Most recent interview - need to learn more about IT?

Still on the job hunt. I just had a phone interview. It went pretty well and we got along. He liked a lot of my answers, but then at the end said that in all honesty they’d probably need to get someone with more technical knowledge.

He’d asked a lot of questions about http and how the internet worked on a more microscopic level then I am used to. I was able to answer, but I could tell he wanted deeper details. Can anyone recommend a good book or resources for this kind of thing? I can’t even think of the category to search for.

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Sounds more like an IT job, or possibly a lower-level developer job, rather than the usual “Front-end developer”. Maybe they need developers to know HTTP related stuff to build complex libraries. (?)

Another resource that comes to mind would be:
https://teachyourselfcs.com/#networking
(I never read this tho just FWI, but its something to bounce off of when searching for other materials :wink:)

But that’s about all that comes to mind, since I don’t know the exact stuff they were looking for :slight_smile:

Goodluck in your job search :smiley:

HTTP and the Internet? Sounds sort of like basic networking stuff then, if he was talking about terms like those, and if he might’ve mentioned other terms like TCP/IP, transport layer, the OSI model, etc.

I took a course on this subject in college for my CS degree, which used this textbook: https://www.amazon.com/Computer-Networks-Fifth-Approach-Networking/dp/0123850592/

It wasn’t the greatest book though, and I’d imagine there are probably better, more-accessible books. Might be worth checking out Amazon for some ideas. This one seems to be ok based on the reviews: https://www.amazon.com/Computer-Networking-Top-Down-Approach-6th/dp/0132856204/

The term you probably want to search for is “computer networking” btw.

I think it’s partially because it is a small company so they all have to chip in. He was also asking me some questions about linux. I think also some companies use these things as a shibboleth to weed out people that don’t “speak the language”.

For a sound introduction to internetworking search for Cisco CCNA study materials. Just skim through and pick out the parts you find interesting. Topics that will be covered are network fundamentals, LAN switching technologies, IPv4 and IPv6 routing technologies, WAN technologies, infrastructure services, infrastructure security, and infrastructure management.

The Internet abounds with study materials for a CCNA exam. I wrote and passed both the CCNA and the 5 exam CCNP and I can tell you that just putting in some time on the CCNA part will up your IT game significantly.

Congrats on the bittersweet interview. It’s great that you’re getting them!

As to your question, I don’t know of a great starting resource. I kind of wandered into the Hypertext Transfer Protocol when I was googling RESTful APIs, and fell down an Internet hole that ended up at the HTTP Specification itself. It’s surprisingly well written and clear, if intimidating at first, and there is a pdf link at top for readability. The MDN overview is pretty nice as a starting point, I found.

(Forgive this following comment if you are beyond it, I mean no disrespect, I just couldn’t tell your familiarity from your comment): As for Linux, it’s free, and installable on free virtualization software on both major proprietary OSes. There was even a “get to know Linux” event at Philly Tech week.

This book covers networking from the web developers perspective. Great book.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/High-Performance-Browser-Networking-performance/dp/1449344763/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1524943249&sr=8-1&keywords=high+performance+browser+networking

I don’t think you should feel the need to learn something just because one interview threw questions at you about it. Did they have a proper job description saying they needed someone that knew about networking? If they didn’t then the guy didn’t know how to interview a developer or he wasn’t being honest about what the job entails. Consider it a bullet dodged. You could have wound up doing 2 or 3 different jobs for the price of one.

It sounds as though he was asking for Computer Science related knowledge. It was the sort of stuff that we went over in College and I glazed over to get to the Pascal programming :joy:

One method would be to look at the CompTIA certifications. Possibly the A+.

https://certification.comptia.org/certifications/a

To be honest, if you learnt the material and took the test/got the certificate it wouldnt be in vain as it is a highly valued cert to add to your resume, however just taking the courses will teach you a lot. There are a few books to read and also courses on Udemy running through the material.

Once you pass the A+, you have the option to specialize in Security, Cloud or Infastructure, I believe! The Security qualifications are capable of earning you big moneys over here!

In the UK at the moment there is a specific magazine in our supermarkets called “The Essential Hackers Guide”. It is full of juicy info like this and would be perfect probably. Else just a general book on Computer Sciences will probably do the job.

I was also going to recommend the CompTIA A+ and Network+ books, but not necessarily the actual certifications. I also used them in school and, well, didn’t hate them. I’m no rockstar developer, but whatever I am, I couldn’t have been without this stuff. And that’s despite the fact that I skated by half-assed for the networking course.

I’d love to hear any of those questions to see whether I’m up to snuff or need to hit the books again.

edit: Oh, this is old. Whatever.