In early December, after the Fall 2022 quarter ended, I decided to start applying for software engineer jobs. With only two classes left until graduation at the end of March 2023, and some upcoming financial concerns, I figured now was the time to start updating my resume. After tons of hours updating my resume, social media sites, and job search sites; and after tons of hours updating my resume, social media sites, and job search sites; and after tons of applications filed, tons of rejection emails, I finally made it past the initial resume screening and was offered to take an online assessment.
I was excited to finally make it to this step of the interview process, but also nervous as I had no idea what to expect. I received the email on a Tuesday to take the assessment and decided it would be best to spend the week studying and take the assessment over the weekend. The languages used were Python for a debugging section, Angular for a section to add functionality to a website, and then the last section was to describe the process of AWS authentication. I felt confident about the debugging part in Python, but I got stumped with Angular and I assumed I’d be able to pick it up quick during the assessment but that didn’t seem to be the case. By the time I got to the last section I had 30 minutes left of the total 2 hours and I was worried. The question was on a specific topic of AWS and that threw me off as I was expecting just a general process of getting started in AWS, with never having touched AWS I felt paralyzed and had trouble looking up the needed information. I ended up not being able to write much for that section and submitted my assessment with a feeling of disappointment in myself overall.
Key takeways:
- Make sure to study the material
- Time goes by during the test faster than you think.
- Apply to jobs with tech stacks I’m more confident in.
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