Interview questions

mightyreds

Hi guys I recently passed the technical interview for a graduate dev position next is the hr interview.
It's competency based anybody any ideas the sort of questions that would be asked of a developer?

Senna

In my experience HR questions can have no relevance what so ever and sometimes you just sit there thinking wtf has that got to do with anything. But they're more about your ability to answer than the actual answer IMHO, and maybe my examples are clouded as most of mine are from the one American company that probably isn't a good barometer for HR in most companies.
Examples I've had:
Give an example of a time you had to make crucial decisions when key stakeholders were not available for consultation.
Discribe a time when you have had to deal with conflict within a team and how did you resolve it.
Give an example of when you motivated other people.
Give an example of a project you where involved in that was unsuccessful.
How would you deal with a fellow team member that was under performing.
Give an example of when you delivered great customer service.

(these were all for entry level it grad roles)

mightyreds

Cool thanks this is all a help, some of these question would throw me without preparing for them so everything is much appreciated

mcbert

This is very good for coding interviews: "Cracking the Coding Interview, 6th Edition: 189 Programming Questions and Solutions". Although, you could study this for a year if you had it.

bpmurray

Since it's a graduate hire, the questions will probably focus on your final year project, the technology choices, what was good what was bad, where you succeeded, where you failed, what was the most difficult part, and so on - the idea is to see your decision-making process and your professionalism & planned approach to problem solving. They'll probably also ask you about whether you program in your spare time, if you're involved in give-back as in CoderDojo or open source projects, basically asking about your passion for technology. You may also be asked searching questions about your ability/willingness to work with others in a team environment.

Raging_Ninja

bpmurray wrote: »

They'll probably also ask you about whether you program in your spare time, if you're involved in give-back as in CoderDojo or open source projects, basically asking about your passion for technology.

I always find it funny when they ask these sorts of questions and actively seek out people who do so, and then in the contract it says they own whatever you create in your spare time.

14ned

Raging_Ninja wrote: »

I always find it funny when they ask these sorts of questions and actively seek out people who do so, and then in the contract it says they own whatever you create in your spare time.

Any IP claims on anything you do in your spare time is a breach of your EU Human Rights and is unenforceable anywhere in the EU (albeit they may threaten ruinous legal costs at you anyway). The only basis they could make for a claim is if your spare time work had a very strong basis in what you do at work, and by very strong basis that means they need to prove theft of proprietary knowhow you exclusively gained whilst working for them alone.

Obviously using a work machine for your side project is therefore a bad idea as it makes it much easier to prove theft of proprietary knowhow in a court. That said, if your side project has no provable relation to your work code (e.g. your is an Android app, theirs is a database), they have no claim.

In the US, excepting California and I think now New York state, they can make claims on works done in your spare time, including on totally unrelated side projects. But in the EU no.

Some confusion may stem from the phrase "in the course of your employment" e.g.

"Any Intellectual Property which is created by you during the course of your employment shall be the absolute property of the Organisation"

This has a tighter meaning than might be obvious - "in the course of your employment" means only your work hours where you are being paid. It doesn't mean "whilst you are employed by us".

Niall

Graham

14ned wrote: »

Any IP claims on anything you do in your spare time is a breach of your EU Human Rights and is unenforceable anywhere in the EU

I haven't come across that before, which section of the EU Charter covers that?

Berserker

mightyreds wrote: »

Hi guys I recently passed the technical interview for a graduate dev position next is the hr interview.
It's competency based anybody any ideas the sort of questions that would be asked of a developer?

Firstly, congrats on passing the technical interview. The questions listed by Senna are exactly the type of questions that you are going to be asked. Try your best to tailor your answers to your experience in university, work outside IT or your work experience within IT. As an interviewer, I have witnessed some remarkably daft answers to these type of questions eg: people talking about breaking up fights on the street as an example of conflict resolution.

BrokenArrows

Ya my company got bought out by a large multinational last year who had this in their contracts in the US.
A huge number of the senior and principal engineers resigned because they all had profitable side projects.

14ned

Graham wrote: »

I haven't come across that before, which section of the EU Charter covers that?

Ehh, I think it's the right to freedom of expression of creativity or something like that. It was a lawyer who advised me on it, basically any general or catch-all "we own all the stuff you make during your period of employment" type clauses are unenforceable in the EU, but any specific clauses like "we hold the IP rights to all works you produce during your period of employment and two years after it ending in the field of driverless cars" is enforceable. Same goes for the phrase "in the course of your employment" which only applies to stuff done during work hours.

The key part to making it enforceable is the clause must be specific and tightly name clearly delineated fields and/or time periods, effectively making it into a no-compete contract. "Software" or any such general term isn't specific enough.

I stress I am not a lawyer, and I merely am repeating back what my lawyer told me when I queried a past issue which was some years ago. Anyone needing to know should consult their own lawyer.

Edit: Also bear in mind all the above refers to copyright. Patents are a totally different kettle of fish, so if you used some patented algorithm in your side project you got from work and they hold the patent to it, you are in trouble, even if your side project is totally and utterly unrelated.

Niall

mightyreds

Thanks guys I can think on my feet but in an interview situation I know some if these would rattle me I'll let you all know how it goes

bpmurray

If you create something in your spare time, it's yours. However if you *invent* something patentable, most companies say that they own it, although typically handle all the costs of filing and pay a modest bounty. I don't know if it's enforceable or not, but that's the way things are, and that's usually what's in the contract.

mightyreds

Hi guys just an update I got asked all questions senba had stated earlier plus a couple of others luje how I dealt with negative feedback, had I ever taken a leadership role in a project and did I ever persuade people to my way of doing something.
In the end I thought the interview went well I'll know shortly what the outcome was