Getting hired in a Software Development Company

In the past 6 months I completely lacked time to write another post. One of the reasons why this was impossible was caused by the fact I did not have time as I had to improve our team here at MULTIDIMENSION. I am proud of what we have here, of what our services mean and what quality we are offering, but it is impossible to go through a series of interviews and not only have completely unprepared candidates, but ones without any real motivation to improve themselves.

candidate2

So here are some pointers that might help some of them, especially the ones that never managed to go successfully through an interview.

1) Try to focus on improving yourselves before coming to an interview and prepare not only your knowledge, but also your mental state. You should not be nervous and you should be sincere. Most companies prefer candidates that have a thirst for knowledge, but also that are honest with their level of understanding the work needed to be done. Ask your own questions and be sincere of what your plan for the next 6 to 12 months is.

2) Set your expectations in line with your skills. Don't expect the company to pay you an amount of money you are not able to at least gain with your knowledge. The fact that you are looking for a job in an IT company does not mean you should gain a whole lot more just for your title. Don't start a job with the mentality that because you finished a college you should be paid for that. Every company, especially one that's willing to invest in providing you with marketable skills, wants to be able to manage that investment at a realistic amount.

3) Learn at least the basics of your job. Keep in mind that it's impossible to even consider an internship (paid or unpaid) with an employee that doesn't even know things from high school, especially after 4 years of college or more.

4) Learn something about the company, about their portfolio. It helps with our ego, the ones that interview you. 🙂

5) Never stop developing yourselves. Always try to learn new things or you will be left behind. Consider investing in you, before a company does.

6) When applying for a job, answer the mini-interview questions. Answers like "In CV" or "Ok" are not acceptable. You should provide more specific details and start your communication before even being called. Also it will make your CV stand above the others.

Now let me tell you some cases I've personally dealt with which are at least cringe worthy:

  • College graduate. 12 months experience, based on the resume, looking for a PHP backend developer position:

    • Q: Do you know what a CLASS is?
    • A: You mean the definition?
    • Q: In your own words is fine. I'm not one for by the book definitions.
    • A: No. sorry I don't. I never worked with classes before.

 

  • College graduate. 6 months experience, based on the resume, looking for a PHP backend developer position:

    • Q: Do you know what WAMP stands for?
    • A: No….
    • Q: It's an acronym. It's based on the components required for your website to run. First is the OS, Windows, then the web server, database server and the language. So?
    • A: I don't know what those are…

 

  • College graduate. 2 years experience, based on the resume, looking for a PHP backend developer position:

    • Q: Do you know the difference between a CLASS and an OBJECT?
    • A: No.
    • Q: Ok….Then do you know how you create an OBJECT?
    • A: Well. You use NEW.
    • Q: And do you know what that is? What it does?
    • A: No. sorry. Can't I work in WordPress?
    • Q: Sure you can …….

……………………………………

  • Same guy:

    • Practical test: Create a class that will model an entity saved in the database.
    • A: How do I write to the database?
    • Q: Ok. I think we're done here.

 

  • College graduate. 12 months experience, based on resume, looking for a PHP backend developer position, wanted 800EUR/month :

    • Q: These websites here how did you do them?
    • A: I installed WordPress and installed THIS theme. And I changed the logo, modified a bit of CSS.
    • Q: Ok. Do you know how to load here a list of most recent posts?
    • A: Well the theme doesn't have that here.
    • Q: I see. But can't you use get_posts?
    • A: I don't know PHP.
    • Q: So you are interested in an internship position to learn?
    • A: No.

 

  • In college. No experience. Unpaid internship position for a month with the ability to start as an entry-level immediately after. 24 years old.

    • Q: After three days, over the phone. Why didn't you came in office today. Are there any problems with the team?
    • A: My parents don't want to let me come anymore….
    • Q: Ok. I'm sorry to hear that.

 

Again. on #3 above. You should know:

  • What a CLASS is.
  • What an OBJECT is.
  • What's the difference between and OBJECT and a CLASS.
  • What's an web server, database server and the language you are applying for.
  • What's the difference between: compiled language, interpreted language, scripting language and markup language. And which of them is a programming language.
  • Bonus points for knowing what INHERITENCE, POLYMORPHISM, ABSTRACT Classes, Final Classes and Interfaces are.

Oh and that's just for an entry level position. Or at least it should be in a perfect world.

 

Image source: distantjob.com

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*