This week, I would like to talk about interviews. I started job hunting last summer. Most of the jobs I applied for are full-time jobs and all of them are software development engineer roles. I didn’t start sending out applications until summer term was over – I was taking CS 362 at the time. I asked myself many times, am I ready for this? The answer was NO. I did not know what to expect for a tech interview and I was not fully prepared. But I know I need to get the applications out just so I have a goal that keeps me moving.
The first company that invited me for a take home assessment is Neeva. This company does ad-free, private search engines. The co-founder was an ex-googler. The take home assessment has 4 coding projects I can choose from. These projects are in areas of ML, Backend, Frontend, and Mobile. I chose Backend. I had one week to work on this. I did it and submitted it and was rejected after two days. Moving on…
The second company is Nordstrom. I was pretty excited about it. If you read my first post, you know I love fashion and would love to stay in the industry if I can :). However, after the last failure, I did not think I progressed much. What should I prepare for the interviews, DA&S questions? behavioral questions? or know everything we were taught at school? I felt like I was drowning and could not put myself together in such a quick timeline. I was also too stressed about it, the more I wanted this job the higher chance I would screw it. So no surprise, I did not get in. Oh I also wanted to say that my bluetooth keyboard stopping working in the middle of the interview. There were a few awkward moments between me and the interviewers. If anyone is curious, I had three rounds of interviews with three engineers. 50 mins per round, 20 mins of BQ and 30 mins to solve a coding problem and follow ups.
In the same month, I had my third interview with Redfin. After my interview was scheduled, they sent me interview preparation materials. Very informative. You know what to expect during the interview. For the technical questions, they provided a list of topics: 1) review take home challenge code; 2) data structure; 3) OOD; 4) Internet topics – a refresh of CS 372 is necessary; 5) code quality mindset; 6) software development practices. You were also expected to prepare behavioral questions. They would want to know if you can work in a team, and if you are a good communicator and fits their culture.
Right after my interview with Redfin, I was contacted by Salesforce. For me, this was a great opportunity! Decent pay, good wlb, can’t ask for more. The first interview was with a manager who had worked there for more than seven years. It lasted 60 minutes. The first 10 – 15 minutes she asked questions about why I wanted to change my career and what got me interested in the tech industry. Then she popped an OOD question to design something that was very similar to Instagram. I was never invited to the second interview. LOL
Well! Hope my experiences are helpful and inspiring! And best of luck to you in your job hunting!
