DEV Community: Giovanni Trematerra

Your approach to code exercise interviews has always been wrong

Giovanni Trematerra — Thu, 17 Aug 2023 05:44:20 +0000

The right mindset to give your best

The time has come, as you open your laptop and launch the video-conference software you have been instructed to use, you start the call and boom. The interview that can change your life starts, you feel nervous, not sure what they will ask you and if you remember all the answers. You prepared yourself for this a lot. You read a lot of books about algorithms, data structures and exercises on pointers because after all is not what they ask all the time? Is not that what they are going to evaluate you on?
You can nail your code exercise interview by using the best algorithm you learned and be done in less than 5 minutes without saying a word.
The interviewers don't look impressed and ask you a lot of follow-up questions and you start wondering what you did wrong.

Let's take a step back. You have 45 minutes to show your best likewise the interviewers have 45 minutes to understand what you can bring to the company. What are they looking for to have a good evaluation of you, to figure out if you are a person they would like to work with?
They want to figure out how you would approach a problem you are not familiar with.

Talk a lot

Let's face the truth. Forty-five minutes are not a lot of time and being silent is not the best use of the time available. Before start doing anything, tell them how you are going to approach it. Voice any doubts you have and explain why you changed strategy if that happens. Changing your mind is not a sign of weakness is a sign of an open mind.
No one knows everything or remembers everything. If you don't remember something then ask for help, if you have any doubt or got stuck ask questions to unblock yourself, don't wait for the interviewer to give you hints or advice.

Offer multiple solutions

A coding exercise is nothing close to real life; most of the time, there is no silver bullet. It is important to clarify why you are picking a specific solution and offer others based on different tradeoffs. Think about the scalability or complexity of your solution and try to offer a potential strategy to address them later while you get a working solution first.

Don't let the perfection ruin everything

It should be clear that a perfect solution is not something to strive for. Start always with a naive one and improve it until you run out of time or ideas. Offer suggestions on how your code will be tested ahead of time. Pay attention to all potential edge cases and always test the preconditions.

Closing

A working solution is expected but it is not the most important part of a coding interview. The journey from the exercise asked and the working solution is.
Next time you will find yourself preparing for a coding interview not only refresh your memory on algorithms and data structures but train yourself to get into the right mindset and that means to start small, pay attention to the details, include the interviewers in your team as you all are part of a team.

Three skills I should have learnt years ago

Giovanni Trematerra — Tue, 15 Aug 2023 05:32:48 +0000

You are a fourteen years old and just because you learned how to write your first BASIC program on your C64 you feel you can ace every programming problem in the world.

READY
10 PRINT "Hello World!"
20 GOTO 10

From that moment on, you only focused on improving your technical skills and focusing a lot on learning programming languages.
I was that guy and in retrospective after almost 20 years in the software industry there are few lessons it took me years to learn I want to share with you so you can learn them much earlier.

Improve your social skills

I've always been shy and afraid to express my opinions for fear of being proven wrong and making a bad impression. I tell you what. I discovered that others are not as critical of me as I am of myself. Remember that no one is harsher or more unforgiving than yourself when it comes to what you say or do.
Nowadays, I speak up more frequently because I enjoy being proven wrong. It means I discovered something new. I discovered that when I participate in a community, I learn more, gain trust in myself, and have the opportunity to help others, which is something I enjoy doing. So, my advice is to express yourself and don't be afraid to be proven wrong.
Join one or more communities that interest you and interact with others. There are a lot of them, and they're easy to find on social media.

Improve your writing skills

At my computer science class in school during my assignments I have always underestimated the importance of doing a good and clear written analysis of the problem. My focus was only on craft a beautiful and compact pseudo-code and translate it in a programming language. The teachers pointed out a lot of times I was not paying enough attention to let others understand clearly what I wanted to achieve. You know when you are teenager. You don't listen, you think others are not as smart as you are. Why words are needed when they can just admire your craft and perfectly understand what you want to do?
Today writing an effective Design Document, Technical Strategy, Programming language evolution proposal or a Technical Vision make sure your ideas are well understood from your peers and from decision makers. It is easier to make your idea to move forward and having people jumping on your idea when you clearly express what you want to do and why you want to do it. It is very important if your idea is big and complex and needs funds, maybe a team or if it is important that gets prioritised among other great ideas.

Improve your presentation skill

It is important to be motivated, it is equally important to be able to motivate others. What is more effective of a good presentation or talk with a good mix of humor and suspense to capture the audience and keep the attention high?
When I started to give presentations at work, they were not so effective. Slides full of wall of text that I was basically reading without any emotion. I was fortunate enough to attend some nice talks and learn from very talented people that even spent time with me to improve my presentation skills. A good presentation plants a seed in others, get people excited about an idea. The result is that you will witness people starting building on the message you presented some time ago

Conclusion

It might sounds counter-intuitive to work on skills unrelated to the software engineering to be able to better solve complex technical problems. The effort to learn them pays off more than you might think, not only to succeed at your work but they will greatly help you in life also.

Five common patterns of the impostor syndrome

Giovanni Trematerra — Thu, 10 Aug 2023 05:09:18 +0000

Ten years ago I got my dream job. I joined Spotify in Sweden and forced my wife and my 5 years old daughter to move with me. It was my very first time abroad and to speak regularly in a language it was not mine and I was not really comfortable to speak.
As my first day ended I started thinking: what if they don't understand what I say, what if I passed the interviews by chance and they realise I am a fraud now? I will lose the job and put my family in a bad position.
All ended up to be ok but I spent the first two years in a very stressful situation without understanding I was experience something called the impostor syndrome.

Good enough will never be good enough

"Perfect is the Enemy of Good Enough" - Eric Johns (October 1988)

I've lost count of how many times I've been praised with comments like "Good job!" or "Well done!" after presenting my work at the workplace. At first, I thought they were just trying to be encouraging and that my work wasn't actually that good. However, I was mistaken. They recognized the value in my work, a value that I couldn't appreciate because I was obsessed with perfection.

But what does perfection really mean? Is it even achievable? Can't we always strive to improve or try a different approach? So, instead of chasing perfection, why not aim for "good enough"? After all, it works well and deserves to be celebrated.

I know it all, don't I?

We all have certain fields in which we feel like experts. Perhaps we were drawn to them since childhood, studied hard for a few years, or gained hands-on experience over time. We start to believe that we know everything about a particular field or subject, and we feel obligated to have an answer to every question.

However, when we encounter a question we struggle to answer or meet someone who knows more than us about a particular topic, we begin to doubt our expertise. We question our value and wonder if we were just fooling ourselves into thinking we were experts. These doubts can leave us feeling inadequate or even worthless.

The truth is, we don't need to be experts in any field of life, let alone all of them. There will always be someone who knows something we don't or has a different perspective, and that's okay. We also bring value to the table that others may not see.

So, let's stop holding back from contributing to discussions or projects just because we don't consider ourselves to be experts.

I am a natural genius, am I not?

I'm not sure when I began to believe that because I saw myself as an expert in a particular field or highly knowledgeable, I needed to get everything right on the first try and provide immediate answers to any question. But isn't it better to acknowledge that I'm not a natural genius, and that nobody expects me to be one, yet still find value in my contributions?

Over time, I've experienced stress and anxiety when I couldn't give an answer or complete a task that I thought would be effortless. However, I've learned that using certain phrases can be helpful in such situations, and people still appreciate my time and the answers I eventually provide. For example:

"I need more time to think about it."
"Let me get back to you with a better answer."
"This task requires more time than I initially thought."
"On second thought, I need to step back and consider a different approach."

None of us are natural geniuses, and that's perfectly fine. Let's remain confident that with our skills, we'll be able to complete a task or provide a difficult answer – maybe not on the first try, but eventually. And those efforts will be appreciated by those around us.

I don't need help, I can do it myself

We all experience being stuck in a task from time to time, and there can be many reasons why this happens, but one of the most common is the task's complexity, even if it seems simple to us. Often, the key to overcoming the block is to reach out to others and gain a fresh perspective.

Personally, I have been stuck on some tasks before, but I was reluctant to ask for help. I didn't want to feel inferior or make others think less of me as an engineer. Consequently, I had to work long and hard hours to unblock myself, leading to anxiety and frustration. However, I now realize that this may not have been the best use of my time.

Reaching out to someone can be a positive step. First, you may learn a new way of looking at the task, or the person you reach out to might know about a new tool or a trick that can simplify the job. More importantly, it helps to build a relationship, and you might be surprised to learn that the person you ask for help can also learn something from you by listening to your findings so far and your approach to the problem.

So, the next time you feel stuck on a task, don't hesitate to ask for help. You can learn something new, get unstuck, strengthen a relationship, and make someone's day better.
It's a win-win situation!

Don't worry I am super person

Sometimes I set my expectations too high and try to be the one who can solve everything quickly, even in areas where I am not as skilled as others. As a result, I end up working excessively and obsessing over my work, putting me at risk for burnout. This approach also strains my relationships and makes it difficult to enjoy life. I am driven by a desire to prove my worth and avoid being seen as inadequate.

I came to realize that I was overburdening myself when someone in a meeting pointed out that I was juggling multiple roles while still coding, which was unfair to me and detrimental to the project.

It's essential to ask ourselves whether we are taking on too much and whether we can be productive while focusing on fewer tasks. Rather than aiming for perfection in everything, it's better to focus on a few priorities and achieve them to the best of our ability without sacrificing our well-being.

Closing

Now it is time to reflect. Do you see any pattern on what you do?
Managing expectations is a crucial aspect of work and life. By setting realistic expectations, we can avoid the stress and pressure of trying to be perfect all the time, and we can focus on what really matters. It's okay to ask for help, to take breaks, and to prioritize our well-being over our work sometimes. We should aim to be kind and compassionate to ourselves and to others, and to build strong relationships based on trust and respect. By doing so, we can achieve greater happiness, productivity, and fulfillment in all areas of our lives.