The developer job interview can be a bit scary, especially for those who happen to be going for their first job interview or their first web development interview. Some people might have told you how difficult it is and how you can be asked a series of difficult and time-sensitive questions to solve on your own.
Although this can be true for most top-notch companies and the front-liners in the development sector, however, for almost all the junior developers, it is about demonstrating what you know and how passionate you are for technology.
Often, people are not thrilled about going for an interview, as the process can be exhausting and frustrating if the result of the interview was not in your favor. People stay up and spend time studying and looking for tricks and tactics to ace an interview but end up forgetting the importance of an attitude.
What you have in your mind determines how you are going to view and control the situation. A positive mindset will help you with your preparation. You will be able to understand and digest anything dished out for you later during the interview, but when you are nervous, then the reverse is the result.
Technical questions are unavoidable for developers as you look for your programming job interviews. The way you handle these questions can help or hurt your chance of working with that company. So, do your homework! Plan your study process, know the required skills for the job, and be motivated to get successful.
While planning for an interview as a newbie in web development, you should know what is required of you. Firstly, you should plan your studying, so you don’t read out of context and what is not valuable to you — understanding what most software companies want from you as a developer is essential as you plan your process.
You can also get a coach or someone experienced at the development to put you through; they may encourage or inspire you and create the mindset of achieving success.
A Study Plan For Developer Job Interview
Having A Solid Foundation
No matter what you read or plan to study, if you don’t have the fundamental knowledge of computer science, then you are out for a near-impossible mission. You should have a solid foundation in the computer world; I mean a solid foundation, not a little knowledge about it.
Having strong fundamentals will help make the complex simple in some parts of your learning process. Then topics like recursion shouldn’t be difficult for you. This topic is persistent in interviews, and you should sit on it with ease.
If you don’t know other fundamental data structures and algorithms like implementing a linked list, then it doesn’t matter what you study or tricks you learn, you just won’t be able to get it done.
Understanding The Interview Structure
Before going for an interview in web development as a newbie, you should have a detailed plan as you study. For junior developers, they usually go through multiple rounds of interviews. These approximate steps are listed below but not in any particular order, and you should prepare for it.
Coding Experience
Coding challenges are very common in Junior developer interviews. Sometimes you are required to come up with the appropriate algorithm to solve a problem; other times, you are asked to focus on object-oriented concepts and designing a system.
The only way out is to get more practice coding as you prepare for your interview, and it is advisable to do so in an environment like contributing to open source projects. This doesn’t just show what you can do but will give you great feedback and thorough reviews from a community of experienced people.
Regular Conversation Interviews
You will be asked some very basic questions about yourself and your aspirations. You should study the samples and prepare your answers before you go for an interview. All these proxy questions are what the interviewer will use to know if you are passionate about technology. You can look for some sample behavioral interview questions in our blog post Behavioral Interview 101.
The interviewers will rate your skill presently by the extent at which you are curious and motivated by technology, which is also a good predictor of your skill growth over time, which they will also be concerned about.
The Technical Phase
This phase of the interview regularly involves technological questions about your experience and, most likely, a session at the whiteboard. You will be given a task and ask to write the code on the whiteboard. Whiteboards don’t have copy-paste functionality. This means that if you want to move lines of code around you have to rewrite them.
You don’t want your whiteboard to look rough, so your interviewers find it difficult to follow up, including you, which will obviously send a wrong message to your interviewers. So study how to get this neatly done and impressive.
While preparing to go for an interview as a Junior Developer, don’t forget the important things to do first and getting your way around.
There are also skills one needs to have as you prepare to work as a developer for any organization. Web development careers are centered around the bringing together of technical skills and soft skills.
Soft skills
Marketing Skills
It is best you start early in marketing your skills and expertise. You are your own brand, ao as you market yourself, you attract people and jobs, which would boost your expertise and portfolio. If you build a record of getting things done and producing great results, you are marketing yourself.
Any potential employer will see you as a developer who is capable of getting things done and solving problems.
Professionalism
Professionalism goes beyond learning the technical skills, algorithm, coding, programming language required as a developer. Professionalism consists of been good at the technicality involved in this job and working in alignment with what your employee expects from you as a developer.
Things like defining your standards and sticking to them, never saying you know something you know little or nothing about, and then you can’t meet up with what is required of you and being clear with your boundaries, just to mention a few.
Developer Network Skills
One of the essential drives to our success and achievements and also opportunities that come your way as a developer is your network. Your network and people you connect with are part of your career capital. No man can be better by working alone or working with the wrong people.
This article should help newbie developers prepare for the next phase in the industry. I am encouraging you to take the big step, it wouldn’t hurt you but make you better through experience whether you succeed or not. There are technical manual translation services like The Word Point to help you study non-English manuals.
Conclusion
Finally, as a junior developer, you can get what you want and land that job you are aiming for by using the right mindset, tools, and skills. Don’t see this as a difficult process because there are no shortcuts to a better future.
Dominic Beaulieu is a gaming enthusiast turned tech writer who covers an impressive variety of topics like design, development process, game marketing, and helps developers with spreading the word about their creations. He is a fluent French speaker, who also has mastered Dutch, Norwegian, and Swedish. He has experience in software translation, tech counseling, project management and digital marketing tailored for startups. He’s a writer for Translation Client Zone and a localization specialist and counselor at The Word Point.
