Christopher Kade

Posted on Jul 1, 2019

What's one advice you'd give to someone heading to a web development interview?

#discuss #webdev #career

I'm writing down notes for the first official episode of my podcast and since I just came out of an interview I figured I'd share some essential advice for junior developers.

What is one essential advice you'd give to someone heading out for a web dev interview?

Keep in mind that some answers will be featured in the podcast, so smile for the camera 😄

EDIT: The episode is now out, you can find it right here ! 🎉

Top comments (13)

Shawn McElroy • Jul 1 '19

Realize that the interview is two ways. You are interviewing them as much as they are interviewing you. You want to ask questions that give you an idea on how it is to work for them. How does management actually manage employees. Do each developer have 10 bosses? Just one? Do you like or get along with interviewers?

Ask them questions that you would want to know as a new employee. What would your day be like, how do you do agile development? How do teams work on parts of the product?

Some of my favorite questions are:

Where do you see the ideal candidate in 6 no the? A year? 3 years?
Is there room to grow into higher level positions?
Why did the last developer leave (if you think you can get away with asking).

Take what you would normally get as an interview question, and find out how to reverse that and ask them the same.

I like to take a notebook, like a moleskine or something, and write downy questions, then keep that open on the table with the pen. As they interview you, write responses in your book. Or ideas for new questions or responses to ones you had and they answered. Don't be afraid to ask for clarification for a question you had in order to get the answer you want.

When you take notes, it shows you are prepared, are attentive, and care about the interview.

Two more tips:

Do research on the company. Find out what problems they are solving. Figure out what problems they have that they are hiring for. Try to be the person that fills those roles and are the person they want to hire
Send a thank you letter ASAP! Always send a follow up email that king them for their time and be confident they will choose you. I always tell them that I hope to hear back soon on when I can start and help them solve their problems. Remember, as a developer you are a problem solver.

Jaime Rios • Jul 1 '19 • Edited

I do have some practical advice, thanks for asking.

Read or skim through the explanation of basic concepts we normally use without thinking about it, for example: Hoisting, closure, promises, callback functions, currying, etc.
Look again for examples of OOP and FP in JS.
Make sure you understand and are able to explain the prototype inheritance in JS and why classes are not classes in ES.
Remember interesting problems you have solved before.
Keep in mind what you value in a job so it is a win-win situation.

Here are a few ques that I look for when considering a new job:

Is it a good team? Do they solve interesting problems?
Is remote work an option?
What about a flexible schedule?
Does the pay matches the level of seniority they expect?
Are there any signs of the employer not providing a the tools for the job? This is a topic for a blog post, but a few signs might be no Front end developer using a Mac, not testing devices, restricted internet access, etc.

James Perkins • Jul 1 '19

Have questions for the developers or interviewers. I always like
'if you could change one thing at the company what would it be and why?'
and
'can you tell me about how a project typically goes.'

You can find alot about how people answer and if people answer the same.

Christopher Kade • Jul 1 '19

Absolutely James ! Questions show you're eager to learn more about the company. If you're in front of an engineer, they usually LOVE answering questions about their CI/CD and testing pipelines, their code conventions etc.

By the way, your podcast was definitely a motivation to start mine, thanks for the feature you did about the banner generator on a previous episode 😄!

James Perkins • Jul 1 '19

I look forward to listening to the podcast. Glad to feature it's a great project

Lúcás Meier • Jul 1 '19

"Why is this role open?" is another good one imo.

Max Ong Zong Bao • Jul 1 '19 • Edited

Do your homework before heading for the interview by researching the company and the person who will be interviewing you to build rapport with them.

Since I always hate the person who is coming for an interview but does not do any research about my company and expect me to believe you are interested in the company without knowing what my company do or the nature of the business we are in.

Michal Stankoviansky • Jul 2 '19

"Take it easy - nobody knows everything" - try your best, but even if you didn't know how to answer some questions, you might still get hired. Just happened to me, and I thought I screwed up the entire interview.

Saurabh Sharma • Jul 1 '19 • Edited

focus on language more than frameworks
have good side projects
practice common interview questions

Christopher Kade • Jul 1 '19 • Edited

focus on language more than frameworks

Totally, especially when it comes to Javascript. I can't recall how many times ES6 has been mentioned in interviews.

have good side projects

Definitely differentiates you from the crowd ! A full Github profile can go a long way (but of course, it doesn't always correlate to anyone's skill)

Philip Hallstrom • Jul 1 '19

Talk!

When asked a question, don't sit there and think about it in your head. Talk about what you're thinking about. Yes, it might be a little rambling, but you can prefix your answer with "I'm gonna talk through my thinking process."

If I ask you a question and you sit there for 5 minutes silent and then give me the answer I've learned almost nothing. If I can hear how you think about the problem and paths you take, that is much more insightful.