Landing your dream job isn't just down to perfecting your portfolio or creative resume. It's about knowing what to expect and prepare carefully to showcase your skills and experience.
The technical interview is sometimes intimidating as it is unlike any other job interview: it's a specialized, rigorous process that tests your coding skills, problem-solving abilities, and personality.
Tech interviews typically include behavioural questions, situational questions and technical problem-solving questions. Whether you are just starting in this field or are a seasoned professional, preparation is everything to ace a tech interview.
‍
While many engineers can be somewhat qualified for the role they are applying for, they miss out on getting a shot at the interview as they might never get past resume screening. Before writing your resume, it is essential to understand how recruiting is done.
Usually, recruiters consult the specific skill sets that are relevant for the position and that are typically grouped into:
‍
The purpose of the technical interview is to see how you tackle real-world problems like those you might be facing once you get the job.
Tech interviews usually begin the same way as any other interview would, with a series of general and behavioural interview questions intended to learn more about the candidate and how they will fit in with the company's culture. When answering behavioural interview questions, it is best to try to use the STAR interview technique by identifying a Situation, Task, Action and Result of an experience you have that is relevant to the question.
Here are some common behavioural questions you can expect during a tech interview:
‍
Every company’s tech interview process is different, but they often take place on three stages:
‍
Beyond just pure tech skills, which recruiters already read about on your resume, interviewers want to see passion for tech and coding, enthusiasm and communication skills.
Prepare a 30-second to a 1-minute elevator pitch for the “tell me about yourself” question. You must go prepared to talk about non-coding topics like your employment history, career goals and past projects. It’s a great time to demonstrate soft skills and passion.Understand tech fundamentals. In most cases, technical interviewers aren’t going to expect you to recite complex formulas from memory; most questions will not be based on your ability to deconstruct complex concepts. For example, an interviewer may ask, “If you had a page that’s experiencing performance issues, how would you go about figuring out the bottleneck?” This question assesses a candidate’s knowledge of fundamentals and allows the candidate to show off a deep understanding. The only way to stand out is to understand the fundamental concepts that underpin the feature in question.Tailor your answers. Tailor your responses to the exact job you’re interviewing for. When a candidate answers the interview questions in a specific way to the company and the position, it shows that they genuinely want THE job they are interviewing for.
Your interviewers are not machines. It can be of extreme value to find a connection point - ask good and thoughtful questions, laugh sincerely and be appropriate. At the end of the interview, the interviewer's overall feeling about you should be positive, so make sure to focus on improving your conversation skills.
Even if you don't get the job, have the perspective that the interview was great practice for the future. Take valuable insights from the experience and use them to drive yourself forward.
If you are currently searching for a job, Lisbon Tech Guide is looking to hire the best for top-notch tech companies from all around the world here.
‍