Training for Interview Combat (The Jungle, Chapter 5)

Last time, I performed well enough on my phone interviews to be invited in for more intimate encounters.

Technical Interview Research

My algorithm skills are weak. I started reading Introduction to Algorithms to help rectify this. It contains a lot of good information, but it’s a bit academic for my taste.

I had read quite a bit of Effective Java, but I didn’t own a copy, so I bought it. This helped to ensure my familiarity with the fundamentals of the language.

I was in a bookstore one day, and started skimming through Programming Interviews Exposed. I was unsure whether it was worth a purchase, but I decided to buy it anyway. It wasn’t great, but it was definitely worth reading.

I started making a list of good technical questions that I could be asked during my interviews. Some I thought up myself, but most I found in blogs or other online resources.

http://del.icio.us/matth/career is where I save any “career” oriented links. I’ll highlight some of my favorites.

The Guerilla Guide to Interviewing has become the standard reference on this topic. If you haven’t read it, do so immediately.

Technical Interview at Amazon and Microsoft was extremely helpful. I really appreciate the detail he provided.

Interviewing Ruby Progammers should be enough to terrify anyone looking for a Ruby job.

My Favourite Interview Question is a thorough investigation of how a candidate thinks. Take Control of Your Interview is also good stuff.

How to Pass a Silicon Valley Software Interview is relevant outside of Silicon Valley as well.

Interviewing Programmers helped me to understand what my interviewers may be looking for.

My Favorite Java Developer Interview Questions is very Java-centric but still useful.

And What You Need to Know will keep me busy for, say, the next 10 years or so.

I am deeply indebted to the authors of these great works.

Sample Interview Questions

I continuously updated a file of possible interview questions, with notes on how I planned to answer them.

I found it useful to cover as many categories as I could. Here are examples of each:

General coding questions

Write a program that prints all prime numbers between 0 and 100.

Java questions

Tell me about wait, notify, and notifyAll.

Design questions

What objects are required in a restaurant reservation system?

Engineering questions

What process do you follow for performance tuning of an application?

Technical personality questions

Describe the hardest bug you have tracked down and how you fixed it.

General personality questions

Tell me about a problem you had with a teammate.

Generic questions

Why should we hire you?

Company Research

I dug a little deeper with my research into the companies I would be speaking with. Since I had a lot of other things to study, I didn’t overdo it — I just tried to come up with a few good questions to ask.

My recruiter helped me quite a bit here also. He gave me some good notes on the companies that he connected me with, along with advice on what to expect during the interviews.

Questions I Should Ask

• How is performance evaluated here?
• How do you estimate tasks?
• How are your applications hosted? (Company performs hosting for clients, or clients host applications themselves?)
• Can you tell me more about what you do here?
• What you do like about working here?

Travel Planning

The typical stuff. Getting my flight and rental car arranged.

My girlfriend printed out directions to every interview that I had. Since my schedule was so tight, I was frequently driving from one interview to another with not much time to spare. She even noted restaurants along the way so that I could grab something to eat.

I will never be able to thank her enough for this.

Clothing

I generally refuse to ever wear a suit. I will, however, wear a pair of khakis, dress shirt, blazer, and tie. So I spent a fair amount of time finding clothes that would make me presentable, yet comfortable.

I want to be respectful to my interviewers, but I also don’t want to look like a tool. This is a very difficult and delicate line to walk.

Next time, I’ll discuss my face-to-face encounters.