Quick Tips for the Mock HR & Technical Interview
Prepping for success.
Since I am now a Flatiron graduate (about 2 months post grad to be exact), I now have access to the amazing resources that their career services provide. My favorites being the mock interviews that they provide: HR cultural interview and the technical interview.
HR Cultural Interview
Now, I won’t go too much into detail regarding the HR cultural interview since it is similar to most standard interviews that most people have encountered when applying to a job. However, here are two tips that are essential to really impressing the recruiter (aka your career coach).
First, when asked about the type of projects you’ve completed, make sure to go into detail about why you created this project and what you used to build it out. The mistake I made when doing the cultural interview was not going into enough detail when explaining my past projects. I was under the assumption that since they are just the recruiter, I should keep things on the surface level when explaining however, it’s better to go more into detail than leave things out. This shows that you really know what you’re talking about even if the recruiter doesn’t know EVERYTHING that you’re saying. In this case, the more the better!
Okay the second tip I have for the cultural interview is when you are asked: “Do you have any questions for me?” Before prepping for this interview, I didn’t realize how much a couple of questions can really turn your interview from okay to great! By asking questions to the recruiter shows that you were actively listening to what they’re saying when they explain information regarding the position and the company. It also shows that you’ve done your research which shows the recruiter that you really care about this company (which is major brownie points). Don’t ask questions that they have already answered but really ask analytical questions or some that you have prepared beforehand that apply appropriately.
I said I wasn’t going into much detail but here I am, going into a lot of detail but hey, if it helps people prepare for a better interview, it’s definitely necessary! Okay onto what sends chills down any developer’s spine: the technical interview.
Technical Interview
Here we are. The daunting technical interview. Just to provide a little background if you are not a Flatiron grad, the technical interview is done through a third party and mine was done through Skilled. So just wrapping my head around the fact that I will be interviewed by someone who has worked multiple senior developer positions in different companies, really had my anxiety through the roof. I scheduled my technical interview a week after my HR cultural interview in order to give me a week to prepare for what ever coding challenges or questions that I may encounter during the interview. When scheduling the interview, you choose whichever language that you feel most comfortable in. I chose JavaScript since it was the most recent language that we learned at Flatiron and I felt that this was my stronger suit.
When it came to prepping for the interview I really focused most on Data Structures and Algorithms. I mostly used HackerRank because they offer prep kits of practice problems that you can choose between depending on how far out your interview is. Since mine was 1 week away, I chose the 1 week prep kit and I will say that it really helped me understand different ways to solve problems and how to approach these type of questions. Now, I had no idea what the technical interview actually entailed but I based it off of the coding challenges that I received from companies I applied to.
Since I also chose JavaScript as my language, I really brushed up on my JavaScript fundamentals through googling “common JavaScript interview questions” to the prep questions that I prepared for my technical assessments at Flatiron. Now, onto my experience with my first ever live (mock) technical interview.
So the interview began with introductions the typical “tell me about yourself” question. Then the interviewer noticed I chose JavaScript as my language but also noticed that I am familiar with React and Redux from the projects I listed on my resume. So as far as fundamental questions go, I was asked mostly about React and Redux. These questions were a mixture of fundamentals as well as big conceptual questions in the workplace so if you list frameworks on your resume, be prepared to explain them in depth during your interview. I mean every interviewer has a different style and I will say my interviewer was much more critical with the questions and answers I gave, but just make sure you are prepared for everything.
After the questions round, it was now time for the coding round. Before we started, my interviewer asked me if I wanted to continue with frontend questions or if I wanted to do the live coding for data structures and algorithms. As tempting as frontend was, I opted for the data structures and algorithm questions since I have the least amount of experience with that topic. The data structure and algorithms question was actually quite simple. The question asked: “Given an ordered array, return a squared array in ascending order.” One tip I can give when live coding any problem is to think out loud. You can also comment what you are asked and expecting if it helps you as well. Thinking out loud is extremely important because it allows the interviewer to understand how you think and approach the problem even if you cannot solve it. Thankfully, I was able to solve the problem and then my interviewer showed me a more condensed way to solve it. However, the fundamental questions were not over yet.
This one last question really stumped me. The interviewer asked me: “How can we optimize this problem without thinking of optimizing in seconds or condensing the code?” I was completely clueless. After some time of thinking, I told my interviewer that I have no idea. The interviewer stated that BigO is key to understanding how to optimize our code and is quite a complex concept to wrap your head around at first. Now I’m not going to sit here and try to explain what BigO is (we’ll leave that for the next blog post) but the interviewer said understanding this concept is extremely important in technical interviews so I recommend at least reading up on it!
Final Thoughts
Overall, my experience with both the HR cultural and technical interviews were extremely successful. Not in the fact that I think I did extremely well in them but I learned a lot from them, especially the technical interview. Even though my technical interview was quite challenging and I definitely could not answer every questions thrown at me, it was a great guide to understanding gaps in my knowledge so I can better prepare for my next (real) interview.
Don’t be afraid to ask clarification questions or tell your interviewer that you don’t know the answer to that question. They are there to help! Even though these were only mock interviews, I treated them as seriously as a real one. They are designed to only benefit you for the better if you actually put 100% of your effort into them. A mock interview may seem silly to do, but they are a great way to prepare for the day you interview at your dream company! To those who are prepping for your mock interviews or even a real interview, good luck! I wish you all the best!
