This week I attended my first in person interview at a local rails opening. I have had previous interviews via the phone previously but have yet to make it inside the building to share my charm. I want to take the time to share some of the questions I received while attending and a brief synopsis of what happened.
The company is just slightly north of Orlando and not a city I have visited previously, but I arrived with 30mins to spare. I unfortunately could not find their door with was hidden off the main street, and what made it worse, no one in the surrounding area had ever heard of them company. I found out later the company only recently occupied the space and had only been there for about 3 months.
I finally made inside the building 10mins late :( , but to my surprise it was not that big of a deal. The entire process was unlike any interview I had ever been apart of in the corporate realm I am coming from. The normal structure is wear a suit (in hot Florida!) and sit a interview room 1:1 or 2:1 while the interviewers grill you with behavioral questions.
From my initial conversation with the Director of Engineering 2 weeks back, I knew this would miles different. During my phone interview it was a natural conversation where I recited different highlights of my journey, basically from this blog (yet another reason why you should start a blog yesterday, all I had to do was study my own blog before the interview). The in person interview was no different, except the fact that instead of the Director interviewing me, I was met in a conference room by the team of 5 engineers on the existing team.
The beginning of the interview we all established rapport by them sharing with what they do on the team...4 rails devs and a Front End guy. There was not really too many questions in the beginning, but just me sharing my story and what I have done. I was then asked to share some code, which I shared my Taskitoff, Chuych, and Bloccit app (All from my Bloc apprenticeship). These are all my most complete apps and share my ability to write a test and complete a project.
I was thrown off by some questions within my code, but was able to eventually navigate through the code that I have not set eyes on since February. Which leads me to my first quesiton:
Q. Show us something you are most proud of and tell how you implemented it.
A. I chose to share my Chuych app and how I implemented the Geocoder gem to search by nearest location within 20 miles.
*I highly recommend before you go into an interview you have a completed app that is deployed to Heroku. Be sure there is no abandoned code and straggling notes, or be prepared to talk about it. Also make sure it your best work, even if its a tutorial. The guys I met with were laid back, and I am sure they just wanted to see if I knew what I wrote and could talk in front of the group without breaking down.
Q. I was then asked a question on Git Flow, which I was unaware of, well I was aware of it but not aware of the term.
While sharing my Taskitoff code I shared how I implemented the time limitation, but was asked why I didn't use a lambda.
Q. What is lambda and when do you use it?
A. I did not have a clear answer other than it is basically an undefined method (technically).
*One of the team members assured me that most people learning rails could not explain it and it functionality recommended to be used with defining time. I found out more of that on Stack Overflow
Q. What are the main components of Rails
A. I only answered Action Mailer and Active Record.
*The group gave me some other answers on that question, since they let me know most people do not know that answer. I also searched this after I got home.
=============
I was asked other questions but they were all more about me and though they did not come out and say, they were just trying to figure me out as a person to see if I would be a good for the team. I did get a lot of questions on why I am choosing to switch to developing from a career in sales, which is what I have gotten in every interview. I answered that in my last post in the Reddit Interview.
*No highly technically questions were asked, my assumption is that Ruby is not taught in most schools and a lot of the code is done for you. So if they ask would implement a bubble sort into this blah... Your answer could literally be, I would go to the Ruby toolbox and install X gem.
I hope to hear back on the results of the interview this week. As far as the other company's here are the current standings with them.
Company #1: 2nd interview concluded and DENIED. I responded back with a thank email and asked for info on different materials to increase my skill. No response received.
Company #2: No response after 1st interview, I keep forgetting to email back but they are not on the top of my list
Company #3: 2nd interview concluded. Hopefully hear back this week
Company #4: DENIED, it was a great talk, but I was not a great fit.
Company #5: Met with them on Friday, Reaching out via Twitter to hear back on code review.
Showing posts with label Interview. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Interview. Show all posts
Saturday, May 10, 2014
Wednesday, May 7, 2014
Reddit Interview
I was recently engage by a reddit user after posting a on a post on Bloc. I was asked a lot of thought provoking questions where some actually made me rethink why I am doing this whole journey. It helped reaffirm my efforts and actually encouraged me even more. Take a read and ask yourself similar questions if you are also onthe same path as myself. What are you using to learn? Are you finding the community helpful?
If you have any questions that weren't address, please share?
Tuesday, May 6, 2014
Why wearing a bow tie is necessary in an interview.
So today is my first in person interview, which I am super stoked about. It is one thing to do an interview on the phone when you can read your resume and review concepts through Google, but going into the office in person will be entirely different.
The company I am interview at has been around for awhile, but still has the laid back "startup" atmosphere. Despite the laid back atmosphere I have opted to wear a tie, but not just any tie, a BOW TIE! I lke bow ties, and jumped at the opportunity to purchase a new one wear to an interview. In my current job I would never wear a bow tie to an interview though I have instituted Tie Tuesday's within my team where we all dress in bow ties for the day.
So why should you wear a bow tie?
Well I have owned bow ties in the past, but they have all been clip-ons. I never wanted to struggle with tying a bow tie, and never thought "hey I can do this." This is similar to my experiences in web developing, I have made pre-packaged Wordpress and Squarespace pages but never thought I could learn web developing on my own or without a CS degree.
Well if you have read more than one post on my blog, you know that I have completed the initial steps into to web developing, which is why I am going on this interview today. I took on the challenge and succeeded in making multiple web apps, which I will be showcasing in my github portfolio. So last night after 4 tries to self tie my bow tie, I failed. I actually gave up to try in the morning.
This morning it only took me 2 tries and I now have a successful bow tie. I emphasize "successful" and not the word "perfect," since there is no such thing as a perfect bow tie unless its a clip-on. You basically can accomplish anything if you try hard enough and set realistic goals. Because I decided to learn how to create rails applications, its now giving me the new skill of Bow Tying
* I take willingly take on challenges, which is the message I will be delivering while interview today and is why you should also challenge yourself and wear a bow tie.
The company I am interview at has been around for awhile, but still has the laid back "startup" atmosphere. Despite the laid back atmosphere I have opted to wear a tie, but not just any tie, a BOW TIE! I lke bow ties, and jumped at the opportunity to purchase a new one wear to an interview. In my current job I would never wear a bow tie to an interview though I have instituted Tie Tuesday's within my team where we all dress in bow ties for the day.
So why should you wear a bow tie?
Well I have owned bow ties in the past, but they have all been clip-ons. I never wanted to struggle with tying a bow tie, and never thought "hey I can do this." This is similar to my experiences in web developing, I have made pre-packaged Wordpress and Squarespace pages but never thought I could learn web developing on my own or without a CS degree.
Well if you have read more than one post on my blog, you know that I have completed the initial steps into to web developing, which is why I am going on this interview today. I took on the challenge and succeeded in making multiple web apps, which I will be showcasing in my github portfolio. So last night after 4 tries to self tie my bow tie, I failed. I actually gave up to try in the morning.
This morning it only took me 2 tries and I now have a successful bow tie. I emphasize "successful" and not the word "perfect," since there is no such thing as a perfect bow tie unless its a clip-on. You basically can accomplish anything if you try hard enough and set realistic goals. Because I decided to learn how to create rails applications, its now giving me the new skill of Bow Tying
* I take willingly take on challenges, which is the message I will be delivering while interview today and is why you should also challenge yourself and wear a bow tie.
Monday, May 5, 2014
Preparing for the Interview
Thus far I have only made it to phone interviews and I have yet to get past the second interview in the process. I find my rapport and presence in the interview pretty good, but my concept of key programming concepts have been lacking, especially when explaining my incomplete version of the Game of Life. I have an extreme thirst for knowledge, so I do not regret going to the interview and not being able to answer the questions. I actually see these questions guidance to know what to learn next.
In my interview last, the idea of Metaprogramming came up, so I got the book and I am now on chapter of a surprisingly small book. I failed to even get the interest of a recruiter 3 months ago because of my lack basic Ruby concepts, but I changed that and now lead the Ruby Study Group because I saw a need for me to get that better understanding.
I look forward to my interview and finishing the day reading Ace Programming Interview
In my interview last, the idea of Metaprogramming came up, so I got the book and I am now on chapter of a surprisingly small book. I failed to even get the interest of a recruiter 3 months ago because of my lack basic Ruby concepts, but I changed that and now lead the Ruby Study Group because I saw a need for me to get that better understanding.
I look forward to my interview and finishing the day reading Ace Programming Interview
Saturday, May 3, 2014
This is getting ridiculous
I was told today that with much surprise, I have been promoted once again. Literally 4 months later and 7 months into my journey towards developing.
So what is going on?
7 months ago I spent 72 days in the hospital with my son, due to him being born 2 months prematurely. The initial 2 weeks I took off work and only living out the trunk of my car diving 25 miles back and forth every other day. When I walked into work I had a new perspective on life and my career path.
1. I wanted to be home with my son more
2. I really did not want to do sales the rest of my life
3. I want to be part of something great and design my own career path
I have experienced tragedies in my life, but having my son being born prematurely after having no issues in pregnancy was extremely scary, but it also put my life in perspective. I spent most of my college career knowing that I was going to be a financial adviser and sell investments. Well, I came across many obstacles in that plan including being unable to secure entry level employment in the Finance field....not even in a bank!
There could be many reasons why I never got to where I wanted to be, it was mainly due Financial Crisis, but that is in the past and as of last summer I gave up on that dream. I instead gained employment doing entry level work at a local IT distributor, which happens to be one of largest corporations based in Central Florida. I literally spent my days(actually nights since I worked second shift) doing a job I could do with my eyes closed. I was extremely over qualified, but I used the time work on my skills, those skills are what I used to get where I am today.
Fast forward 4 years later, today I was told I am once again being promoted. Promoted into a consultant role where I will have less stress and more freedom. There is a pay increase with this position but it still leaves me less than the start of a Jr. PHP developer at my employer. My drive and determination has gotten me to the place where I am today and I look forward to where it will be taking me.
If you have been reading my blog for a while then you know I was focused on gaining a Ruby position when I got my last promotion. This promotion actually makes things very interesting since now I am making a very comfortable salary, and really can't make the jump into a bootcamp or a non-paid apprenticeship (granted that my wife would kill me). I am still in talks with 3 of the 5 companies I have applied myself and still considering moving out of state if necessary, but have to make sure the jump will need to be worthwhile.
With all that being said I will still be pursuing my ultimate goal which is a dev position, but with more of the focus on the opportunity. The experience is worth more than the money I will be paid, and I look forward to receiving responses from the applications I have.
For those still keeping score, I will write a post summarizing this and next interview's scheduled for next week.
Company #1: 2nd interview concluded
Company #2: No response after 1st interview, I will reach out next week (sort of busy interviewing)
Company #3: 2nd interview is next Tues
Company #4: DENIED, it was a great talk, but I was not a great fit.
Company #5: No interview yet, but I have submitted my code test in Ruby.
Have you applied to any Jr dev jobs? What responses have you been getting? Do you have any advice for me?
So what is going on?
7 months ago I spent 72 days in the hospital with my son, due to him being born 2 months prematurely. The initial 2 weeks I took off work and only living out the trunk of my car diving 25 miles back and forth every other day. When I walked into work I had a new perspective on life and my career path.
1. I wanted to be home with my son more
2. I really did not want to do sales the rest of my life
3. I want to be part of something great and design my own career path
I have experienced tragedies in my life, but having my son being born prematurely after having no issues in pregnancy was extremely scary, but it also put my life in perspective. I spent most of my college career knowing that I was going to be a financial adviser and sell investments. Well, I came across many obstacles in that plan including being unable to secure entry level employment in the Finance field....not even in a bank!
There could be many reasons why I never got to where I wanted to be, it was mainly due Financial Crisis, but that is in the past and as of last summer I gave up on that dream. I instead gained employment doing entry level work at a local IT distributor, which happens to be one of largest corporations based in Central Florida. I literally spent my days(actually nights since I worked second shift) doing a job I could do with my eyes closed. I was extremely over qualified, but I used the time work on my skills, those skills are what I used to get where I am today.
Fast forward 4 years later, today I was told I am once again being promoted. Promoted into a consultant role where I will have less stress and more freedom. There is a pay increase with this position but it still leaves me less than the start of a Jr. PHP developer at my employer. My drive and determination has gotten me to the place where I am today and I look forward to where it will be taking me.
If you have been reading my blog for a while then you know I was focused on gaining a Ruby position when I got my last promotion. This promotion actually makes things very interesting since now I am making a very comfortable salary, and really can't make the jump into a bootcamp or a non-paid apprenticeship (granted that my wife would kill me). I am still in talks with 3 of the 5 companies I have applied myself and still considering moving out of state if necessary, but have to make sure the jump will need to be worthwhile.
With all that being said I will still be pursuing my ultimate goal which is a dev position, but with more of the focus on the opportunity. The experience is worth more than the money I will be paid, and I look forward to receiving responses from the applications I have.
For those still keeping score, I will write a post summarizing this and next interview's scheduled for next week.
Company #1: 2nd interview concluded
Company #2: No response after 1st interview, I will reach out next week (sort of busy interviewing)
Company #3: 2nd interview is next Tues
Company #4: DENIED, it was a great talk, but I was not a great fit.
Company #5: No interview yet, but I have submitted my code test in Ruby.
Have you applied to any Jr dev jobs? What responses have you been getting? Do you have any advice for me?
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
Ruby Newbie Iniation
Today was a bit of an anomaly where I spent 5 hours working with web dev stuff on a Monday. Not too much code but lot of studying and reviewing concepts.
To start I had the first Ruby Newbie study group meeting. I am super stoke that we got 16 RSVP's and looking forward to continue the Early Birds on a weekly basis. I had the technically difficulty where once I pressed the start hangout, IT CRASHED!!! I could not assist anyone in getting back on, but later figured out a work around thanks to Afshin, I highly recommend following him. The man is a genius! His solution is below
"I always get errors trying to join these things... my solution: copy the url, logout, paste the url and go there at which point you'll be prompted to log in again, after that it should work."
I also had a quick interview with company #4, which we both decided I was not a good fit (my first denial). I really having the conversation and the recruiter recommend I follow them and let her know in a few months, after I got a little more experience. I personally do not my self ever working for the company, since they a small startup and not a devshop looking for nimble software engineers to work with everything from QA to managing hadoop. Since I am not planning on working or pursuing I highly recommend you guys check them out, they Quanttus and they hiring like crazy. So if you are in the Boston or looking to move there, reach out to emily.
I finally ended my day with a quick SCRUM with the Odin group, where I plan to start doing some more contributing. It a great way to beef up the resume, and also a way to give back to an awesome project.
The final night edition of the Ruby Newbie study group went off well, with no issues. We had a full hangout with a rotating cast of characters as well as a strong number of viewers. A good amount of Novices and Beginners, which is pretty sweet.
This week I need to push at finishing chapter 9 and 10 in LTP as well as reading chapter 2 and 3 in Beginning Ruby. There is definitely so much I do not in know Ruby and I looking forward to having a strong group of people to help.
I then finished the day with 4 hours of test. I applied to company #5 at a whim after reaching to a company on twitter. I quickly responded to by the CTO and given some tests to work, needless to say I pretty excited to go through them, and found I had a strong understanding of Rails and Agile development. I was definitely weaker with all the JS and HTML questions, but I am looking forward to chatting with them since this would be great opportunity to work from home and have no need to move. I will keep up to date my efforts, I am looking forward my second interview for Company #1 today.
Roundup:
For those keeping score.
Company #1: 2nd interview today
Company #2: No response after 1st interview, I will reach out next week (sort of busy interviewing)
Company #3: 2nd interview is next TUES, in person!
Company #4: DENIED, it was a great talk, but I was not a great fit.
Company #5: No interview yet, but I have engaged the CTO via Twitter.
To start I had the first Ruby Newbie study group meeting. I am super stoke that we got 16 RSVP's and looking forward to continue the Early Birds on a weekly basis. I had the technically difficulty where once I pressed the start hangout, IT CRASHED!!! I could not assist anyone in getting back on, but later figured out a work around thanks to Afshin, I highly recommend following him. The man is a genius! His solution is below
"I always get errors trying to join these things... my solution: copy the url, logout, paste the url and go there at which point you'll be prompted to log in again, after that it should work."
I also had a quick interview with company #4, which we both decided I was not a good fit (my first denial). I really having the conversation and the recruiter recommend I follow them and let her know in a few months, after I got a little more experience. I personally do not my self ever working for the company, since they a small startup and not a devshop looking for nimble software engineers to work with everything from QA to managing hadoop. Since I am not planning on working or pursuing I highly recommend you guys check them out, they Quanttus and they hiring like crazy. So if you are in the Boston or looking to move there, reach out to emily.
I finally ended my day with a quick SCRUM with the Odin group, where I plan to start doing some more contributing. It a great way to beef up the resume, and also a way to give back to an awesome project.
The final night edition of the Ruby Newbie study group went off well, with no issues. We had a full hangout with a rotating cast of characters as well as a strong number of viewers. A good amount of Novices and Beginners, which is pretty sweet.
This week I need to push at finishing chapter 9 and 10 in LTP as well as reading chapter 2 and 3 in Beginning Ruby. There is definitely so much I do not in know Ruby and I looking forward to having a strong group of people to help.
I then finished the day with 4 hours of test. I applied to company #5 at a whim after reaching to a company on twitter. I quickly responded to by the CTO and given some tests to work, needless to say I pretty excited to go through them, and found I had a strong understanding of Rails and Agile development. I was definitely weaker with all the JS and HTML questions, but I am looking forward to chatting with them since this would be great opportunity to work from home and have no need to move. I will keep up to date my efforts, I am looking forward my second interview for Company #1 today.
Roundup:
For those keeping score.
Company #1: 2nd interview today
Company #2: No response after 1st interview, I will reach out next week (sort of busy interviewing)
Company #3: 2nd interview is next TUES, in person!
Company #4: DENIED, it was a great talk, but I was not a great fit.
Company #5: No interview yet, but I have engaged the CTO via Twitter.
Thursday, April 17, 2014
Reflections after my first 2 interviews
I have interviewed numerous times for my current employer to move up into better positions as well as companies outside, but all within the IT or Finance field. I spent 2 years in a data entry job and had a lot of time to practice my basic interview skills. One interview that I remember completely failing at when I was 23 which helped me to realize that I needed to practice and how to go into an interview prepared. That interview was for Financial Analyst position and I completely failed by not having questions prepared and even brought up salary after the discussion was not going well.
"Why are manhole covers round?" That was asked during the interview. I googled that right when I got to my desk.
I now do not go into an interview without doing extensive research on the company and position. I did the same when interviewing recently.
I complete two interview for 2 separate companies and wanted to share my experiences. I prefer not to share the names in order to not sway any decisions. I am not sure if this is a good practice or not, but my experience is that the hiring managers are pretty down to earth and would be surprise if they read this post. Despite if I get the job or not, I would never do anything to tarnish the name of either company. Just in case you guys are reading.
Company 1:
This company is actually out of state for me and is Agile Web Dev Shop where they work on applications for other medium to large businesses (side note: one of the companies they work with is a company I work with in my current sales role. Well, I thought that was cool ). My initial interview was with the Director of HR/Recruiting, I applied via Glassdoor.com, which I have done numerous times for sales position and have never heard back. This application however receive a response within less than a day.
I am currently in sales and have learned how to read individuals during a sale, and I can do a fare job reading people in person. On the phone is little more difficult, but once I connected with the recruiter on the phone we had a great conversation about the company in general. Everything she explained about it, excited me about the moving to the new city and working/living downtown next to a major MLB stadium, during baseball season. The conversation was great and from what I read into this process was definitely moving forward, but not quite the hard part.
She left me an exercise to complete Conway's Game of Life, which I unfortunately did not complete, well I completed but not on my own and it seemed to be a mess. While trying to use TDD start to finish it took me initially 5 hours just to make the game board. I did not reach out for help after a couple days of realizing I could figure out how to count the live cells and test it. I chose to submit what I had with an explanation on what I did and where my shortfalls are. Working sales you tend to fake it till you make it, but I felt faking it in this instance was not the right option. I did however submit links to my Rails projects, the irony that a of Rails Dev learn is that we know Rails well but hardly know Ruby. I realize this is a shortfall and will be working harder on this.
The recruiter is off on vacation this week, so I will not learn if they would like to proceed until next week. The next step will be interview with the head of developers.
Company 2:
This company is actually in state but about 3.5 hours away from where I live. So it will require me to move if the decision is made to go with me as a candidate. This interview was also over the phone and was with an individual I met at the Ancient City Ruby Conference. The company is smaller and subsidiary of another. All together I was old that they have 12 employees and are working on a sole Rails project. The legacy product was made in .NET and now being restructure into Rails. I had a long conversation about my background and my desire to switch to development. Most of the questions were the same I got while networking at the Ruby conf.
1. Why are looking to switch from Sales to Developing?
2. What interested you in Ruby over other languages to start?
3. Any experience with TDD and Agile development?
I left the phone call confident that I had chance at the second stage, which is Google Hangout with the team. I look forward to the experience it will allow me.
What now:
The easy answer would be wait, but not me. I have already reached out via email keeping them informed of my presence. I have also begun researching the topics I was unsure of with attempting Conways Game of Life and will be following a tutorial this weekend on how to build it to catch the steps I missed.
In another effort to gain more practical Ruby experience I am planning leading the Ruby Newbies group through the Odin Curriculum. The curriculum will help me get to where I need to be, which is a better understanding of Ruby without Rails.
Please join me if you are interest in a weekly study group. It will be a deep dive into Ruby.
"Why are manhole covers round?" That was asked during the interview. I googled that right when I got to my desk.
I now do not go into an interview without doing extensive research on the company and position. I did the same when interviewing recently.
I complete two interview for 2 separate companies and wanted to share my experiences. I prefer not to share the names in order to not sway any decisions. I am not sure if this is a good practice or not, but my experience is that the hiring managers are pretty down to earth and would be surprise if they read this post. Despite if I get the job or not, I would never do anything to tarnish the name of either company. Just in case you guys are reading.
Company 1:
This company is actually out of state for me and is Agile Web Dev Shop where they work on applications for other medium to large businesses (side note: one of the companies they work with is a company I work with in my current sales role. Well, I thought that was cool ). My initial interview was with the Director of HR/Recruiting, I applied via Glassdoor.com, which I have done numerous times for sales position and have never heard back. This application however receive a response within less than a day.
I am currently in sales and have learned how to read individuals during a sale, and I can do a fare job reading people in person. On the phone is little more difficult, but once I connected with the recruiter on the phone we had a great conversation about the company in general. Everything she explained about it, excited me about the moving to the new city and working/living downtown next to a major MLB stadium, during baseball season. The conversation was great and from what I read into this process was definitely moving forward, but not quite the hard part.
She left me an exercise to complete Conway's Game of Life, which I unfortunately did not complete, well I completed but not on my own and it seemed to be a mess. While trying to use TDD start to finish it took me initially 5 hours just to make the game board. I did not reach out for help after a couple days of realizing I could figure out how to count the live cells and test it. I chose to submit what I had with an explanation on what I did and where my shortfalls are. Working sales you tend to fake it till you make it, but I felt faking it in this instance was not the right option. I did however submit links to my Rails projects, the irony that a of Rails Dev learn is that we know Rails well but hardly know Ruby. I realize this is a shortfall and will be working harder on this.
The recruiter is off on vacation this week, so I will not learn if they would like to proceed until next week. The next step will be interview with the head of developers.
Company 2:
This company is actually in state but about 3.5 hours away from where I live. So it will require me to move if the decision is made to go with me as a candidate. This interview was also over the phone and was with an individual I met at the Ancient City Ruby Conference. The company is smaller and subsidiary of another. All together I was old that they have 12 employees and are working on a sole Rails project. The legacy product was made in .NET and now being restructure into Rails. I had a long conversation about my background and my desire to switch to development. Most of the questions were the same I got while networking at the Ruby conf.
1. Why are looking to switch from Sales to Developing?
2. What interested you in Ruby over other languages to start?
3. Any experience with TDD and Agile development?
I left the phone call confident that I had chance at the second stage, which is Google Hangout with the team. I look forward to the experience it will allow me.
What now:
The easy answer would be wait, but not me. I have already reached out via email keeping them informed of my presence. I have also begun researching the topics I was unsure of with attempting Conways Game of Life and will be following a tutorial this weekend on how to build it to catch the steps I missed.
In another effort to gain more practical Ruby experience I am planning leading the Ruby Newbies group through the Odin Curriculum. The curriculum will help me get to where I need to be, which is a better understanding of Ruby without Rails.
Please join me if you are interest in a weekly study group. It will be a deep dive into Ruby.
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