I’m not going to write comprehensive article on how to successfully pass Interview. I would like to share some recent thoughts on it. Might be that in one year term you will see another article with same title.

First of all, and as per me, interviewers ask mainly those things that they know well

So if you are candidate for junior position, range of questions that interviewer has could be dramatically wide for you. But once again, if you are junior, he will ask you basics in which he is guru. This means that slight inaccuracy in your definition will just highlight that you are new incomer. This shouldn’t make you sad.

If you are candidate for mediate position, you already are competent in some areas. This means that two things might happen, either your interviewer is competent in them also or either not. In first variant you will need to prove that you are really competent, and after you are done with that, probably general questions will go smoothly. In second variant it doesn’t matter how good you are in those things, everything will depend on other questions. But anyway try to highlight your strength areas.

Regarding senior positions I have almost nothing to say, because I’m still intermediate developer. I think that in this case company finds some resources that are super-competent and everything looks like in med variant, just on another level, or maybe they take candidate basing on his general applicability to this position.

For Junior
Try to show that are able to learn everything, that you are passionate about learning new technologies and can think out of the box. (One friend gave me this hint.) Generally they take juniors for their growth capabilities. That is like investment.

For intermediate
Be confident in things you know and ready for the questions you don’t know answers. Show readiness to solve problems and be honest when answering.

Interview and candidate attitude to work

Also I think that while interviewing someone company lost one very-very important thing – his/her attitude to work. That is something that could not be easily evaluated during interview. I assume that there are guys with good knowledge, but for some reason they are not interested in career growth or orientation for the results. These guys still could pass interview and then bring less value to company, then it was expected. I do not say they do little work, but this is like you’ve got good looking sport car with engine from motorbike. On one blog I read very interesting article motto of which is “Don’t hire for knowledge, hire for attitude!”

Remember that you are also interviewing

Ask about the processes they have and use. Don’t forget general questions about work conditions, like timing schedule, conditioners, vacations, and so on.

Ask deeply about the project, they are going to have you working on. For example, ask if they are doing Agile, if they write Unit Tests for their projects, which kind of duties they want you to execute and if you will have chance to do more. If it is possible ask them to see some source code. I believe that if you are good in programming you will see with whom you gonna work.

The most important for me is to know if they are looking forward to see your professional growth and if they will be glad to promote you because of that. If they really want you to grow and do not expect you to be working horse on one project, this might be good company.

Did I have one recently?

I think that you are very interesting if I have had some interview(s) in recent time. Yes, I had, but I’m not constantly looking for new job, I just accept invitations if they could bring me some value. I would say if they ask for interview, go and see where you stand in current labor market. You will see if you are losing technology tendency at your work or if you are banally losing money, because indeed you worth much more.

I’m not throwing you to send resumes and go to dozen interviews, but I recommend having one interview at least once a year, just to know if you need to pay more attention on learning something or improving something.

I am not afraid to say above, even if my current employer will read this blog post or if company who asked me for interview will read this. Why? Because if I stay, this means that current company satisfies me with conditions it gives me and this should make it happy that resources are not going away. If I move, this means that another company finds me more valuable than current, and this means only one – I was losing something at my work.

Guys, that all is about how much you cost. And I know answer for this question:

You cost exactly as much as you are getting right now!

Just think about that for a while, and you will get deep meaning of it.