Congratulations

Congratulations! If you are thinking about interviewing for a job, then it must be the case that you are nearly done here as undergraduates at CSE here at MSU.I think it should be said clearly that we are very proud of you and that you are ready to get out there. You've gone through a lot to get to this point and you are ready. You are only here to try and give yourself that last edge to get a job. Hopefully some of the stuff here will help you with that task.

Perspective

Remember, each interview is individual and potentially dependent on things that are not always within your control. Don't let a bad interview put you off or get you down. You are ready, you are good! A bad interview is just that, a bad interaction between two people.

You have to remember that each interview is one of many that you might potentially go through. Use each as a learning experience that you can take to the next. Keep going, you'll get there!

Prepare

Look, let's be honest. Things are tight and you might have to do a few interviews to find what you are looking for. It is good to prepare! If you aren't ready to compete for jobs, then those that are will step in front no matter what your eductation, work ethic, etc. You need to sell yourself. You need to make it clear who you are, what you are about, what you are capable of. No one has more interest in this than you, no one wants this to happen more than you, no one knows you better than you .

And by prepare I mean ...

By prepare I do not mean that you have to cram, like an exam, to get a whole bunch of technical stuff loaded in your brain. Rather, I mean that you need get your head in the right place, build your confidence, and enter the interview feeling like you know what is coming and you are ready.

Human Process

First, remember that an interview is a human process. The interviewer is another person, perhaps just as nervous about talking to a stranger as you are. And potentially, your interviewer has had a long day talking to any number of idiots/fools/aholes (see this or this ). Be nice! Be friendly! That isn't going to be all you need to get the job but, all things being equal, it might mean the difference between you and some rude, arrogant snot. Even if the interviewer is decidedly not nice, you be nice!

Second, no matter what you are asked, talk out what you are thinking! Your interviewer is trying to evaluate what kind of person you are. Single word answers to questions reveal very little about you as a person. If they ask you a general question, talk about the answer. If they ask a tech question, talk it out how you are thinking about solving the problem. Get a dialog going if you can (hard to do with tech questions, but even possible there). Let them know there is a brain in there!

HITT

When they ask you a question, you really need to think about what they are really asking you. If they ask you how to reverse a string, they really don't need to know the answer (hopefully)! They want to see something about you, what kind of person you are, what you know. To that end, I would generally categorize questions into one of four types, represented by the acronym HITT:

Human being questions

"Do you have any hobbies", "What do you do in your spare time", "What was your favorite part of MSU", "Where do you want to be in five years". No really cares about the particular answers so much as the fact that you have answers. They want to know that you are a reasonable human being, someone they wouldn't mind working with, someone who be a good corporate citizen. Answer the questions and show them that you are a good, thoughtful, well-rounded person. Be friendly, be happy.

Interested questions

"What would you improve in Gmail", "Why do you think the Wave failed", "What product would you add to the Google Labs", etc. Each company has a business. Do you know anything about it? Did you bother to look? This is part of being prepared. You may not know everything, but you bothered to look, cared enough about this interview to do some background reading. Heck, if something has been in the news, ask them a question about it. Show some initiative!

Thinking questions

"What are man hole covers round", "Explain the signifcance of 'dead beef'", "A man pushed his car to a hotel and lost his fortune. What happened?". These are very old, and this type of question has gone out of favor recently. However, the intent is clear. There is no answer. They want to see if you can think the problem through. What could the answer be? What are the alternatives? Think it through out loud. If you give one answer and push for another, ask for some direction. It is how you talk it through that matters, not necessarily the answer

Tech questions

This is the hard stuff, the stuff everybody is afraid of. Again, you know this stuff! Be confident. They may stump you here and there, but you can work it out. Just don't panic. Before you start writing any code, talk out what you want to do. They may guide you, they may not. Once an answer is given, they may push for improvements, ask about O() performance, force you to another language, etc. Go with it. Do what you can. If you can't go any farther, say so and hopefully you move on to something else.

Tech question examples

Brush up on some of these by looking through the web and seeing what kind of common questions are out there. Remember, they cannot ask you to design a web server in 10 minutes, so there are a set of questions that are common. The point is that you need to just generally prep yourself. Take a broad look through some of this stuff. Bone up on the things you forgot or are vague on. This is just some of that kind of stuff.

Some Sources

You can find these as well as I can. Searching for terms like "tech interview", "google interview", "microsoft interview", "tech questions interview". So this is no special list, but it does have the kind of examples you are looking for. Remember, every interview is different. Some of the questions listed below are very hard because they are very specific, probably because they were not asked of a "new" hire, but someone more experienced. Don't let that make you feel like you are out of your league. Likely the questions you will get asked will be more general (but see the Tips)

Some Tips

Last modified: Thu Sep 23 17:48:38 EDT 2010