Job Placement Interviews: Do’s and Don’ts

Regardless of whether we are seeking a campus placement, an entry-level position or a lateral shift, all of us need to be reminded of useful tips to crack our interviews.

Therefore, basis my professional experience, I’m sharing a proven recipe which always works during job placement interviews, be it a technical or a non-technical role. I would love others to contribute their views.

Focus on basics

Most hiring teams look for solid understanding of the “fundamentals” pertaining to the domain you’re being interviewed for.

As an example – for Software Engineers, Computer Science concepts, like – principles of software engineering, data structures and algorithms, programming fundamentals, etc.

--> Practice writing small fragments of clean readable code (aka functions or procedures) with appropriate definitions, initializations and error handling.

--> For structural programming, try and adhere to the ‘single-entry single-exit’ (SESE) criterion.

--> For object-oriented programming, think about ‘neat’ classes where each class should have only one job (one responsibility, single purpose).

--> Given a code snippet, learn how to execute it manually.

--> Thoroughness with basic data structures is enough, don’t overwhelm yourself.

--> You must know how to assess the order of an algorithm in terms of time and space complexity. Most production software ends up with a shelf-life of >10 years.

 --> Understanding of pointers is indispensable.

Approach over outcome

The most constructive way to answer any question is to remain connected with the interviewer. Speak your mind while working on the tasks, involve the interviewer(s) equally. Your approach and inclination towards arriving at a solution is always more important than disembarking on the perfect solution.

Keep it simple

One of the pertinent problems with us professionals is that we tend to complicate the problem at hand. Keep it simple. Start by thinking of a rudimentary solution and then build brick-by-brick. There’s enough realization that knowledge accumulation is a slow and patient process, elementary understanding grows with experience.

Zeal to invest in problem solving

Don’t pre-empt yourself. Unknown problems cannot be solved in one go. Be absolutely willing to put your head down, work with the interviewers, seek their feedback while making incremental progress. Trials and failures are acceptable, quitting isn’t.

Curiosity for improvement

There’s always an opportunity to improve your solution. What’s really required is an open mind that’s curious and welcomes critique.

My best wishes to each and every aspirant. Try and try till you succeed. Happy job hunting!