Preparing for a job interview is an art of its own, it requires reading the theory books one more time, practicing white-board-coding, reading programming interview tips and more. Sure, you should invest time preparing for each interview, but, life has a way of its own 🙂
Sometimes you have only 3 hours or less before the interview to prepare yourself. It doesn’t matter why!
Reading this article for 5 minutes will give you a checklist of what to do in these three hours 💪
This post in NOT about sharpening your coding skills moments before the interview, it’s about reminding the other 80% that will make or break your interview!
Are you having this interview remotely? here are tips for online interview preparation
Cover photo credit goes to the cutest dog in Goa’s Animal Rescue Center
Top 5 things to do to prepare for a job interview, 10 minutes each
1. Read the company’s homepage
Surprisingly, many candidates, especially ones that are in a interview-streak like university graduates, don’t bother to gather information about the company.
Here is a common way to start an interview:
Interviewer: “Thanks for coming here, to PinkPanda’s (replace with any generic name) offices. Before we start, I would like to tell you a bit about the company. You know what, maybe you will start and say what do already know about us, and I will answer your questions.”
(Too) many candidates answer that they have no idea, or worse – try to guess. Obviously, this doesn’t leave a very good impression on the interviewer (yet, not catastrophic).
Be the better 10%, READ THE F*****G HOMEPAGE!!
Hell, you can do it while waiting for the interviewer on the reception.
2. Use the web to find out the questions
How do you prepare for a last minute interview? Try to look for the answers you will be asked.
There are several places in the web to look for interview questions used in specific places.
I find these 3 the most helpful:
a. Glassdoor.com holds a great collection of interview questions per workplace. For example, this is a page about questions asked in Amazon’s interviews.
b. LinkedIn.com, Look for people in your LinkedIn network that work or worked in that workplace, and reach for them. Maybe one of your friends worked there before and remembers something about the recruitment process can help.
c. Search google or facebook groups for “{company} {role} job interviews”. You’ll be surprised by the number of results you’ll get
3. Make sure you’ll arrive on time
If you are from another place which is not Israel, this tip may sound obvious to you, please skip 🙂
Make yourself a favor and arrive on time, even 15 minutes before. It shows seriousness, gives you time to freshen up and dry your nervous sweat. and will help you feel more comfortable.
In case you’re interviewing for a company that has offices across different areas of a building, it may (and will) take time to find the specific office the interview will take place in.
Check Google maps, Waze, whatever, to make sure you arrive on time and… give a call if you are late.
Small things like that can make your interviewer angry about not respecting his time, and harm your first impression which is critical.
Image from Giphy.com
4. Go over your own resume
Remember the resume you sent to this company? Well, you are going to be asked about it.
Examples:
- Did you write you know SQL, but actually you ran one query five years ago? this is the time to formulate an answer to explain what did you mean. Perhaps by saying “I wrote it long ago and at the moment it is not my specialty, but ever since I focused on CouchDB and I am positive that given the need I can learn SQL and master in it.”
The sentence above is not perfect, but it’s better that “Oh.. right, I don’t really know it. let’s move on”. - Remember that gap you had between 2017-2018, that you were unemployed? It was a long time ago, but you are going to be asked about it. So better prepare for it ahead.
Minutes before the interview it is recommended to go through your own CV, and make sure you tell your story in a smooth, positive way.
Why did I mention this issue?
Well, it happens that a few months pass between the moment the you wrote your CV and the interview itself. Perhaps you have a better version of them, or different versions sent to different companies. It’s valid to say that you have an updated version.
Personally, I once sat in an interview and saw that the interviewer had a version of my CV that was 2 year old, and didn’t include my latest job. I gently handed the new version over.
You know what, maybe it’s a good idea to bring a printed copy of your CV.
Image from giphy.com
5. Make sure you know how to describe the latest project you were involved in
One non-code related question that 90% of interviewers ask is “tell me about your latest project”. Although there are many programming interview tips site, that can help you with this question, I suggest reading the one on this blog 🙂
That’s why we dedicated an entire post about it, describing good and bad ways to do it.
Last minute coding interview prep – Conclusion:
Don’t worry if you forgot about the interview and remembered only 3 hours before. You can still be prepared more than 90% of other candidates by focusing on non-code related actions to prepare yourself. These programming interview tips are driven from my own experience on both side of the interviewing field.
I hope that this articles helped you!
Did I forget anything? What else do you think can help prepare in the last minute?