's principals, how can you not be interested?
Most people always think interviews are one-sided, but the company and people doing the interview are being interviewed by you just as much as you are being interviewed by them.
Always try and arrive early, 5-10 minutes, so you can scout the vibe around the company before you go for an interview.
Below are a few suggestions of the questions I try and get answered when in an interview (some answers might be in the job role, if so, please ignore it):
- Why are you searching for more people?
- What do you know about this company?
- Ask more about a technology implementation if they are willing to share
- Do you use many in-house tools?
- Do you contribute back to open-source projects? (if used)?
- Do you have a training budget (often companies don't list them as a benefit for some reason, but a lot do them do have a budget (always nice to get some certs))?
- What is your uptime (if they have a service with a non-visible uptime, and they deal with public-facing services) - this can tell you a lot about a company and their culture
And remember, there is nothing wrong if you don't get the role, you might not be a good fit, this doesn't mean you are bad, it just means the company has a different view/approach with which you don't align, just keep looking and don't be discouraged.
Or you might not be good enough, if this is the case, again, don't be discouraged, keep doing interviews and come back in a few years and show them what you learned and why they would be happy to have you!
Have fun!
Cover Photo by Javier Allegue Barros on Unsplash
