The selection of candidates in IT companies comprises several stages: the search and selection of candidates, an interview with HR specialists, a technical interview and other specific stages that allow you to decide to send an offer to a candidate.
I want to share my experience and tell you about the stages of a technical interview, where respondents are QA specialists of different levels. My name is Alexandra Novitskaya, TL QA Usetech.
In our company, after the interview stage with HR specialists, the candidate gets to a technical interview, where each of the parties, of course, has its own expectations and sometimes even fears.
A technical interview, or a meeting with a technical specialist (so, it seems to me, sounds less scary) is a kind of deal where one sells and the other buys:
— the candidate (aka the seller) shows his experience and other skills (including irrelevant ones);
— the interviewer (aka the buyer) evaluates the candidate not only by experience, but also by the ability to be productive in an agile environment.
To meet a candidate, I have a basic set: a resume and a meeting. This is not a little and not a lot. This is the whole point of the candidate, believe me.
Candidate’s resume
It is important to understand that this is not the case when paper will tolerate everything!
First, have respect for yourself: this is your portfolio, which reflects the experience and skills gained.
Second, have respect for the interviewer: the speed and quality of decision-making depends on the quality of your portfolio. For any IT specialist, the portfolio should reflect the specifics of projects (for example, industry/subject area, application/hardware, etc.), where for each individual experience /project it is necessary to list the main key skills, as well as specify the technology stack used. The main key skills should be specific and exclude generalized terms so that the interviewer does not have questions “Where?”, “Which ones?”, “How?”. The option “I can dig, I can not dig” is not considered.
Before sending a resume, it’s better to take your time and check typos and spelling, just in case.
The prepared portfolio will allow not only to make a quick decision in your favor at the stage of candidate selection by HR specialists, but also to shorten the interview time, where you will be asked specific questions about your professional skills. At the same time, it is important to remember that the market of IT companies is diverse and large, therefore, based on your experience, you can prepare several of your portfolios, where, regarding the specifics and needs of the company for the required specialist, you can highlight certain skills for a more accurate hit. This will give a better result than combining everything into one resume, and then let them decide for themselves, but I have experience.
Meeting with a technical specialist
This is the second indicative criterion, not only of your professional, but also of your personal qualities.
First, it is a responsibility. Some candidates do not come to an agreed meeting and do not warn about changes to postpone or cancel the meeting. This is a demonstration not only of disrespect for the company, but also of irresponsibility for previously made commitments.
And second, it’s punctuality. It is better to arrive in advance than to be late without warning. Believe me, this is a very important criterion for an IT specialist as a team player.
Usually, the meeting is of an introductory nature, and not an interrogation with a bias: the main task is to prepare key criteria based on the experience and skills of the candidate, in order to quickly and better select a suitable project and prepare an appropriate offer. Not all candidates are equally calm about the meeting. This is obvious to an experienced interviewer and sometimes affects the candidate’s answers.
Remember the main thing: the more confident you are in what you know and can do, the calmer you will be. Let me remind you that there are two sides at the meeting: one sells, the other buys. The mistake of many candidates is that when answering questions, first, the brain (apparently in fear of making a mistake or saying something wrong) gives the idea to start with a recently read theory “as it should”, bypassing experience / skills / tools. What for? A candidate as an IT specialist in the market is primarily a tool in the hands of an IT company that will professionally solve its tasks on the project. Therefore, when answering questions, share your experience and skills, and then the knowledge that you possess and can apply to solve the tasks. And, of course, it is important to be honest: after all, an experienced technical specialist knows how to disclose dishonesty with point questions, which will definitely not play in your favor.
Any questions?
I repeat that a meeting with a technical specialist is a dialogue, not an interrogation with partiality. Some interview questions may be non-standard, and the candidate may have a misunderstanding of the question posed or a counter clarifying question arises. I advise you not to get lost / shy and speak as is, and feel free to ask questions to a technical specialist: this will show your involvement and interest in the designated issues.
At the interview, the candidate not only sells his experience and skills, but also determines the conditions for their sale. In turn, representatives of the IT company consider the conditions of the candidate and make an informed decision on the offer for each candidate separately. Therefore, when sending a response to a vacancy to the selected IT company, prepare a list of questions that concern you so that all your expectations are voiced at the interview and do not bring disappointment in real working days.
Main results
The accumulated experience gets to each specialist in different ways, and, unfortunately, many do not see it, but it is accurately marked in the workbook.
What to do with this experience? Wrap it in a portfolio!
How? There is one important skill — to conduct a retrospective of experience: to analyze, systematize and approach the analysis of experience with critical thinking. Always focus on the information around you: colleagues, the labor market, the expertise of directions are some helpers and guidelines for packaging your experience. If convenient, you can assign yourself mini-retrospectives, for example, once every six months. You do it for yourself first: to put things in order in what is. You will spend very little time on this, but you will feel more confident.
The accumulated experience and skills in one company will be evaluated differently within another company, including grades and positions. Therefore, it is important to understand what you can do, know how you manage and apply it, independently solving professional tasks on projects. The main thing in this experience is the acquired expertise, this is your advantage as a technical specialist. Expertise is enriched by a variety of projects and the level of tasks on projects, as well as the ability to update, optimize and adapt the tools for tasks. In the presence of the same conditions and tasks, each specialist has his own suitcase with tools and expertise of accumulated experience, which gives an appropriate quality result.
For an IT specialist, expertise manifests itself in the following:
— knowledge of the influence of a specialist at each stage of the development and/or testing processes
— knowledge of the client-server architecture of the application (including features of the interaction of architecture nodes, integration with services)
— ability to analyze and test requirements, work with layouts
— ability to prepare a test environment/stand
— the ability to determine the optimal and sufficient set of checks (working with test data)
— the ability to localize the error with sufficient detail (relative to the client-server architecture)
— the ability to determine the readiness of the release for issuance in the prod.
I sincerely wish all specialists to successfully pass interviews and believe that every specialist, if he really wants to, can find the company of his dreams!
