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In my last article I detailed some tips on how to interview from a candidate's point of view. Here I will continue that thread.
Research the Company
Some people take a very targeted approach to interviewing. They have a short list of companies that they know they want to work for so they narrowly target contacts at those companies. Some take a more open approach and give almost any company a shot. In my own personal experience I've done both and had good and bad experiences with each.
No matter your approach you need to thoroughly research the company that you are interviewing at before your interview. Know what their business sector is - are they entertainment, a cable company, a consulting company, manufacturing company, home builder, bank, etc. Educate yourself on pitfalls and special considerations for that industry. Find out what specifically the company does within it's industry, what is their standing, who are their competitors. What is their mission statement.
Bring all of that to the interview, let them know how your own goals and values align with their mission statement and their goals. Ask what the role you will be filling fits into the overall larger picture within the organization.
Ask Relevant Questions
The last part leads into this part. If you know the company's business sector, find out what your department does, what are the challenges the department has faced in the last year, where does the department want to be at the end of this year.
At a more granular level, what kind of turn over has the department seen, who would you report to and what kind of room for growth is there. What would your day to day be like, how involved do you get to be in the strategic decision making, versus tactical implementation?
All of these things show that you care about your career and have given careful consideration to your next move.
Which of course you should have. I have learned how not fully researching a company can get you into a very uncomfortable situation, and could be hazardous to your career. One time I accepted an offer from a very small company, in part because I was afraid of being laid off - I was working for a home builder when the housing market collapsed - and in part because it was a sizable salary increase with a chance to run an entire department.
The reality of the situation was that the company was run by three private investors who seemingly mistrusted each other so much that they would each wrest control of the company from each other every few months and change the entire direction of the company. They suffered from - and this is no exaggeration - near one hundred percent turn over every two to three years, in part because of the change in direction and in part because the levels of distrust permeated down from the executive level down to the implementation level.
It was easy enough for me to get hired there, but once I was there, would I be stuck there? I would have to stay there a year just so that my resume didn't look like I was noncommittal, but it was a fairly stressful year.
Be Able to Demonstrate Progressive Advancement
Most companies, when not experiencing a Great Recession, plan to grow. Part of growing is having a bench of waiting leaders, ready to move into new leadership positions. From an engineering perspective, a department needs to have developers ready or who will one day be ready, to lead projects, mentor other developers, manage teams and eventually run departments.
If you do not show progressive advancement in your career, eventually your salary will hit a ceiling and it will make more financial sense to hire someone right out of school who has been coding as a hobbyist since high school the same technology that you are learning in your spare time.
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very helpful tips, I am just looking for a new job.
Tommy
yup, as Tommy said, very helpful tips, and happened to me at the 1st job that i got, i hardly stayed for like a year and i'm still working with them untill now as part time, but the problem there was because i had to work like 10 hrs daily and somtimes more *no weekend break* + i was sure that their way of developing was wrong "like there wasnt steps, processes".
for me, i dont have that big experience, i took some of the MCTS certifications (framework 2.0,C# windows apps,ASP.Net), and now working at Adobe Flex, and hope i'll get as much experience as possible in the coming days & planning to make software engineering Masters.
Thx for such a nice post.
Great post, Tom. I especially endorse asking relevant questions. Afterall, this process should be a mutual discovery for fit. One easy word to remember for this exchange is "why" followed by anything relevant. For example, why were you attracted by my resume? An interview is really a sales call, so using a "discovery-linkage-delivery" approach may help differentiate you. Discovery is learning about their pain (lots of why questions) and linkage is connecting the dots of their pain to your ability and skills. This is where you should have several "PAR" stories ready to use. Explain a Problem, the Action(s) you took and the Result. One PAR story including your key relevant skills should be told no matter what! This is what you want the interviewer to remember about you. The delivery phase, in this context, is simply a summary statement of your ability to alleviate their pain, and, most importantly, a close - ask for the job! If the interview isn't the decision-maker, ask for their endorsement.