Ace your (Remote) Engineering Interview

As an interviewee you are also interviewing the company.

So you are looking for a new job:

• First step, do your resume: checked! ✔️
• Apply for jobs: checked! ✔️
• And now, one step closer, get an interview: checked! ✔️

But even when right now you got more chances to finally get your dreamed job you know that this is the process that could determine whether you get it or not, so of course you want to ace it!

From an event led by inspiring women engineers from WePay, a Chase payment processing company, who learned from their own experience and created a module system and interviewing training on how to conduct interviews and how to evaluate people, we were able to collect useful interview tips that I’ll share with you.

Let’s ace that remote interview, shall we?

Not hiring the right candidate could impact on productivity, financial and reputation, thats why this process is truly important in a company.

You’d like to know that from a Hiring Manager’s perspective they consider both end-to-end problem solving and communication skills. Is about EQ vs IQ.

The interview is the right moment where you can showcase your everyday basis engineer skills:

• How do you approach problems? What if it is new for you? A good way is to brainstorm approaches and then narrow down final approach. If you haven’t practice this yet, it will be good to start now! 💪🏽
• Are you a team player? Collaborative? Showcase it! if you have experience in group projects or mentoring, you can talk about it, remember is not about brag about it but conveying your skills. 🤓
• How others feel around you? This questions is also very good to do self-inspection.

Interviews during COVID-19

This pandemic hit us in many ways, and several things have changed due this, some of them are interviewing and job, which in most of the cases became remotely.

Remote Interview ~ Use it to your advantage.

As the interview process is not carried out in person, both interaction between engineers and the interview setup can play against the interviewee, here are some tips to minimize it:

1. Ask the recruiter for the interview setup: which coding testing platform or IDE would they use? In this way you can familiarize with it. 👩🏽‍💻
2. Ask the recruiter about how the communication will be handle: will it be by video or audio call? How much time? In this way you can practice and time yourself. 👩🏽‍💻
3. Prepare yourself, practice not only by solving problems but also to be able to talk, explaining it and make yourself understood.
4. Pick a favorite project and challenge you’ve done from prior experience, this will show your technical and soft skills.

And before accepting the offer…

1. Ask about which projects are on run right now and how can you choose your team? This would help you show your interests.
2. Ask your interviewer about how can you onboard the company, you’ll like to know if you are going to have a mentor and the roles of your teammates.
3. And beforeCheckout the office environment, even when it’s remotely, you can ask about how this will be handle, schedules and time zone.

Common mistakes & How to avoid them

• Jumping into code as fast as we hear the problem ~ before doing this, think about all the requirements and edge cases, then formulate solution and finally code. This is also how project phases work so this will show the interviewers how you plan things.
• Not communicating or ignoring the interview ~ your interviewer is actually your ally, they can give you hints and lead you in the right path, so it’s important that you speak out if you are struggling it, communicate each stage and your progress. This will show how you think and how you approach problems.
• Silent assumptions ~ validate explicitly before finish coding, this will help you to avoid rework and finish the task in a timely manner. This will show how you analyze and your time management.
• Validate your code ~ taking inputs before presenting, go through the code, if you find a bug, debug it but understand it before. This will show your code readability and solving skills.
• Misrepresenting your skills ~ be honest about your prior experience and your current skills, they will know if you are lying.
• Not interviewing ~ this is a big mistake, your interviewers are already working in the company, they have first-hand experience of the jobs, know about the companies goals and business model, team product , so you should ask according to your interests. This will show how well you evaluate them.

Coming from non-traditional background?

You may probably think that you are in disadvantage by coming from a different background, from a bootcamp, or because you have a gap in your working experience, but no!

The interviewers already know all this by your resume, so please be honest and open during the interview process, telling in which situation (coding wise) you are now will give your interviewers a baseline and they will know how they can give you a fair evaluation. These are some tips that will help you make the best of your interview 😉.

• Market your prior experience ~ Again, if you manage to get to the interview, it may be because the company is looking for diverse skills, could be about business related, costumer experience, those could come in handy for their product development.
• If you are getting stuck ~ don’t be quiet, give insight to your interviewer about your solving and solution’s elimination process.
• If you are unsure of the syntax while solving ~ express your limitations, say that you know what could use but that recognize you are not familiar with it. This may turn out they giving you the syntax or the chance to look it up.

Good luck in your next interview!

✍🏽 Take note of all these tips above or come back whenever you feel like re-reading them.

Share with us how your interview went, we will like to read you!

This is a summary of an event run by the WomenWhoCode Silicon Valley on August 9, 2020. You can view the recording of the event below.

Ace the Remote Interview During The Age of COVID-19: Interviewing Workshop with WePay

View and register for upcoming events by our chapter at http://bit.ly/siliconvalley_events