Java junior at an interview: how to prepare and what to ask

In articles on JavaRush, we strive to regularly touch on such an important topic, especially for inexperienced or completely new programmers, as employment. We have already looked at how a Java junior can improve his skills and gain practical experience, where it is easier to find a job and how to please an employer , as well as how to make a cool resume and improve your LinkedIn profile to maximize your chances of getting hired. Today we will highlight another aspect of successful employment for a programmer, namely, we will talk about how to prepare for an interview, what strategy of behavior during the interview should be chosen and what questions to ask the interviewers so as not to seem like a fool. And if you’re lucky, you’ll also give the impression of being a tough pro (or, let’s be realistic, at least a solid average guy).

Preliminary preparation. Basic checklist

1. Research the employing company

Despite the fact that the programming process itself does not depend so much on the company’s field of work, for a successful interview it is still very desirable, and often necessary, to know what the company does and what products it develops. To begin with, it makes sense to study general information about the company and what industry it operates in, take a good look at its official website and pages on social networks, and read its blog (if it has one). It would also be a good idea to look at the latest news that mentions the company and its products - this, in particular, will help you understand what problems and challenges this organization is facing at the moment, in what direction it is moving and what advantages it has over its competitors. Understanding what the company's mission is and what generally happens in the industry in which it operates will be useful during the interview. This will help you formulate the right questions for the interviewer (we'll talk about questions and why they're important below) and choose a smarter strategy in the part of the interview when the candidate needs to talk about his experience and briefly go through the points indicated in the resume.

2. Search the Internet for advice and standard interview questions at this company.

You can often find quite detailed information on the Internet about how interviews are conducted at a particular company, along with advice from those who have already interviewed for similar positions. First of all, this is relevant for large companies, where the process of selecting candidates is standardized and takes several stages. The most popular sites for information about companies around the world, their approach to hiring, and, most importantly, reviews of current and former employees are Glassdoor and Indeed. This is if we talk about global resources. In the Russian-speaking space, their “heroes” - IT specialists most often prefer to leave reviews of employers on such resources as the Ukrainian Dou.ua, the Russian Habr Career, the Belarusian dev.by ( well, and the well-known uncensored resource, which can be Googled for the query “beautiful it " ). In the company reviews section of the above-mentioned resources, you can often find fairly detailed descriptions of not only the entire interview process, including its duration and approach to the conversation, but also specific questions that are asked of all candidates.

3. View your Git repository

For those who have experience working on third-party projects and personal pet projects, and it is strongly recommended for programmers with little work experience to have them , it makes sense to review your Git repository before the interview: update it, if necessary, delete or hide those projects, show which you don’t really want, and vice versa, highlight those that are not a sin to boast about. Also, many experienced specialists advise looking at your code once again to make sure that it is understandable at least to the author himself, because it is very likely that interviewers, after looking at the code examples, will want to ask several questions. Things like: “What did you learn while working on this project?”, “Why did you write the code this way?”, “What was the most difficult part of this project?”, “Did you have to make any decisions along the way?” on the project?", etc. The inability to explain your code and talk about the intricacies of working on a particular project can significantly spoil the impression of a candidate. On the other hand, a good Git repository will help show your greatest strengths, ability for professional growth and desire to progress.

4. Practice solving programming problems

Technical programming problems are almost always given to candidates at some stage of the main interview, so it's a good idea to practice solving them. Moreover, tasks are often given even to very experienced programmers - they serve more to assess logical skills and the ability to find solutions than to test direct programming skills. And their solution, if you do not have much experience in this, in an interview when time is limited, can cause unexpected difficulties. There are quite a lot of resources with programming tasks. Among English-language sites, LeetCode , CodinGame and Cracking the Coding Interview and many others are very popular. Well, the best resource for Java programming tasks in Russian is undoubtedly JavaRush.

5. Prepare a list of questions and topics for conversation

Preparing a list of questions and potential conversation topics in advance is a wise tactic that can often help you avoid failure not only on the first date, but also during the interview for a programming position. Information about the employing company, the study of which is the first item on our checklist, will be very useful here. Well-formulated questions to the interviewer will not only allow you to make a good impression on employers, but also to obtain more information about the job and the company, the tasks to be worked on, and potential difficulties. At the same time, when composing questions, you should not be too zealous, trying to make them complex and ponderous in order to impress the interviewer with the depth of your thoughts. The main goal here is to demonstrate your interest and understanding of the industry, as well as obtain as much valuable information about the company as possible.

What questions to ask? Checklist of the 10 best questions to ask the interviewer

Such a topic as questions that it makes sense for a candidate to ask company representatives during an interview is undeservedly deprived of attention and is considered unimportant, because when planning an interview, everyone strives first of all to prepare to answer, and not to ask. We have already talked above about why asking the right questions to interviewers is important. Now, here is a short list of questions that will be most appropriate and at the same time useful during an interview for a programmer position. But first, a couple of quotes with opinions and advice from “experienced people.” “The best questions to ask an interviewer are those that require a detailed answer and allow you to gain a deeper understanding of the company, the team of people you will work with, and the position itself. They allow you to learn more about the tools and practices of software development in this company, about how the decision-making process is structured, what technologies are used, and even what can be expected from this company in terms of career growth and professional development,” says Joanna Trop -Joanna Tropp-Bluestone, career strategist and CEO of recruiting firm Negotiation Geek. “There are no universal questions that potential developers should ask employers during an interview. You need to “feel” your interlocutor and ask questions that suit him. And of course, you need to consider the background of your interlocutor (HR or technical specialist) when thinking about what to ask,” advises Cody Swann, CEO of Gunner Technology.

1. Can you tell me about the team members I will be working with?

This is an excellent question to ask a manager who will be your immediate supervisor. This question, or rather the answer to it, will allow you to better understand what the team you are working with is like and how balanced it is. In addition, based on the manager's answer, it will be possible to form an opinion about what management style is characteristic of the company and how he/she relates to these people. This question can also be rephrased as follows: How many years on average do programmers tend to stay with a company? According to experts, the answer will help you better understand the company culture and how easy it will be to fit into the team.

2. How will my performance be measured?

Or, to paraphrase, you can ask: how do you measure the level of success of an employee in a given position? Firstly, experts advise, such a wording of the question shows that the candidate is already thinking about this job from the position of high achievements (however, one can argue with this statement). In addition, the interviewer's answer will allow you to better understand the company's expectations, as well as what approach to assessing performance is more typical for it.

3. Why do you like working here?

Another good question to ask your potential boss. Allows you to better understand the corporate culture and what to expect from work and new colleagues.

4. What challenges are the team facing right now?

“Questions about key problems and key competitors demonstrate that the applicant cares about the company's trajectory. It also shows his self-confidence and willingness to face challenges and seek answers,” said Kolton Andrus, CEO of Gremlin.

5. What technologies does the company currently use?

“I am always more impressed by candidates who show a genuine interest in technology. It makes sense to ask what technologies are being used and whether there will be opportunities to work on something innovative—great developers always learn something new,” advises Ian McClarty, president of PhoenixNAP Global IT Services. And a number of questions that experts with experience in hiring coders most often advise asking interviewers during an interview for a programmer position:

• How do customers benefit from using your product or service?
• Are there opportunities for career advancement?
• Do you have any comments about my resume and work experience?
• What development methodologies does your company use?
• Something about the exact company for which the applicant is applying.

Let's end with one more good quote. “I've always been most impressed by candidates who have researched our company ahead of time and thought through the technical challenges of building a product like this. These people usually ask good questions related to project architecture, technology selection, scaling, etc. This is a good opportunity for the candidate to not only prove themselves, but also to understand whether the company really knows what it is doing,” said Sean Borman of Obsidian Security.

Epilogue

These tips, along with other materials on employment on JavaRush, will help you feel more confident during an interview, increase your chances of a successful result, and maybe, what the hell, get a more attractive offer. Well, we at JavaRush will continue to work on materials that will help a novice Java coder find a job. However, we help not only with words, but also with deeds: students with a Premium Pro subscription can send us their resume for review - our specialists will study it and give recommendations on what should be corrected or improved in it.