Interviews

Evil Phil

I had a few interviews a couple of months ago, here's some pointers on what they were looking for (they were development jobs).

I found that if I didn't know an answer to a technical question it was better to say so and ask what they mean. At that point if they see you're understanding their answer you've pretty much covered it.

They technical tests were: the usual easy test with for-next, switch questions, sql etc. The other test was harder, it was all code examples but it was multiple choice so they tougher ones could be worked out. (Do you know what the 'to the power of' symbol in VB is?)

Most companies are looking for J2ee or MTS experience. All are looking for team players. Now I know they usually are but it was stressed a lot this time around.

Good documentation skills seems to be in demand as well.

Things to do:
Tell them what you're involved in outside of working hours. For instance I'm a mod on boards.ie. I have my own website (not very good at the moment). And I code in my spare time.

List experience before education in your resume, even if you're a graduate list your project work before results. This is what they are really looking for. And prepare to talk about this, the good and the bad. Problems you ran into, the solutions you came up with and how you came to those solutions. An easy way to do this is to draw parallels between this and the questions your asked eg.
Q: How would you deal with blah?
A: Well, when I did didums I had to do muggins, so that's one approach to the problem of blah.

Recrutment agencies: I won't say who's bad, for liability reasons, but don't go to grafton st. Personally if you going with an agency goto CPL, they've a v. good reputation.

Check they're funding. If it's VC funding make sure the company is in the black or you'll be out looking for a job again soon. And that wonderful job you looked forward to getting up in the morning for won't disappear, with you ending up in a sh|tty vb job. True story *sniff*

(hope this helps Cloud)