Recruiter Tips & Tricks: Rocking the technical interview
October 27, 2011
Introduction: Jeff Moore, Lead Engineering Recruiter at Google, talks about how you can best prepare for a technical interview in this week's Recruiter Tips & Tricks post. Interested in internships or full-time roles at Google? Check out our newly redesigned student jobs site at www.google.com/students.
Welcome back, everyone; I hope things are going well. It’s time for my favorite blog of the series. Seriously, as a recruiter I like nothing better than having a candidate come in for an interview and show off amazing technical skills! All recruiters love this because we spend our time looking for great talent...and it’s rewarding to see people do well. So, I’m going to share with you some quick and easy tips to help you rock the technical interview. Here we go:
Do your homework - Doing well in a technical interview is as much about what you do before the interview as what you do during the interview. Most software companies that perform really technical interviews are going to ask you questions about coding, system design and algorithms. You should search the web for sample questions so you’ll know what to expect. If someone asks you a question during the interview that you found during your research, make sure to tell them so they can ask you a different question.
Refresh your skills - In addition to doing your homework, you should brush up on your software engineering skills. Get your old Computer Science books out and reread the chapters on algorithms, complexity theory and all that fun stuff. A lot of schools also publish courses online. MIT, for example, has “Open Courseware”, where you can go and actually take a look at the undergrad and graduate level courses taught there. It’s a pretty good way to make sure you’re up to date and feeling good about your core Computer Science skills.
Know your resume - Obvious tip alert! Many times you’ll be asked to explain previous projects that you’ve worked on. It is critical that you are able to speak articulately about your past work, which could include being able to explain the algorithm and its implementation. Remember the most difficult bug and how you fixed it.
Rinse and repeat for desired results - Once you’ve done all this, the best way to make sure you ace the interview is to practice, practice and more practice. I’d recommend you check out sites like Stack Overflow, TopCoder or any of the other coding competitions out there, and crank though some sample problems. Finally, check out a book like "Smart and Gets Things Done" by Joel Spolsky, or do a quick search for books about technical interview preparation. There’s no magic bullet here—just time and due diligence. Trust me, it will pay off.
I hope these tips help. Remember, the more time you spend preparing the better job you’ll do during your interview. Additionally, being well prepared will allow you to relax and be yourself which in turn will give the company an idea of what you’d be like as a colleague. Good luck out there this week. Feel free to share any technical interview stories. I always enjoy hearing from people about what they encounter. Finally...take a deep breath and rock the interview.
Posted by Jeff Moore, Lead Engineering Recruiter
Do your homework - Doing well in a technical interview is as much about what you do before the interview as what you do during the interview. Most software companies that perform really technical interviews are going to ask you questions about coding, system design and algorithms. You should search the web for sample questions so you’ll know what to expect. If someone asks you a question during the interview that you found during your research, make sure to tell them so they can ask you a different question.
Refresh your skills - In addition to doing your homework, you should brush up on your software engineering skills. Get your old Computer Science books out and reread the chapters on algorithms, complexity theory and all that fun stuff. A lot of schools also publish courses online. MIT, for example, has “Open Courseware”, where you can go and actually take a look at the undergrad and graduate level courses taught there. It’s a pretty good way to make sure you’re up to date and feeling good about your core Computer Science skills.
Know your resume - Obvious tip alert! Many times you’ll be asked to explain previous projects that you’ve worked on. It is critical that you are able to speak articulately about your past work, which could include being able to explain the algorithm and its implementation. Remember the most difficult bug and how you fixed it.
Rinse and repeat for desired results - Once you’ve done all this, the best way to make sure you ace the interview is to practice, practice and more practice. I’d recommend you check out sites like Stack Overflow, TopCoder or any of the other coding competitions out there, and crank though some sample problems. Finally, check out a book like "Smart and Gets Things Done" by Joel Spolsky, or do a quick search for books about technical interview preparation. There’s no magic bullet here—just time and due diligence. Trust me, it will pay off.
I hope these tips help. Remember, the more time you spend preparing the better job you’ll do during your interview. Additionally, being well prepared will allow you to relax and be yourself which in turn will give the company an idea of what you’d be like as a colleague. Good luck out there this week. Feel free to share any technical interview stories. I always enjoy hearing from people about what they encounter. Finally...take a deep breath and rock the interview.
Posted by Jeff Moore, Lead Engineering Recruiter
