Acing the CS Technical Interview

Lecture 1 Recap

Feb 3, 2017
2 minute read

Hi Everyone,

Thanks to everyone who showed up and we hope you got a better understanding of resume design and behavioral interviews! Here is a brief overview of everythign covered in class. The presentation is available here.

Those on the waitlist will be informed if they recieved a spot on Monday.

Job Hunting

  • Great place to find companies to apply to: intern.supply
  • No harm in applying since you won’t get blacklisted by applying.

Resume Design

  • Links to templates shown in lecture:
    • Two Column Resume Template (Tech Style) by Debargha Das: here
    • One Column Resume Template (Business Style) by Career Cup: here
  • Helpful resume advice covered in class on Careercup here.
  • Limit it to one page
  • Order content by importance: Experience -> Education -> Everything Else
  • Keep it uniform and neat throughout.
  • Keep only what matters as recruiters only spend 10 seconds on average per resume.

Getting an Interview

  • Focus on emphasizing work experience and getting internship experience (very important for full-time).
  • If you don’t have much work experience build side projects in your free time or at hackathons. Large scale projects can substitute for work experience and impress recruiters.
  • Experiment with research on the side. Email professors expressing your interest in doing research with them.
  • Take project oriented coursework to gain experience.

Behavioral Interviews

  • Interviews that are solely a two-sided conversation between interviewer and you to learn more about each other and the company.
  • Generally very relaxing and important to be friendly during the interview as well as show passion for Computer Science.
  • More of a cultural fit assessment. Try to learn more about the company and imagine yourself as an employee there.
  • S.T.A.R Method is very helpful
    • Situation or Task: Describe the situation you were in or task to be completed. Give enough detail for reader to follow along and visualize scenario. Must be specific event.
    • Action: What action did you take to complete the task or fix the situation? Was it a group effort? Describe the issues and how you resolved each one.
    • Results: What happened after you took those actions? What did you accomplish and what did you learn?
  • List of good behavioral interview questions to think about here.

Behavior during Technical Interview

  • During the interview:
    • Any clarifying questions
    • Explain components and approach to solution
    • Check if the interviewer is following along
    • Be specific not arrogant
    • Listen to the interviewer’s feedback
  • After the interview:
    • Is there anything I can improve in my code?
    • Ask questions specific to the company (future, platform, etc.)
    • Ask questions that make the recruiter think
      • Genuine: Do you see yourself at XYZ in five years?
      • Interest: Could you tell me more about XYZ and how it works?
      • Insightful: Why did the company choose this programming language?
  • Link to Google Mock Interview Video here.

What you should do after this class

  • Edit your resume (peer review and feel free to show us your resume after class)
  • List of behavioral questions and answers
  • Think of interesting questions to ask interviewers
  • Practice!

Next class we will start the technical portion of the seminar. Topics for next week will include arrays and strings.

Thanks for a great first class,
CMSC Interviews