Career Prep resources

Career Advice
#1

Hi everyone,

I’ve written up some technical career prep resources that I’d like to share. There are lots of guides out there, and I’m a big believer in hearing lots of perspectives and opinions. Hopefully this material can help a few people.

  1. Technical Interview, general preparation
    What is the interview process going to be like, what should you study, what questions should you ask, how should you dress, etc.
    https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yWfxxYoCkZgxQrJ5Bn6051OE9a6f7mm5zs72jvqGKx8/edit

  2. Resume and Cover Letter Preparation
    I’ve screened thousands upon thousands of resumes over my career, and collected some thoughts on what I like to see in a resume.
    https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pXBMdlpIYNBb89Mnhbhxkj-CZ7Ko2Q2Y5zy2zE_szX0/edit

  3. Daily Email for 6 weeks
    (I’ve shared this here in the past) A little over two years ago I wrote up an email series that runs for 6 weeks. You get an email every day with one or more interview questions, but most of what I write about the questions look at WHY you get asked this question. From an interviewer’s perspective, it’s helpful to get an idea of what they’re really asking, what they’re hoping to hear (or NOT hear). There are no ads in the email messages, and you can unsubscribe at any time. When the series is over, the system will automatically unsubscribe you and you’ll never get another message from me.
    https://iandouglas.com/interview-prep

I’m very happy to take feedback (good and bad) on any of this material.

I’m currently working on a web-based book which will include all of this material (and then some), collected over my career as a lead developer, engineering manager, and professional interviewer. I’m hoping it’ll be done around November of this year.

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#2

Hey Ian , looking forward to this material .I am making lots of progress with the front end web developing certifications but I link up with a few active coding groups here in the San Antonio Area . I always get wind of new languages like Ruby , but I feel if I keep my focus on really grasping the big 4 (html, java, css, python) I will keep my balance a lot better in a very fast paced profession . Do you have any advice when it comes to this ?

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#3

Great question. I always advise newcomers to limit the “breadth” of their knowledge and go for “depth” early in. The deeper you go, the easier it will be to transfer the knowledge in that topic to another similar topic.

Imagine studying Java for only a week then moving into another similar language. You can only easily transfer the knowledge you gained in a week to get up to speed on the other language… You might save a day it two at best if you studied for a month on Java, imagine how much faster you might get up and running on another similar language. I bet you’d save closer to a week.

Go deep. Learn more later once you get a job. :slight_smile:

#4

Thanks much , Ian. Could you post here one coding challenge you did the most to test for a junior front end web dev. Really curious, was it Js related, or…

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#5

The challenge I would ask would depend a lot on the role, but if it was a frontend role, then yes it would include some JavaScript fundamentals like looping (for loop, maybe a map or inject), making methods, passing parameters, getting return values, as well as HTML structure (fix something broken on the page’s structure) or CSS (usually restyling or changing a layout in CSS only).

If I wanted to focus on one skill, I’d have varying challenges that (I’d hope) would be fun like “draw Pac-Man using CSS and very very limited HTML” or I’d show you a block of JavaScript and ask you to identify where it might fail and why, without getting to run it, just to test fundamental knowledge.

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#6

Thanks again. Very informative!

#7

Happy to help. Keep in mind that every interviewer will have different kinds of challenges, as well as different kinds of expectations, so what I’ve mentioned above is a very generalized idea of what you could face.

#8

Ofcourse, I just wanted to gage the level of difficulty of the entry position quiz at your former firm, or maybe you are still with them…Regardless, thanks for the info.

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#9

Ian thank you for being such a gemstone and sharing the wisdom you have acquired .it is priceless to me at this point.:heart:

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#10