Landing A Job:

Resume, Interviews & Secrets

Ed KeenanDePaul University

May 22, 2009

Goal:

Types of People Is programming more of a social or introverted type

of work? Social!

Software problems are solved by teams, not individuals Review 1000s of lines of code that you didn’t write

Need to communicate with others to understand it. The geek in the corner solving the problem is a Myth

It died with unicorns and parachute pants in the 1980s Ability to work well in a community is paramount

Dealing with different egos and types of people is critical to success

Technical Candidates How do you evaluate technical talent?

Very Hard to make a accurate evaluation Very subjective

Understand how they think Programmers, engineers and technical people all solve

problems Type of person

What drives them? What type of problems can they solve? What’s their growth potential? Mastery of their domain knowledge

Non-Technical Candidates Artist, musicians, accountants, lawyers…

Easier to evaluate You can evaluate tangible material

Portfolio review Passed the standardized exams

CPA BAR

Evaluating Candidates What’s a good candidate?

50% Group / Social interactions 50% Potential / Ability

Why? Behavioral / Social abilities

One “Bad” person can negatively affect the group Disrupting the balance Causing internal problems

Projects are social They are done inside a community Recognized this issues and highlight How you fit in.

Skills Skills

Skills are the “How-to’s” of a role They are capabilities that can be transferred from one

person to another. For programmers,

Ability to Program, Debug, Design For Artists

Ability to create Art, Using Tools, Draw

Skills can grow and improve through teaching Not stationary or Static

Knowledge Knowledge

Is simply “What you are aware of”

2 types of knowledge Factual Knowledge

Things you know Experiential Knowledge

Understandings you have picked up along the way Remember

Knowledge is Power

Talent Talent

Talents are the four-lane highways in your mind Those that carve your recurring patterns of

Thought Feeling Behavior

3 types of Talent

3 Types of Talent Striving Talent

Explain “the why” of a person Explain why he/she gets out of bed every morning Why he/she is motivated to push and push just that little bit harder

Thinking Talent Explain “the how” of a person Explain how he/she thinks How he/she weighs up alternatives How he/she comes to his decisions

Relating Talent Explain “the who” of a person Explain whom he/she trusts Whom he/she builds relationships with Whom he/she confronts Whom he/she ignores

How Important is Talent? How important is Talent?

Everything!!!! Skills can be trained Knowledge can be learned Talent is inherent

Competencies, Habits, Attitudes, Personal Drive are all talents. We cannot radically change these attributes

through training

Used Car Model Why interview?

Understand what kind of car you are buying Current state of the car

Engine, wheels, interior Does it drive today? Does it pass emission tests?

Potential State Add Turbo, 4-Piston brakes, 500 W speaker system How much work will it take to enhance the car?

Exactly the same with technical candidates Can they do the basic job today? How much training before they are useful? What’s their potential? What do they love or hate in this field?

Résumé What’s the purpose of a résumé?

To get an interview That’s it.

If you get an interview? Your résumé was good enough

Required Info Addresses

Permanent Address Local Address

Phone number That you can be reached (Not Mom’s) With voice mail

Email College/University info

University Name College Name Major Name Dates attended at each school (Start and End date)

Required Info cont. Answer this question:

Did you Receive a Degree? Which degree (what it states on diploma) Year the degree was attained

GPAs Overall GPA Major GPA Transferred GPA

If you went to several schools Company Job’s info

Position you are applying Starting Date Visa issues

What not to include Hobbies

Who cares if you sail, play WoW, or snorkel This is a technical position

Class listings We know the classes associated with the degree program,

don’t list them. High School (Anything)

I don’t care if you were 1st in your class You made national honors Played sports or marching band Does not relate to current job

Careful, Careful, Careful Specialty or area of focus

You should really be a master of that knowledge Better than any other candidate in that area. You will get drilled in that area

If you mention, Graphics, Math, OO Get ready to be challenged People in the industry will eat you up.

Never, Never lie That is almost always a ground for termination Falsifying or embellishing your résumé is wrong and evil

Tests Take Home tests

Be aware of the instructions Some have hard time limits Read and follow the instructions Programming Tests

Programming Tests Please answer the question asked!

Many people don’t I don’t know why.

Make sure what you coded – COMPILES Instant score of 0

For code that doesn’t compile Your answers are supposed to impress the

reviewers, If it doesn’t compile, YOU LOSE

Programming Tests Cont. Watch your style

Indentations Comments Variable names Assumptions

Be minimal but precise 5 pages and 1000 lines of code

For a piece of code that should be 15 lines of code Isn’t impressing the reviewer (It scares them)

Clean and elegant always beats fat and sloppy

Talk Guidelines Muy Importante (very important):

Throughout this interview section of the talk Perspective of the people doing the interviews at

Midway. Recommendations based on how we interview

Technical candidates. Point of view

Interviewer’s point of view NOT the candidate. Understanding interviewer goals

Should gives insights on your behavior as a candidate.

Greetings Introduce yourself

Shake his/her hand firmly. Look them in the eyes.

The Interviewer gives a quick summary on what they do Be careful of interviewers who love to talk about themselves

Just want to here about “How great they are” Generally a poor interviewer.

Candidates: Do NOT insult them Make recommendations on their ego They like fan clubs

Do not talk about yourself for a half of an hour. Remember that you have the job and are not trying to sell this

stranger that you are great.

Not a Candidate’s Friend Do not try to be the candidate’s new best

friend Remember:

We are interviewing for a paying job Need to determine if they can or cannot do the

required job Candidate’s Personality

Mostly determined through the lunch interview Also during the course of the interviews

Questions Ask clear and precise questions

Some coaching is good Be aware when you are supplying him/her with the

answer Do not ask super general questions.

“How did you like school?” “What are your interests?”

“Favorite hex number?” Drill down in the topics you are investigating. Get down to specific details quickly.

Questions cont. Drill down in the topics you are discussing

Get down to specific details quickly. Ask good questions that you know the

answer to. Do not ask softball questions. Prepare your questions in advance If you want, try your interview on one of us in the

group

Future Colleagues Remember the candidate will be working with you

and the group. We want to:

See good thought processes See problem solving abilities See they understand fundamental concepts

We do not want: To prove that the candidate knows some esoteric feature of the

language. We want good fundamentals. To re-educate the candidate on programming basics, we’re not

a school To know his high school mile times

Programming / Design Problems: While the candidate is doing the problem

Have them talk out loud Use the marker board Make sure that they understand the question

asked.

Floundering If they are floundering

Try to get them to think the problem out loud. When they’re stuck

say “Assume you have that blah, blah solution, now how would you finish it?”

Don’t give them answers If they hose it up, or take too long, or get

completely frustrated Move on to the next problem My timeout is around 1-2 minutes of them babbling

Finished the Problem? Ask them if are they finished?

I’ve mistakenly thought that they were done, since they had the correct solution on the board to only find out that they were going to hose it all up on the last step.

This should shed more understanding into the candidate’s ability or lack of ability.

Ask them: “What would you change if you had more time?” Now you’re getting them thinking You can learn a lot from this step

If you can slightly change the problem Can the candidate adapt to the new scenario? Smart people can.

Challenge Them Ask them an impossible or very hard question

I like to see if they are honest They should say:

“I don’t know” “I don’t have enough of experience”

Ask them what would their process be to solve that problem

Test Resolve Test their mastery of the knowledge

If the did something correct Claim that they did WRONG.

A good candidate should fight you back a little saying that you are wrong

How to improve your Chances Read these 3 books:

Effective C++ Refactoring Pragmatic Programmer

Study every item at Guru Of The Week www.gotw.ca/gotw/

Interview each other Do as many interviews as possible

Contact Ed Keenan

312.362.6747 ekeenan2@cdm.depaul.edu

Thank You!Questions?