Ok... we've all had good ones and bad ones, but I have a big interview coming up shortly and I'd quite like it to be a good one! Anyone got any good tips?

Cheers :)

@smithy

hmmm i know all about interviews!

Rule # 1. Be honest!

Rule # 2. Rehearse

Rule # 3. Research them, and know what they want from you!


Plenty more if you want!!!

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I've had my posts removed, I've been accused of trolling, and flaming. I have don none of these

You might want to make a list of all the possible questions they will ask you and revise, revise, revise!

I revised the usual interview questions on one interview and they asked me mainly technical questions. So I revised technical questions for the next interview and this time they mostly asked me typical interview questions. So learn both and allow time to revise. If you don't revise you will get tongue tied and make long pauses. You will kick yourself after as you feel that you could have answered the questions better.

Be yourself, but if you are not a normally confident, out-going person, try to be a bit.

If they are interested in technologies that you don't approve of, try not to get into a "discussion" on it's flaws.

Finally, it might take three interviews to get good at them so try and practice with someone.

Good luck - interviews suck

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@smithy

How did the interview go?

I just had one today and I think it went all right. I had about two days notice and was told that the interviewers will be mostly interested in my C++ skills. So I spent the past two days researching the company and brushing up on my C++ knowledge. I was expecting them to ask me things like templates, polymorphism and name mangling but they was just interested in what I did in the past.

Got a VD (err I mean VB) interview next week. I'll try to bite my lip instead of telling them my belief that V B is a micky mouse language.

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You have to show up drunk - shirtless, in bermuda shorts, with odd socks and sandles. You have to slump in the chair, and fall asleep. But its ok - cos you did mention you were the friendly piss drinking blue troll on your C.V right?


Dude - you will be fine. Best advice is to be relaxed, and think before you speak (a trait I have yet to master) Good luck marra

@Bobsonsirjonny

Damn I miss the 90's where you could show up like that to a computer job interview and be selected.

Hi Intuitioned,


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You might want to make a list of all the possible questions they will ask you and revise, revise, revise!

This is what I've been doing. Thankfully, I've had about 12 weeks notice of the interview date! So I've plenty time to revise the oddities of C++.

I've been thinking about the more common questions, things like, "give an example of when you worked in a team", "how would you motivate someone?" and making notes of situations of things that I've done. So hopefully I'll have a list of points fresh in my mind and can pick them out whenever they ask a relevant question.

It's impossible to prepare for any possible question, however, I hope I'm doing the best I can by thinking about my experiences. And of course, there's the other non-experience questions such as "why do you want this job?" which I'll think about too.

Quote:

How did the interview go?

Still another few weeks yet!

Quote:

I just had one today and I think it went all right. I had about two days notice and was told that the interviewers will be mostly interested in my C++ skills. So I spent the past two days researching the company and brushing up on my C++ knowledge. I was expecting them to ask me things like templates, polymorphism and name mangling but they was just interested in what I did in the past.

Good luck! Let us know whether you get the job. Do you remember any of the questions they asked?

I'm fairly sure they're going to ask me technical questions and HR-type questions.. it's the HR ones I'm most worried about. I'm generally crap at questions like that and talking the bull**** they like to hear... which is why I want to make sure I'm well prepared!

Cheers Bobson

Quote:

But its ok - cos you did mention you were the friendly piss drinking blue troll on your C.V right?

I decided to leave that juicy bit of info off my application

Quote:

Dude - you will be fine. Best advice is to be relaxed, and think before you speak (a trait I have yet to master)

Definately a difficult thing to master! When I get asked some ridiculous question my first thought is "OH ****!", and then I'll most likely do a matching facial expression so they know exactly what I'm thinking!

@smithy

I felt the interview went alright. It was my favourite type of interview with casually dressed middle aged programmers asking questions about my past. It is the sort of people I have regulary worked with. I like those sort of questions because I can just talk about my life story. Questions like explain this project you was involved in and what part you played in it. It was a good oppitunity to brag but I am not the bragging type.

They asked me about dynamic memory management, which I knew they would. I am not quite sure what they mean. The OS (mis)manages it to a certain extent. I told them that I knew how to allocate and deallocate memory and how I would detect and fix memory leaks which they was interested in.

They was interested in GNU and I told them I used it with the Playstation and Linux. There was another platform I could not remember! It was the Amiga! I imagine if I did they would reply "I thought the Amiga was dead?"

The next stage is wait to hear if I make the second interview. That will be more harder as it will consist of the usual HR #### and analysis and design. I'm a pessemistic person though. With me it is not case of the glass half empty, but more of a case of the glass is half empty, and it is sticky with a fly floating in it. Some other person might get it because they might have a bit of Java experience.

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In terms of what questions it is hard to say because interviews can vary so much. Apart from the usual "why do you want this job" and "what can you offer", it largely depends on the role they are filling. For example, for a debugging role one had me finding the faults in some source code which was easy and I got the job. Another corperate, financial position consisted mostly of a psychometric test. It took me a while to get going and I only completed a third of it. I felt confrontational and told them that it was stupid and that when I get stuck developing software it is just a case of pressing F1 and reading the on-line help, or asking someone. They agreed and I got the job!

I would say from my experience they rarely ask about the specifics of a language but more on the processes involved. For example, analysis and design, software life cycle, testing techniques (debuggers, module testing, automated testing etc). They are also interested in related technologies. With Windows for example, they would be interested with reusable DLL, ActiveX and COM components. Also, unless you are applying for a junior position, they like people who have experience of speaking to customers, managers and engineers.

If you want to test your C++ skills you should get 2/3rds right on this page although as I said, most interviews might ask you 3 questions like this if at all.
C++, Java and VB interview questions

I have VB interview on Monday and can only answer about ten of these questions, although it is for a Junior position though!

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