As noted in a study by the HeadHunter resource, in 2020 the demand for IT specialists in Russia, with the exception of the first months of self-isolation, was higher than ever. It will be the same in 2021. A similar situation is in Ukraine: the demand for IT specialists is growing by 30% annually, they say.in a study of the IT labor market by GlobalLogic. Companies manage to attract only 18% of engineers. We are talking, among other things, about junior level developers. “The deficit will continue in 2021. The request for specialists will be very active,” noted GlobalLogic. As you can see, now is not the worst time to look for a developer job. In this text, we've compiled a summary of tips on how to prepare for and pass your first interviews: how to write a resume and cover letter, what to ask in an interview, and how to show your interest. Bonus - a selection of the most useful material on CodeGym on this topic, including technical interview questions.
Step 1. How to write a resume
Write the most authentic information about your professional experience, knowledge, work biography. Describe your skills clearly. If you feel confident working with, for example, Spring Boot, Maven, and Docker, put that at the beginning of your resume. Knowledge of Java Core, OOP, understanding of the properties of the REST architecture is also suitable.
It is better to create several different versions of the resume, in which to focus on certain skills , and send the most suitable version to different vacancies.
The resume should be understandable and readable , preferably written in the same language as the vacancy. In this way, you will show interest and understanding of the vacancy you are applying for.
Write 2-4 abstracts for each project, important previous work experience. When talking about what you were doing, it is best to use this formula: Action verb | technical details | to… | achieve a certain goal / solve a problem.
It is important to provide real information about yourself, including your first and last name , otherwise you may confuse the recruiter. Some applicants write only their nickname. For example, Alex, but it can be both Alexander and Alex. In order to avoid embarrassment during communication, it is better to indicate the full name.
Enter information about your place of residence. If the job description states that the company is not looking for an employee for relocation, and you are in another city, this information is really important for the recruiter.
You can add some personal information (interesting facts, hobbies), but without unnecessary details. In this case, it is better to say less than more.
Step 2. How to write a motivation letter
If you realize that you do not meet all the criteria from the job description, it is better to indicate this in your cover letter and explain why you want this job .
In the first paragraph of the motivation letter, write about what attracted you to the company, what specifically interested you in the team , project and position. Show enthusiasm for the work you have to do.
Also write about your skills that match the specific requirements of the company. Show that you can be truly valuable to the project.
In the third paragraph , summarize: why you should be invited for an interview . Be as specific and direct as possible.
Find out more about the company you're interviewing for.
Almost always, when selecting candidates, they prefer people who consciously state what interested them in the vacancy and the company, all other things being equal. You can explain why the company and the position are of interest to you not only in the context of the tasks you will be engaged in, but also in a more global sense, for example, in the social mission of the enterprise. You can also study information about the company and link your motivation for finding a job with what the company is striving for.
Practice solving programming problems.
Technical problems are often given even to very experienced programmers - they serve more to assess logical skills and the ability to find solutions than to test programming skills directly. And their decision, if you do not have a lot of experience in this, in the conditions of an interview, when time is limited, can cause unexpected difficulties.
Prepare a list of questions and topics for conversation.
Well-formulated questions to the interviewer will not only make a good impression on employers, but also get more information about the job and the company, the tasks to be worked on and potential difficulties.
View your Git repository.
For those who have experience working on side projects and personal pet projects, and it is recommended for programmers with little experience to have them , it makes sense to look at your Git repository before the interview: update it, if necessary, delete or hide those projects that show I don’t really want to, and vice versa, put the best ones in the foreground.
Prepare a monologue about yourself.
Often at interviews, the very first question is “tell us about yourself” (and interviews with programmers are no exception), so it makes sense to immediately prepare an answer to it - a short monologue: about you, about how you got into this profession, about past experience, expectations. Just remember that the monologue should be concise: you don’t need to retell your biography to the HR in detail.
Conduct a test interview.
You can ask someone to conduct a test interview to practice answering questions and overcome interview fear. They can ask general questions regarding the first phase of the HR interview. It's also a good idea to find an experienced developer to test technical knowledge. The more experience a person has of answering difficult questions, the more confident he will feel in an interview.
Step 4. How to present yourself at the first interview?
Show your motivation.
A candidate may have a great resume, he may be suitable for hard and soft skills, but he does not show motivation to work in the company, or the motivation does not coincide with the company's goal. Before you voice your motivation, figure out what you would like to hear in the place of your interlocutor. If you say "I need a job to make my first million" and it's a startup or a mid-tier company, the company won't be able to offer you that. Most likely, such motivation can play against the applicant. In this case, it is better to talk about the fact that you have an interest in developing and launching projects from scratch.
Show professional activity.
In the interview, tell us that you are actively exploring new technologies. For example, a story can be structured like this: you learned Java, mastering frameworks, and now you are learning additional technologies that will help you develop more complex and interesting projects in the future. This will show that you see your future in this area and will willingly develop in it. It is important to show any of your experience, even in a non-commercial project. You can talk about free projects, and about internships, and about completed trainings.
Be sincere.
If you completed the course and have not worked anywhere before, and want to appear cool and experienced, this will not work. Your experience will become clear during the technical interview and during further work. You're doing yourself a disservice by talking about skills you don't have. Sincere people, on the contrary, dispose to themselves. If you understand that knowledge is not enough, it is better to focus not on this, but on how you are ready to learn and develop for the sake of a new job.
Ask questions.
An interview is the stage when you can put together the most detailed picture of the company you are interviewing for. As practice shows, after the interview, the candidate has a lot of questions, but it seems like it’s not the right place to ask them.
Specify the deadline for making a decision.
If the recruiter or team leader didn't say the deadline, you should find out. If you have been given a certain deadline, then try not to ask for the result ahead of time. If a company delays feedback, you have every right to write or call and ask if you can get feedback. If not, clarify why and how long you have to wait.
Step 5. What topics to learn for a technical interview?
We at CodeGym have written several times about what topics to learn for a technical interview. In this section, we will recall the most common ones that are talked about in technical interviews with juniors.
java core.
The term Java Core is quite broad. This name means both the elementary syntax of the language and such a complex topic as multithreading. Actually, the CodeGym course is mainly devoted to Core.
Algorithms and data structures.
Algorithms are a kind of litmus test of a programmer's skills and a person's understanding of what programming is in principle. It is better to understand data structures, they are also liked to be asked at interviews.
Unit testing.
Learning JUnit does not take much time, but the benefits of knowing it are huge. You can cover your own and other people's code with tests. Very often, newcomers are assigned to write unit tests for colleagues, so this can be useful directly in a new job. 57.5% of respondents said they used JUnit before their first successful Java interview, and over 83% already used unit testing in their first year.
Libraries of utilities, GUI and useful components.
Servlets, JDBC, log4j - all these and other tools are very useful and often used at work, and it is better not to neglect them when preparing for an interview. This is especially true of Jackson, which, according to our survey, faced 72.7% of applicants for the position of Java programmer, JDBC - this library was tested by more than 78% of respondents.
Frameworks.
Previously, Java Junior was not expected to know Spring or Hibernate. But times are changing, and today this is sometimes expected even from Trainee. Before a successful interview, a third of respondents were familiar with Spring at a good level, and 45.5% understood it moderately. The situation with Spring boot is somewhat worse (36.4% did not know it at all), and almost 44% of the surveyed CodeGym graduates declared good knowledge of Hibernate. Here you can read the detailed text about what is required from a potential Java developer .
At interviews, it is especially important to show knowledge of Spring, Hibernate, SQL. The set is small, but not understanding enough, you can start talking nonsense. So if you don’t know, it’s better to answer something like this: “I don’t know exactly this, but I know this and that in Spring” and so on. Thus, your knowledge, however small, will be noticed.
Before the interview, study up and down the information on the company you want to get a job. At the interview, do not fall into a stupor and say: “I don’t know.” Even if you don’t know something, but start to think, your ability to think will be appreciated at the interview.
You can prepare for interview questions, there are a lot of them on the net. There are employers who like to ask something with a trick to check the general erudition of the applicant. You also need to be able to answer such questions and be prepared.
After you fail your first interview, praise yourself. This is a great achievement to master a certain layer of knowledge and pass an interview. It would be a big mistake to give up here. Of course, it's frustrating to get rejected. But everything is going according to plan, and you have become much closer to your work. Your next goal is to fail another interview. And then another one, and then another one ... And after each interview, draw conclusions. Take a look at your gaps and tighten them up. There is nowhere to hurry. The main thing is regularity and non-violence towards yourself. You are doing everything right. One day you will receive an offer. This is what you were going for. Your well-deserved offer. You are well done! If you still have questions about how to prepare for an interview, we are waiting for them in the comments;)
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