W05 Learning Activity: General Interviewing Skills
Overview
In this activity you will learn more about general interviewing skills for jobs.
Progress on your Informational Interviews
Remember that during this course, you need to conduct at least three informational interviews.
By the end of this week, you need to report on the first of these interviews. (You need to report on the other two by the end of next week.)
If you have not already completed all three interviews, you should contact at least five additional people this week. In your assignment submission at the end of the week, you will report on your progress with these interviews.
Instructions
Read and watch the following:
Tips for Remote Interviews
It is very common to have remote interviews, either the beginning part of the interview process, or for the entire interview process to be handled remotely. The following are some suggestions to help you be successful:
Prepare your environment
In a way, you are inviting the interviewer into your home or workspace. Be aware of the things they will see and hear.
- Find quiet place away from other people. It can be very distracting to have noise or talking from children or other people in your interview. If you do not have a good place at home that is free from distraction, you may need to go to a friends house, a public building like a library, or your church meetinghouse. You do not have to be there all of the time, but for these 30–60 minutes, it is worth going out of your way to find a good location.
- Avoid distraction in your background. An empty wall or a place with very few things behind you is ideal. You may be able to use a blurred or virtual background, but even in these cases having a simple background behind you can be helpful.
- Make sure you have a good microphone and camera. These do not have to be expensive, but you should make sure they work reliably and that you can be heard clearly.
- For technical interviews, have a computer ready to share your screen. If you are doing an interview that may involve coding, make sure you can join the meeting from your computer, and that you have an editor such as VS Code available for the interview. You may end up using a website that the interviewer choose, but you should be prepared in case they want you to share the screen.
Test your setup
It is important to test your interview setup before you sit down for the interview, especially if your interview is in a location other than your home. Make sure you can connect to reliable internet at that location. Find a friend that is willing to do a short video call with you. Make sure they can see and hear you well, and that you don't have any distractions around you.
Prepare yourself
On the day of your interview, prepare yourself by doing the following:
- Dress and groom yourself professionally. You do not need to look like you are going to a formal dinner, but you should be neat and clean.
- Arrive at your location early. Whether you will be in your home or in a different location, you do not want to be scrambling to get everything set up at the last minute. Arrive with enough time to set up and test your environment and then wait for the appointment.
- For technical interviews, prepare your computer. If there is a chance you will do any coding in your interview, make sure your computer is ready. Close all applications except for the program you will use to connect with the interviewer and a text editor (such as VS Code). You do not want to receive extra notifications during the interview, and you don't want anything else on your computer that may be distracting, such as open files or browser tabs.
- Pray for Strength. Your Heavenly Father wants you to be successful and can help you in your interview. Remember to pray for His help and guidance. He can help you remain calm, show confidence, and "bring all things to your remembrance" (see John 14:26).
- Smile. Interviews can be stressful, but you want to remember to smile and be happy. This will set the right tone for your interview. You might even write a note to stick to your computer to remind you.
Tips for Behavioral Questions
Interviewers often ask behavioral-based questions to understand how you have reacted in past situations and to see if you would be a good fit for their team and culture. The following videos provide suggestions for how to answer these questions.
The STAR Model for Behavioral Questions
The STAR model helps you concisely answer behavioral questions in a way that shares the complete story of the actions you took and the results you saw.
The STAR model stands for:
- Situation
- Task
- Action
- Result
[Direct Video Link | Transcript]
Tell Me About Yourself
This video will give suggestions on how to answer the common question: Tell me about yourself.
[Direct Video Link | Transcript]
What is Your Greatest Weakness
This video will give suggestions on how to answer the common question: What is your greatest weakness?
[Direct Video Link | Transcript]
Talking about Projects
In a software development setting, one of the most common questions that employers ask is "Tell me about a project you have done that has had impact."
Employers love to see your projects, especially the side projects or passion projects that you have done outside of a school or work setting. One of the reasons these projects are so powerful is that they demonstrate characteristics that are hard to quantify on a resume, but are often the most important such as:
- Curiosity
- Hard work
- Passion and excitement
- Initiative
- Perseverance and overcoming obstacles
- Design decisions
- Coping with failure
- Judgment about what to pursue and why
- Interest in the technology or solution, more than simply interest in making money.
- Ability to figure things out on your own.
- Ability to get something working end-to-end.
These are some of the most important traits to employers, but they are hard to measure directly, so employers look for other experiences that indicate these characteristics, and your projects are a perfect place to highlight them.
Identify the Right Projects
Identifying the right projects to put on your resume will allow you to discuss them in the interview and highlight these characteristics.
Can you use a class project?
Yes, if necessary you can use a class project, but only the right kind. When considering projects to highlight, remember that some of the most important traits you are trying to show are initiative and design decisions. With this in mind, it is generally not a good idea to use a class project from a beginning course, especially if everyone did the same project.
If you do not have many good projects that you have done outside of a class, you can still use a class project, but you should choose from those where you selected your own topic and/or did something different than all the other students in the class.
Can you use a group project?
Yes, you can use group projects. However, you should be aware that if you include a project on your resume, you should be comfortable talking about all parts of it. It is bad sign for interviewers if they ask a few questions about your project and you say, "I don't know, someone else did that."
One of the best things to highlight about a group project is how you overcame a disagreement or problem with your team. You will likely not list this this challenge on your resume, but you should think about it beforehand so you can highlight it in the discussion.
Can you use a project that you didn't finish or that didn't work?
Yes, you can use unfinished projects. It is obviously better to highlight a successful project, but you can still bring out great elements from projects that weren't as successful. A great strategy for unsuccessful projects is to paint them as a work in progress. Rather than saying, "This didn't work" it is completely acceptable to say, "I'm still trying to work out the details of that part." You might even ask, "Do you have any suggestions for me?"
Remember that the goal is to show passion and initiative. When a project is still a work in progress, it is a great opportunity to show your excitement about it. "I haven't had a chance to do that yet, but I'm really excited for my next step which is..."
How many projects should you select?
The number of projects you select for your resume will depend on how much other experience you have. Once you have several years of industry experience, that will be more important to include on your resume than outside projects.
For many students who do not have significant industry experience, including 1-3 projects on their resume is about the right amount.
Include Projects on your Resume and Profiles
Including projects on your resume and LinkedIn/GitHub profiles is an invitation for the interviewer to discuss them with you. With this in mind, in addition to a brief overview of the project, you want to highlight the parts that you would like to discuss. Items such as the following are great options to include (if applicable):
- Platforms and technologies
- Where or how you deployed your solution
- Your data storage approach
- Stakeholders (such as a possible client or user)
- The primary role you played (if it was a group project)
- GitHub repository link
The following are examples of how you might list a project on your resume or LinkedIn profile:
Quilt Designer (Android App)
- Designed, built, and deployed an Android app that helps users lay out designs for quilts.
- Worked with two target users to design requirements.
- Technologies: Kotlin and Android 13; Firebase for Data Storage
- Deployed to the Google play store: http://...
- Project Source: http://github.com/...
Another example:
Travel Weather Planner
- Web application that helps users plan for weather conditions for long road trips.
- Integrates with Google Maps API and Weather.gov API.
- Backend: Node.js + MongoDB
- Frontend: Svelte
- Deployment: Hosted at Azure http://...
- GitHub repo: http://github.com/...
When you include these projects on your GitHub profile, you can include even more detail, including screenshots.
Discussing Projects in the Interview
As stated earlier, including projects on your resume is an invitation for you to discuss them in the interview. Not only does this allow you to show the traits mentioned earlier, but it also allows the conversation to focus on a product where you are the world's leading expert!
For example, instead of the interviewer trying to come up with generic questions to ask, such as: "Can you explain how garbage collection works when using the StringBuilder in Java?" your interviewer will instead ask: "You said here that you used Firebase for your project. Tell me about why you chose Firebase. Did you have any trouble setting it up?"
Notice how the question about Firebase focuses on a decisions and technologies you should know something about and that you can be prepared for, whereas the question about Java StringBuilders may not be a topic you are ready for.
The STAR Method Revisited
Did you notice that the last example of a question stared with "Tell me about..." just like the behavioral-based interview questions discussed earlier? It turns out that discussing projects follows the same pattern as the more general behavioral-based questions, but it is specific to behaviors and situations that ocurred during your project.
Because these project questions follow the behavioral-based pattern, you should consider using the same STAR model from before:
- Situation
- Task
- Action
- Result
However, when discussing projects, the situation will often be provided to you, and you focus on the task, action, and result. For example, the situation might be "Why did you choose Firebase when starting your project?". In this case, your task was to evaluate data storage options, and you can discuss the actions you took that led to your decision, and the result of how it worked in your project.
Remember, as with any interview question, the interviewer is more interested in the process you use to solve problems more than the solution to any specific one. Make sure to highlight the exploration you did, the factors you considered, and the way you made your decision.
Action Item
After reading over the section on Projects, take some time to add or update the projects on your resume and your LinkedIn and GitHub profiles. Think about the pieces you want to highlight so you can discuss them in an interview.
The quiz associated with this learning activity will ask if you have updated these project descriptions.
Submission
After you have finished this learning activity, return to Canvas and submit the associated quiz there.
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