Getting a job

Getting a job

General

Going through an interview process as a professional developer has at the time of writing this document a few common steps that you should be aware of.

Each process will start with initial contact where your CV is reviewed by a recruiter or a member of the company.

You will be asked to complete one or several tests to prove that you have the skills you claim and social skills valued by the company.

You will be asked to perform a personal interview where you have a conversation with a representative of the company.

If you pass the screening process you will receive a salary offer which you can accept or negotiate.

Once you have agreed on a starting salary you will be given an employment contract to sign and that concludes the hiring process.

CV

The CV is your first contact with the company and you should make sure that it looks good and has the relevant information and if you neglect it you are likely to see less interest from recruiters.

It is very important that you take the time to structure it well.

Networking

Once your CV is done you should sign up with career networks so that recruiters can find your CV.

At the time of writing this document, LinkedIn is the worlds most popular network and you should at the very least have a well-made profile on this network.

It is a good idea to attend events where you will find other professionals so you have a chance to see what's going on in your region and have the chance to introduce yourself to potential employers.

Interviews

Performing well in an interview comes down to showing the right level of transparency and having good social skills.

Be honest without damaging your own value in front of the interviewer and don't lie.

Make sure that you dress appropriately and that you can handle talking to people who are going to make an evaluation of you.

Interviews are meant to give you and the employer a chance to ask questions of each other and it is a good idea to have your own questions for the interviewer as this shows that you are interested in the work the company does.

By the end of the interview you want to leave the interviewer with one specific feeling and that is "I think this person would fit in well here".

Code tests

Code tests and the way they are performed will vary from company to company.

Some companies will send you online tests, some will send you a project repository that you are expected to clone and some will ask you to perform a live code test at the company.

The complexity and nature of the tests vary and the time you have to complete them also vary.

It is worth noting that completing a test is not always the real objective and you should always focus on getting the code working instead of finding a perfect solution.

It is not uncommon that an interviewer wants to see what your process for solving the problem is and how well you can reason about what went well and what could be improved.

Remember that you have no idea what the interviewer is testing so don't assume that you do and simply do what you can to solve the problem within the time you have.

Fitting in at work

Once you have the job you are going to be part of a so-called onboarding period which is the process the company has in place to help a new employee get productive.

The quality of this process may vary but at the very least you have a timeframe in which it is considered ok for you to not have the answer to your stakeholder's questions so use this time wisely and ask for help when you need it.

The best investments you can make is to be pragmatic about the code at the company, no codebase is perfect and it is always more important to get code that does the job on time than it is to have code that is perfect too late.

In order for you to increase your value in the company your focus should be to learn the companies system as well as you can, the company doesn't care if you can solve other companies problems or how many other tools you know, they care that you know their system inside and out so you can answer stakeholder questions and make their system the best that it can be given the restrictions it has.

As a new employee, it is important to have the right attitude at work and to understand that you need to adjust to the environment you are in, what you used to do at your last company can be good to mention but you are not going to stay hired for very long if you belittle or ridicule your current company and the processes that you use.

Come with your own suggestions but be flexible and feel the room, some ideas you have will be appreciated and some will not.

Do the best with what you have and remember that everything will train you.