Preparing for a job in the tech industry

Have these things at all times

A GitHub account with some public projects
A personal website, with at least your resume on it
A personal project that is demo-ready

I cannot stress enough the importance of these items to an interviewer. If you cannot be found on GitHub, or the interviewer cannot easily find anything about you, you will be passed on very quickly. These items are also beneficial for you even if you are not actively looking for a job. For example, use your personal website to test out new technology or to show off your knowledge of a subject that you find interesting. Who knows what that may lead to!

As you are probably aware, at Conga we prefer to have interview candidates demo a project of their choosing instead of a formal technical test. This is becoming a common trend and it would be a good idea to be prepared for this type of interview.

Always have questions for your interviewers

An interviewer never wants to hear that you have no questions for them. It will make them think that you are not really that interested in the job or the company, or that you are a know-it-all. Always, always, always have at least two questions in the ready for every interview you go on.

If your interviewer is particularly thorough you may have all your questions answered during the interview itself. A list of ten-to-fifteen questions going into the interview will help with this, but also try to keep a mental note (or write it down with the pen and paper you should have brought along with you) of any interesting they said, or questions you think of, as they come up in your interview.

If, however, every single question you were planning on asking was answered before your “formal” question time, and you cannot think of any other questions on the fly, say so in the right way. Do not simply say “You’ve answered all my questions.”, refer to one or two specific questions and the answer your interviewer gave to them and ask your interviewer if you understood them correctly. This will show that you were paying attention to them and that you valued their time and input.

Interviewer: Do you have any questions for me about the role or the company?

You: You’ve answered all of the questions that I had, but I would like to make sure that I understood what you meant by 25% travel time for this role. Would that mean traveling every week, or every couple of months?

Don’t rock the boat too early

This is more important when you are actually in the role, but when you arrive at any new job you will see things being done that you think is inefficient or incorrect. Every company has their own processes and way of doing things. Do not assume that you know best. Use this as an opportunity to learn why it is being done that certain way. Perhaps you will find out that you were incorrect. Or maybe it can be one of the first thing you pitch to your manager after fully understanding the reasoning behind the decision. Wait a few weeks before trying to make changes in order to give yourself time to learn the ins-and-outs of your new company. You are most likely expected to just be learning during those weeks, anyway. Trying to force new ideas immediately after getting on your new team will make you look foolish.

Everyone is a salesperson

When you think of a “salesperson”, you probably think of direct sales, cold calls, talking with customers, and trying to get people to buy something. However, realize that you’re also selling something… yourself! Regardless of whether you’re in a “sales” role now, you’re a salesperson.

You need to sell your skills to a company in an interview. You need to sell your personality to new coworkers. You need to sell your potential to people you are networking with. If you realize it or not, you are already a salesperson. This is not a bad thing. Embrace that you are selling something and work on selling what you have to offer.

Be organized; Be prepared

Coming into an interview prepared puts you on the right track to an offer letter. In preparation for your interview:

Practice your interview answers. See the next section for more information on that.
Make sure you double-check where the interview actually is and how to get there.
Bring a folder with a few copies of your resume, a notebook with your questions for the interviewers, and a pen.
Arrive 10-15 minutes early. No earlier, and no later. You may be tempted to get there early since that’s what many people tell you, but that will put a burden on your interviewer when they weren’t expecting you and puts everyone in an awkward position. If you’re not sure about traffic or public transportation gets you there sooner and you get there more than 15 minutes early, then sit in your car or wait around outside and practice for a bit.

Basics of how to interview well

Doing well in an interview is (usually) less about your technical knowledge than about how your interviewer thinks you will fit in at the company. Assuming you didn’t lie on your resume (which you should never do), they will know your technical capabilities up-front. They may test some of your knowledge to make sure of that, especially in larger or highly sought-after positions, but in general they want to know that you’ll be a good coworker and generally fit with the culture of the team and company.

Be concise in your answers, and for a couple reasons. First, if you start rambling you will quickly lose your interviewer’s focus, your own focus, and it’ll look like you may not know what you’re talking about. Second, your time and your interviewer’s time are valuable. If you take ten minutes to answer a question that you could have used two, that’s eight minutes you could have spent answering other questions that may have mattered more to the interviewer.

Practice. You need to really ace the non-technical parts of your interview. To do that, you need to practice. If at all possible, find someone else to ask you sample questions like “Tell me about the last time that you made a mistake.” and “How have you demonstrated an ability to handle conflict in the workplace?”. Answer them back as you would during a real interview. It will feel awkward, and might feel pointless, but in your interview when you can recall specific examples of times that you really showed value in your previous job, you will have a leg up on all of the other candidates.

There are hundreds of sample questions that you can find online but take fifteen-to-twenty of them and really nail down your answers. You don’t have to be prepared for every single question and variation that your interviewer will have but preparing for a wide range of questions will help you find a handful of real-life, professional examples that you can rely on during the real interview.

During the interview also write down the questions that you are asked by the interviewers. This will give you more practice material for next time if you don’t get an offer. If you do get an offer, you can also use those questions to get a better understanding of what is important to the company.

Basic resume tips

Never have a resume more than one page long. This will be easier at the start of your career, but as you gain more skills and experience you will have to be selective of what to include. Employers will likely not read past the first page anyway, so make sure to include all of the important information on one, and hopefully only, page.
Only include relevant work experience on your resume. If you don’t have much professional experience then try to highlight aspects of the roles that you’ve had that would relate to the job you’re applying for. This will help keep your resume short and focused. Unless you’ve been at the same job since 1996, you don’t need to include the one year of helpdesk work you did from ‘96-97.
Tailor your resume to the job ad. You should do your best to not send out the same resume to every job you’re looking at because that is a sure recipe to not get callbacks. Instead, find keywords from the job ad that seem important (repeated words, required skills) and include them in your resume.
Do NOT use an “objective statement”. It’s outdated advice to include one. Everyone has the same objective anyway (success) so use that space on your resume for something that actually matters.
Proofread. Multiple times. Make sure your name and phone number are correct. Verify all links to social media, LinkedIn, and GitHub work correctly. Check for proper grammar and misspellings. Your resume is probably the first interaction you will have with a company so make sure it’s not sloppy and riddled with mistakes. Have someone else (a friend, career services, etc.) read your resume to catch those errors, too. Or read your resume backwards!

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