Developer’s state of mind — Job interview & First days after landing a job
When I started my first programming job, I knew little to nothing from HTML, CSS, javascript, and PHP. Suddenly, I was given an existing project to work on. It was built on drupal. I didn’t even know it existed. It had many custom modules and functionalities. I was completely lost, scared but excited at the same time. A good thing was that a colleague helped me set up the project on my laptop, recommended an IDE and basically made sure I had everything I needed to start working. Then I was given a few days to get familiar with the application and play with it.
Missed the previous article from this series? — Developer’s state of mind — Looking for a job
I was super motivated to learn and know everything as soon as possible. Each time I struggled with something or encountered a new thing, I took a note to look it up later. For each bullet point, I had in my notes, I asked colleagues for a preferred source to start learning from. I was staying up late every day for the first couple of weeks learning everything I could. Nowadays it is a bit easier to start programming using learning sites such as treehouse and udemy.
I was asking questions and demanded a thorough explanation for each and every single one. I was very active. Colleagues were forcing me to read technology documentation every time I asked something basic. Even though I was doing something the very first time, I was able to get it done very fast. I wasn’t losing time struggling with the same thing for hours. When I got stuck and couldn’t help myself, I asked questions. First I asked basic questions. I got them answered, I wrote code based on that and asked questions on more advanced topics immediately after. Progress could have been seen. I didn’t realize that at the time, but it was perhaps one of the key things for keeping me. And because I was asking all the time, I was progressing fast. Looks like that was everything I needed to do because I was working for that company for 2 years.
Can you imagine the flow of the first days/weeks of your potential new job? If you had multiple jobs to choose from, which one would you choose and why? If all jobs offered the same salary, what other criteria would you take into consideration? Would you choose the job that left the best feeling inside you? Does an interviewer choose based on the same feeling?
How could you make the interviewer choose you? What if the interviewer knows how you will work and what will you expect from the colleagues in the first days? What if the interviewer knows that you will ask questions all the time and that you will study a lot every day? Would it help the interviewer to create a general idea about yourself? Will the interviewer feel satisfied if you discuss these topics in the first interview? Will he/she feel confident about you? Would you be satisfied if you were the interviewer? Would it be a safe decision to hire you?
In my opinion, the interview is about knowing the person on the other side. The more you speak about yourself, the bigger the bond will be, the deeper the emotion you leave behind. Programming is not just a job, it is a lifestyle. Make people know you, let them in. Make them feel safe and confident about you. It doesn’t matter you don’t know much yet. It’s an entry-level job and the non-technical part of you is going to play an important role. Chances are they will choose a person which they can imagine working with over a person with more experience. However, that image is not going to appear itself. You need to be the one who explains to the interviewer what to expect. Be descriptive, go into detail, let your imagination go wild! You need to be the one with the spark in the eyes!
Do you agree with me? Do you disagree? How can we score better in the interview? Do you have ideas or stories to tell? Please leave a comment below. I will be grateful if you do so. These articles are meant to help software engineers like you and me. Can we help each other? Stay tuned for the next story about developer’s state of mind coming out :-)
Continue reading the next story of this series: Developer’s state of mind — Intensive learning “from zero to hero”
