How I failed my first junior developer interview — and what I learned (PART 1)
My very first developer interview experience ended in failure. I wasn’t prepared at all and didn’t understand the technology enough, but I learned a lot. I’ll share my experiences from a month-long journey in this two-part article series.
It all started with a good friend’s job recommendation. I decided to give it a shot because it sounded interesting, the pay seemed reasonable, and I was in desperate need of work. Luckily, I didn’t have to go through the classic application process; I simply sent my friend my CV, and a few days later, a helpful HR representative called me with the details:
- I have to finish a small project at home on my own — a simple application with only two or three functions
- If it works and meets the company’s standards (Clean Code principles are followed, unit tests are included), I’ll have to meet with two senior developers for an interview
- If the interview goes well, I’ll be required to spend three trial days working on the actual product with a developer team
It seemed like a lot of requirements at first, but it was also an interesting challenge, and, again, I needed a job, so any interview experience was valuable to me.
