Junior Java Developer interview soon

Dave!

Hey folks,

I have an interview coming up for a Junior Java Developer position. It's with quite a small company who have a software package, they're not a development company or anything.

My Java experience is not very impressive at all! I did it for 3 years in college, and so I understand the fundamentals, data structures and algorithms, and so on. I also have a good appreciation of object-oriented principles. I completed one reasonable sized project in my final year, though my part just involved coding some algorithms, so I'm not very familiar with the APIs or databases or anything.

My skills are mainly front end web development at the moment, though I'm growing these skills all the time.

Anywho, long story short -- any suggestions for what they might ask me in the interview? Given that I've only done the one big project, I don't see what else they can concentrate on! For a junior/graduate position, would I be expected to have been exposed to lots of APIs, swing, etc., in much detail? Or would a good understanding of fundamentals be acceptable?

I think the role involves a bit of web stuff as well, so I'll have to emphasise that a bit. I have a bit of work experience related to this too.

In all honesty I'll be a bit out of my depth if/when I start there, for the first few weeks at least, but in time I'm sure I'll catch on.

Thanks

missingtime

I went for a Junior .Net Postion recently and was successful and what I found was, for junior positions what they are looking for most is enthusiasm and how you will fit into the team.

It is generally understood that you will need some guidance but you wont need to be expert. Show that you are eager to learn and make sure you have yourself we prepared.

What I find that helped the most was searching google for "what should a junior developer know". You will find a lot of people have put up interview coding questions, have some understanding of these.

If you come across as someone who is easy to work with, enthusiastic and willing to learn you should do great.

Best of luck!

Dave!

missingtime wrote: »

I went for a Junior .Net Postion recently and was successful and what I found was, for junior positions what they are looking for most is enthusiasm and how you will fit into the team.

It is generally understood that you will need some guidance but you wont need to be expert. Show that you are eager to learn and make sure you have yourself we prepared.

What I find that helped the most was searching google for "what should a junior developer know". You will find a lot of people have put up interview coding questions, have some understanding of these.

If you come across as someone who is easy to work with, enthusiastic and willing to learn you should do great.

Best of luck!

Thanks mate! That's kinda what I was hoping would be the case. I am interested and enthusiastic, and I spend alot of my free time trying to learn new technologies and hone the abilities that I do have (I'll have to emphasise that too), but I'm far from the complete package! I think working in an environment where I'm interacting with other developers would set me on the right path, and I'd better be able to identify where I should be focusing my efforts, study-wise.

AFAIK for this role there's a logic test involved, but not during the initial interview; it's if I'm successful, according to the agency I'm working with. So I'll worry about that if they happen to like me during the initial interview!

Thanks again

conor.hogan.2

If you can put up some hints/tips, or general comments, about the interview. I would be very (very) interested to read them.

Dave!

conor.hogan.2 wrote: »

If you can put up some hints/tips, or general comments, about the interview. I would be very (very) interested to read them.

As long as you're not going for the same job, no worries

conor.hogan.2

ahahah, if I went for a this job it would only serve to make you look better as I know no Java at all.

spider guardian

I did an interview last year for a C# role, although the interview panel were aware that I mainly used Java in college. Among the questions they asked were:

What does 'reflection' mean?
What does 'automatic garbage collection' mean?
Semi-compiled vs natively compiled languages.
What is 'inheritance'?
Difference between a class and an object.
Why use Java instead of a natively compiled language such as C++? I would mention portability for a start. Better networking support in Java could be another point.
Interface vs class

I think it would work to your advantage to know the major differences between Java and C++ eg Java always passes by reference whereas C++ can also pass by value.

If you have mentioned any scripting languages (eg. Perl, Python, Ruby) on your CV then know what dynamic, static and weak typing are.

Don't worry if you can't grasp everything mentioned, for a junior role then they won't expect huge technical knowledge. Try and give them an example of when you showed initiative, eg learned something technical outside of college.

All of the above can be googled but if you have difficulty with anything then PM me. I have a good PDF with interview tips as well. Best of luck

conor.hogan.2

If the PDF is hosted anywhere could you just post it in the thread for anybody to get/view it please?

spider guardian

Also, you mentioned mainly working in web development. If you have experience using JDBC (Java Database Connectivity) then I would definitely mention that. Any MySQL skills you have would be worth demonstrating.

spider guardian

Here is the PDF I mentioned. I realise it is produced by a communications company but there are some tips that are well worth taking aboard. I should post this in the jobs board as well.

missingtime

Dave! wrote: »

Thanks mate! That's kinda what I was hoping would be the case. I am interested and enthusiastic, and I spend alot of my free time trying to learn new technologies and hone the abilities that I do have (I'll have to emphasise that too), but I'm far from the complete package! I think working in an environment where I'm interacting with other developers would set me on the right path, and I'd better be able to identify where I should be focusing my efforts, study-wise.

AFAIK for this role there's a logic test involved, but not during the initial interview; it's if I'm successful, according to the agency I'm working with. So I'll worry about that if they happen to like me during the initial interview!

Thanks again

No worries man, send me a pm if you have any questions as I'm rubbish at checking threads ive posted in