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General Interviewing Tips:

When answering the interview questions, consider the following suggestions:

  1. Quantify Achievements: Where possible, quantify the impact of your contributions. For example, if you mention that a project resulted in time savings, improved quality, or increased ratings, provide specific numbers or percentages to highlight the magnitude of your achievements.

  2. Highlight Challenges and Solutions: For each experience, discuss not only the successes but also the challenges you faced and the solutions you implemented. This provides a more holistic view of your problem-solving skills and resilience.

  3. Connect Skills to Job Requirements: Explicitly connect your experiences and achievements to the specific skills and qualifications mentioned in the job description. This helps the interviewer see a direct alignment between your capabilities and the requirements of the role.

  4. Show Continuous Learning: Emphasize your commitment to continuous learning, especially in emerging technologies. Your exploration of AI and interest in tools like Cypress and Playwright is great. Mention any relevant certifications, courses, or workshops you've completed.

  5. Demonstrate Leadership and Team Collaboration: Provide more details on instances where you led a team, resolved conflicts, or collaborated effectively. Showcase your ability to motivate and guide team members toward common goals.

  6. Discuss Adaptability: Elaborate on situations where you had to quickly adapt to new technologies, methodologies, or project requirements. Highlight your ability to learn and apply knowledge efficiently.

  7. Tailor Examples to the Company: Whenever possible, align your examples with the industry or domain of the company you're interviewing with. This helps the interviewer see your relevance to their specific needs.

Remember to balance detail and conciseness, ensuring that your responses are thorough but not overly lengthy. Additionally, use the STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, Result) to structure your responses for clarity. Practicing your responses beforehand with a friend or in front of a mirror can also help you refine your delivery. Good luck with your interview!

General Tips

  • When asked an interview question, don’t rush to share your awesomeness unless you know which part of your awesomeness the interviewer and employer needs to know. (That is, it doesn’t matter if you’re fantastic. You need to connect the dots for the employer how your fabulousness matches what it needs!) Sometimes the job interviewer’s question is specific and he or she identifies clearly what’s needed. Other times, the interviewer is vague. Make sure to look before you leap.
  • Ask a clarifying question (if need be) to zone in on exactly what information the interviewer needs to know to determine whether you are a great fit. This is especially helpful in the wake of the dreaded and horribly ineffective, “Please tell me about yourself,” question.
  • Build Rapport with the Job Interviewer
    • Check interviewer'LinkedIn profile
    • Show you are inspired & want to learn more about their role.
    • Try to make connection
  • Keep It Short and Simple. Superfluous information hinders their ability to remember.
  • Capture and Keep Their Attention. They can't remember you if they're not listening. Instead of making an interviewer pay attention, focus on earning their attention and keeping them engaged. A great way to do this is by sharing relatable stories – particularly those that highlight your initiative or your ability to learn from mistakes.
  • Talk in Their Lingo. Speak in a language they understand. It's easy to fall into the trap of assuming everyone has the same knowledge base as you. This leads to miscommunication. Be mindful of your audience's understanding and adjust your language accordingly. If you're not sure about their familiarity with a topic, simply ask!
  • Make Them Believe You. Use details to make yourself believable. The secret to telling believable stories is to focus on the details. If you've truly experienced something, those specifics – what you saw, heard, felt – will make your story ring true. Use descriptive language and, where appropriate, a well-placed statistic to make your audience believe you were there.
  • Get Them to Care. The easiest way to get an interviewer to care is to demonstrate how hiring you directly benefits them. Tailor your message to their role:
    • Superior: Offer to take on tasks, freeing up their time for strategic work.
    • Peer: Emphasize collaboration, knowledge sharing, and cross-training.
    • Subordinate: Highlight your ability to mentor and provide growth opportunities.
  • Provide more specific details and examples when discussing past experience. Sharing metrics, timeframes, technologies used, testing approaches, lessons learned, etc. helps evaluate your skills more fully.
  • When describing challenges, also discuss exactly how you addressed and resolved them. Demonstrating your problem-solving abilities is important.
  • Connect your past experiences more directly to the job requirements. Explicitly point out relevant qualifications and skills.
  • Ask follow-up questions too when given responses. Help continue the dialogue and evaluate critical thinking.
  • Practice anticipating potential follow-up questions on your answers. Come prepared to discuss your experience in more depth.
  • For areas like large projects, have a specific complex example or challenges prepped to draw from.

Body Language

Have you ever heard of the 7-38-55 rule where 7% of communication is based on the spoken words, 38% on voice/tone, and 55% on body language.

  • Smile
  • Stand
  • Shake Hand
  • Positive Tone with Authority
  • Repeat their Names
  • Situp Straight
  • Smile When Listen
  • Mildly Nod
  • Eye Contact
  • No Arm Crossing
  • Proper Empathy Face
  • Eye Contact
  • Lean to engage
  • Use proper tone to ask questions
  • Thank You at the end.
  • Never Lean Back on Chair

White boarding/coding questions

  • Ask clarifying questions and/or for examples before diving into code.
  • At the whiteboard, allow for ample room to write. Start from the top of the whiteboard. Try to leave space between the lines in case you have to go back and add lines in the middle.
  • You understand basic syntax, rules of the language being used, and what is actually going on with the code.
  • Walk through the solution with 1-2 example inputs.