Technical Interview on Phone for Grad Software Engineer

iseegirls

Hey folks,

I have a technical interview this week for a graduate software engineer position. I haven't done one before - and don't really know what to expect.

Has anyone ever gone through one on the phone? I've been told to have a pen and paper with me to take down information throughout this 40mins-1hour interview.

starlit

Phone interviews are fairly straight forward some can be hard some can be easy enough. Depends on the role as well. Treat it like a face to face interview. They will likely go through your CV and Application. Ask you about your work experience, college course and projects along with asking questions related to your skills, programming languages, and competency type questions. Maybe dilemma/situation/behaviour type questions as well.

They might have a few headings in the application form, go through your CV and application form if you had one go through both thoroughly.
Examples are very important regarding college projects and previous work experience to show off what skills and qualities you have, show that you have the technical and soft skills required for the job, using examples is the only way to present these to the person interviewing you over the phone.

They probably ask you technical questions too like the software development cycle is a likely one, questions on programming languages and more technical related ones. Often enough they might ask you a question how you deal with a certain situation if you were in that position basically have a concrete answer to show off your problem solving skills and analysis skills.
They might also also how you dealt with something in a project/work experience how you over came a problem or situation. What measures did you take to solve a problem.

They tend to focus a lot on those you have done group projects than individual ones, that is from my experience being interviewed for IT jobs.

I have been interviewed on the phone a few times. Some can be difficult especially the more technical ones as you be asked technical questions, along with competency type questions along with questions being asked based on your application/cv.

40 mins-hour is a long time for a phone interview, you need to be well prepared and have answers prepared so you be confident in answering them.

Have a pen and paper with you as they might outline stuff for you based on the role and things like that or take note of things that might be important. Such as availability for the assessment date perhaps if you are successful after the telephone interview.

It be wise to have prepared questions you'd like to ask them at the end, not necessary regarding holidays or pay or anything like that but outline responsibility of the role, will there be opportunities for further training, opportunities transfer to another country with the same company at a later date, is it a fixed or temporary contract, what is the work culture/environment like and so on, asking about the company, what IT systems do they have? Very general questions really,

Best of luck with it OP

iseegirls

Wow. Thanks very much doovdela for your great and helpful response.

I'm studying hard for it at the moment - and all your advice has come in really handy. Hopefully all will go well tomorrow.

The 40mins-1hr time looks so long - but as long as I get my main points across and answer everything ok - I should do grand.

Thanks again.

dvpower

doovdela wrote: »

It be wise to have prepared questions you'd like to ask them at the end, not necessary regarding holidays or pay or anything like that but outline responsibility of the role, will there be opportunities for further training, opportunities transfer to another country with the same company at a later date, is it a fixed or temporary contract, what is the work culture/environment like and so on, asking about the company, what IT systems do they have? Very general questions really,

OP: First impressions and final impressions matter, so have some good questions ready here. I wouldn't be asking anything about pay and conditions here - that's for the last interview and beyond, not the first one.

Maybe ask them about the development processes they use (waterfall, agile, scrum ...) or ask them about the team structures they have. Tell them that you'd really welcome the opportunity to work alongside good experienced developers (i.e. the very people who are probably carrying out the interview).

Have a good read of the company website before the interview and, if you get the opportunity, try and play back some of their own familiar messages to them i.e. drop in the names of their customers, technologies, products, market sectors ...

Best of luck.