Interview stragegies ?

yenoah

Hi again friends.

Thought I'd post here and reveal my soul in order to determine if I am doing anything wrong or if there is any way I can improve myself and my chances when it comes to interviews.

My Story:
I was self employed. Ran an IT business for about 6 years up to early naughties. In that time I developed in VB6 and MySql (self taught). For e.g. I developed one enterprise level case management system for a very large firm of solicitors.

I sold the business in 2003, Then in 2004, I decided to get an education. I studied Software Dev to level 8. First class hons, best in class awards etc. Did a very successful internship with a Co. Council where I developed an intranet application in ASP.Net 2.0 and Sql Server 2005.

I then went onto do a Masters at an Irish University. Year 1 taught / internship, year 2 research. The masters was similar to an MBA based on IT, so lots of stuff like architecture, management, strategy, innovation etc. I completed year 1 (again first class) and did an internship with Microsoft in Dublin (c# test engineer).

Then misfortune fell upon us and I had to retreat and act as a carer for a family member. I have been doing that for about 2 years with the Masters on deferral. That situation is now resolved so I need to get back to work fulltime and hopefully complete the masters eves/weekends.

So you can see, I'm a bit jumbled. I have a total of about 3 years experience. My education came after/during the experience and is currently on deferral. On the plus side, I have very strong references. Very good academic results (all first class, many awards, even some national media coverage).

I am being called for every position I apply for. I am getting past the phone interview stage and always get an invite to a face to face interview. However, about a week after I am usually turned down. My strategy is to be totally honest with the interviews about the 2 year deferral. Only problem is, it's two years out of the game and I'm a bit rusty. In an effort to get myself up to date, I am studying here at home, I have access to Pluralsight and all MS dev software via DreamSpark. I'm reading the likes of "Professional Enterprise .NET/ Arking" and "MS .NET for Architecting Applications for the enterprise/Esposito" etc etc

I'm a decent soul with very good comms skills, grammar, personality etc. I have good cop-on and emotional intelligence and if anything I rabbit on too much. I am very comfortable with interviews and happy to ask questions and treat it as a 2 way process. I do so with a good sense of humility. I'm not cocky or arrogant. I am pitching my salary expectations around the 40k mark (West of Ireland).

I'm just wondering if anyone can offer me any advice. I'd love to hear from people who have been around the block a few times or PM's, Team Leaders and those that might conduct interviews. How do I improve my interview success rate? That’s my question I guess.

Many thanks for reading this long post. I appreciate it.

amen

I am pitching my salary expectations around the 40k mark

This might be your problem. You are competing against grads who will work for a lot less.

I know you have programmed but you have no recent work experience, the work experience you have oldis , non current and was really gained working for your self so you most likely have no real experience working for a software company or working in teams.

I noticed you haven't completed your Master so all you really have is and Hon Deg and they are not starting on 40K in Dublin let alone starting on 40K in the west of Ireland.

I'd suggest don't mention salary until you get a job offer and see what offer you then negotiate .

Maybe get involved in some open source projects, read up on the latest SQL Server, where ASP.Net is going.

What sort of questions are you asked in the interview?

Have you asked for feedback as to where you could improve?

yenoah

amen wrote: »

This might be your problem. You are competing against grads who will work for a lot less.

I know you have programmed but you have no recent work experience, the work experience you have oldis , non current and was really gained working for your self so you most likely have no real experience working for a software company or working in teams.

I noticed you haven't completed your Master so all you really have is and Hon Deg and they are not starting on 40K in Dublin let alone starting on 40K in the west of Ireland.

I'd suggest don't mention salary until you get a job offer and see what offer you then negotiate .

Maybe get involved in some open source projects, read up on the latest SQL Server, where ASP.Net is going.

What sort of questions are you asked in the interview?

Have you asked for feedback as to where you could improve?

Great advice and many thanks. Just to add my last two rejections were pitched at 30k as they were local and so no reloaction required.

Im starting to feel overwhelmed by the footprint for .Net developers these days. You have to be a Sql Server expert (a DBA). You have to know ASP.Net (the code behind syntax on webforms), c#, javascript, css, JQuery, Linq and or T-SQL, WCF etc etc. and now we have Razor, and more or less F# (lambdas). Then there's WPF/Xaml/Silverlight, MS Blend and so on Hard to know where to concentrate your skills anymore. I have access to 100's of courses on Pluralsight but find myself doing bits of some trying to spread myself.

Types of questions I'm being asked are I guess typical. There's the technical, sometimes with whiteboard. Then the "tell me about yourself" etc. "Strengths / weaknesses", "where do you see yourself in n years time" etc.

I had feedback from one company to the agent recently. The employer was concerned about my answer to the question "describe a time when you had to deal with conflict". My answer was a college project where the team went into conflict. We resolved it by rotating the chair at each weekly meeting. You have to wonder what's really going on sometimes. In this example, I'm guessing that the employer was keeping me on ice incase their preferred candidate fell through.

WRT Sql Server, I'm good with T-Sql, transactions, stored procs, UDF's, Corsors etc. Is that reasonable or am I missing out on something? Can anyone recommend any good courses or books online or paper etc for Sql Server?

amen

My answer was a college project where the team went into conflict. We resolved it by rotating the chair at each weekly meeting

While it may be honest that is not a good answer. That is not how it works in real life. If you have conflict in a team and you are team leader you can't rotate the chair or what happens it is conflict between a client team and yours?

Hard to know where to concentrate your skills anymore.

I'd pick one or two items prob SQL and C#/ASP.Net and learn them well.

Everything else will fall into place. No one hires Grads expecting them to know everything or be up and running quickly. Can take a grad 3-6 months to be productive and 1-2 years before they are competent.

yenoah

amen wrote: »

While it may be honest that is not a good answer. That is not how it works in real life. If you have conflict in a team and you are team leader you can't rotate the chair or what happens it is conflict between a client team and yours?

Your replies are much appreciated. However

In the above case, what do I do next time? make something up? See I am of the opinion that solid practical answers are far more favourable than waffle, and I think waffle can be spotted a mile away. As far as being real world, when you are a student, that is real world. You CAN rotate the chair. It makes use of the available resources at that time and within that domain or reality.

When the agent rang me to discuss the feedback, he told me that he thought it was a great answer. He was as surprised as I was, thus my conclusion about the employer keeping me on ice in case.

I take your point about the real world when it comes to the work place. The above might not be an option then. In reality I have no experience of conflict resolution in the real workplace, never really had any issues in my working past. But even still, I'd prefer to give a real practical non waffle answer from something that actually happened (albeit while I was a student) rather than answer with waffle or "Ive never had to deal with that".

COYW

yenoah wrote: »

Im starting to feel overwhelmed by the footprint for .Net developers these days. You have to be a Sql Server expert (a DBA). You have to know ASP.Net (the code behind syntax on webforms), c#, javascript, css, JQuery, Linq and or T-SQL, WCF etc etc. and now we have Razor, and more or less F# (lambdas). Then there's WPF/Xaml/Silverlight, MS Blend and so on Hard to know where to concentrate your skills anymore. I have access to 100's of courses on Pluralsight but find myself doing bits of some trying to spread myself.

Firstly, €40K given your experience and the fact that you have been out of the game is going to put companies off. Don't mention salary until you reach the end of the interview process. I do it this way but do be careful with recruitment agency jobs. I have been stung on salary before with them.

Now, more to the point, you don't have to know all of the above and don't attempt to learn all of the above, as you will end up being a "jack of all trades, master of none". Focus hard on the likes of C# in all frameworks, SQL Server 2005/2008 & understand the pros and cons of the likes of WPF, JQuery, WCF etc.

stevenmu

yenoah wrote: »

I had feedback from one company to the agent recently. The employer was concerned about my answer to the question "describe a time when you had to deal with conflict". My answer was a college project where the team went into conflict. We resolved it by rotating the chair at each weekly meeting. You have to wonder what's really going on sometimes. In this example, I'm guessing that the employer was keeping me on ice incase their preferred candidate fell through.

I'd guess that they were partly unimpressed because it was an academic experience, not a professional one, partly unimpressed because it wasn't really resolved just sidestepped, partly unimpressed because you didn't demonstrate leadership in the situation, and they were very probably wondering if conflict arose in an academic project group could it be because you can't work well in a team. On the whole it's probably not the best example to use

I'd suggest that you try and use an example from your professional life, such as how you dealt with an awkward customer, or positively dealt with a project which had issues.

From reading your description of yourself you sound a little bit all over place. It's almost a bit like you're saying "well, I did a bit of this, and a bit of that, and then sure I wandered into college, and then I'd to stop for a while to look after a family member (which I think is really admirable on a personal level, but not something you need to emphasise to a potential employer), and now I'm reading this and that and learning stuff from websites".

IMHO to get hired you need to be able to sell your prospective employer a story, a strong and positive story, the story of you and how you would be the ideal fit for them, and how everything you have done has been a step on the path to working for them.

I'd suggest talking a lot about how running your own company gained you valuable experience and that you learned a lot, and then you felt that the best way to progress your professional development was by moving into formal education. Personally I'd suggest not raising that you were a carer for a while, let them notice the gap and ask about it, then you can explain the unfortunate circumstances and that you had to temporarily put your career on hold but you're ready no to pick it up where you left off. I'd also suggest not mentioning things like Pluralsight and books you're reading as if you expect credit for the skills that they give, but rather just raise them as something you do as a hobby or to help keep current with new developments.

I know I've twisted your own story against you here, and I hope I haven't caused offence, I'm just trying to demonstrate the difference between a story that might sounds a bit like it's jumping between a bunch of different things, and one that's a series of positive steps along a career path leading you to them.

yenoah

Not at all. It's all great advice and I'm listening intently. I take the points about salary and I guess I need to be targeting junior or graduate roles for now to try and notch up a few years experience.

I'm now seeing the following.....
Use real world experiences and stories ( Iactually do have plenty now that I think about it)
Develope a story, display continuity towards a career and align it with th epotential employer.
Be prepared to work for less money for a while in exchange for experience
Finish Masters

Its the power of online communities and networking right there. On my own I find it hard to see the woods, but describing the situation to others here and getting feedback is invaluable.

Malice

yenoah wrote: »

Im starting to feel overwhelmed by the footprint for .Net developers these days. You have to be a Sql Server expert (a DBA). You have to know ASP.Net (the code behind syntax on webforms), c#, javascript, css, JQuery, Linq and or T-SQL, WCF etc etc. and now we have Razor, and more or less F# (lambdas). Then there's WPF/Xaml/Silverlight, MS Blend and so on Hard to know where to concentrate your skills anymore.

As COYW wrote, you don't have to be an expert in all of those. I would disagree that you need to be a DBA on top of a developer. If your boss has those kind of expectations then they should be paying you two salaries. In my recent jobs I've needed to know how to create and call stored procedures and most importantly create a sensible data model but things like setting up the database server, managing users and managing data back ups are all someone else's problem.

If you're focusing primarily on Microsoft technologies then I'd recommend concentrating on ASP.NET, C# (or VB.NET), jQuery and SQL Server. It's what I've done and I must be doing something right as people keep hiring me

srsly78

OP limiting yourself to the west of Ireland is your main problem. If you want to get good roles and good money you have to broaden your horizons a bit.

Malice

srsly78 wrote: »

OP limiting yourself to the west of Ireland is your main problem. If you want to get good roles and good money you have to broaden your horizons a bit.

I would disagree. I moved back to Galway at the start of the year and was offered a solid, challenging role with a salary above what I was expecting. Admittedly I had spent the previous two years away from the West but there are a few software companies dotted around here. There's also the possibility of working remotely. One of my co-workers is actually based in France for example.

If the company I work for is any indication then the problem is actually the opposite. It's not that there is a lack of roles but there is a lack of suitable candidates for those roles. Of course that's probably down to companies in the last few years not hiring and training graduates which is a completely separate issue.

srsly78

Well yeah, to become a "suitable candidate" you may have to travel a bit to get good experience as you have shown.

yenoah

srsly78 wrote: »

Well yeah, to become a "suitable candidate" you may have to travel a bit to get good experience as you have shown.

It's down to quality of life for me to be honest. I did a stint in Dublin and did not like it, actually I got quite depressed (no offense to anyone in Dublin). I'm a rural lad, I did spend 8 years in London and that'll do me hopefully. The West of Ireland is ideal for me. Even the big towns (Galway Sligo etc) are so manageable and you can get back to rural within minutes cheaply.

Malice

srsly78 wrote: »

Well yeah, to become a "suitable candidate" you may have to travel a bit to get good experience as you have shown.

I suppose I defeated my point a bit didn't I? .
I guess what I was trying to say is that the West of Ireland (well Galway specifically as it's all I'm familiar with) isn't a wasteland bereft of opportunities as some people might think. Of course if yenoah is in rural Roscommon or something then suitable jobs might not be as readily available.

komodosp

See I am of the opinion that solid practical answers are far more favourable than waffle, and I think waffle can be spotted a mile away.

I'm not so sure that's the case. I think the interviewers are human. So, first of all, they can be fooled by waffle if it's of good enough quality,

As far as being real world, when you are a student, that is real world. You CAN rotate the chair. It makes use of the available resources at that time and within that domain or reality.

And also, they can jump to incorrect conclusions based on your answers. (The perfect example being "That's what he did as a student but he won't be able to do that in real life")

My strategy is to be totally honest with the interviews about the 2 year deferral.

You might see this as admirable example of honesty, but they might just see it as a guy who hasn't done any dev for two-three years, with a masters to distract you if you do get the job... I know you are doing a lot to keep your skills up to date... but they mightn't see it that way. Have any of the feedback mentioned that?
You seem to be getting a lot of interviews, so why not vary your strategy a little? Be totally honest in some of them, and waffle in the others?

8k2q1gfcz9s5d4

yenoah wrote: »

Im starting to feel overwhelmed by the footprint for .Net developers these days. You have to be a Sql Server expert (a DBA). You have to know ASP.Net (the code behind syntax on webforms), c#, javascript, css, JQuery, Linq and or T-SQL, WCF etc etc. and now we have Razor, and more or less F# (lambdas). Then there's WPF/Xaml/Silverlight, MS Blend and so on Hard to know where to concentrate your skills anymore. I have access to 100's of courses on Pluralsight but find myself doing bits of some trying to spread myself.

to be honest, if you know C#, and SQL, you will pick up everything else very quick. Nobody excepts you to know all these. before I started my current job, I never used LINQ, Jquery or JSON. As long as your C# and SQL is up to scratch you will be fine.

40k is too much for the west, you need more experience for that. Bear in mind, the experience you have since you started your under grad, is mainly placement, in which you would not have as much responsibality as a full time employee. If you were to take a role for a year at under 30k, that 1 year of experience as a "full time employee" will stand to you more than your masters IMO, as you already have a 1.1 (assumed as you finished top of your class), which is more than enough for most graduate roles.

Malice wrote: »

I would disagree. I moved back to Galway at the start of the year and was offered a solid, challenging role with a salary above what I was expecting. Admittedly I had spent the previous two years away from the West but there are a few software companies dotted around here. There's also the possibility of working remotely. One of my co-workers is actually based in France for example.

What is galway like now for sotware jobs? Im thinking about my next potiental job and where it would be. I have never lived in galway, wouldnt mind living there for a while before I eventually end up working in "The Big Shmoke" again

yenoah

Hi frank and thanks for the reply.

Galway has a lot of activity in the IT sector. There is a substantial cluster there these days. Sign up to IrishJobs.ie and build a search for your experience and limit it to Galway /WOI. You'll get a nightly email. Also put a note in the jobs sticky on this forum. There are a few users here who can refer you etc within their existing roles.

Galway is lovely frank, especially in the summer months. Its a city but a tiny one with a very rich heart. You can walk it, or in my case cycle it. I used to cycle in and out of college and lived rural under the stars. Best of both worlds. Its still friendly, very little trouble (apart from the dam students ) etc

Malice

Joey Quiet Fishhook wrote:

if you know C#, and SQL, you will pick up everything else very quick.

Now maybe it was just me but I found I needed to get my head around a few concepts when I needed to focus on JavaScript and jQuery without having done anything at the enterprise level before. This article and the others in that series helped me a lot.

Joey Quiet Fishhook wrote: »

What is galway like now for sotware jobs? Im thinking about my next potiental job and where it would be. I have never lived in galway, wouldnt mind living there for a while before I eventually end up working in "The Big Shmoke" again

Pretty good as far as I can tell. There are a bunch of companies here ranging in size from American multi-nationals (Avaya, HP) to smaller software houses who are all pretty much constantly on the lookout for suitable people.

yenoah

Great article malice, listering to academics refer to truthy and falsey finally makes practical sense.

if (sensible)
   fire ahead;