Table of Contents
Introduction
Acing interviews require practise and discipline. However, there are also many other important factors involved. Two such important things to keep in mind are behaviour and personality. If your aim is acing interviews in the future, then having technical skills is not enough.
Yes, it is a very important part of being selected, but how you behave during the interview and how you are perceived by interviewers is also important. Here are a few things you should absolutely do or not do when sitting for interviews.
Top 11 DOs for Acing Interviews
Here are some things you should definitely do for acing your interview:
- Sit for mock interviews. Sitting for practice interviews help you get adjusted to the interview environment and the stress that comes along with it.
- Be open to feedback and take notes during the interview. This will allow interviewers to perceive you as someone who is willing to learn and someone who is easy to work with.
- Revisit old projects and prepare yourself to be able to talk about the goal behind your projects and how you went ahead with developing them. Ensure that you are ready to talk about what problems you faced when building your project or how you could have done better.
- Do not lose your calm and be negative during the interviews. What is going on inside is projected outside, thus, when asked questions, always stay composed and give clear answers.
- Practise communication with friends, colleagues, seniors or family members in order to improve your verbal abilities. You can also use services that allow you to sit for a mock interview online for free. Or, if you are alone, you can simply use mock interview questions to practise answering them.
- When answering interviewers, be as honest as possible. If any of your later answers cause any discrepancy or if you end up stuttering, they might think something is wrong.
- Learn additional skills before your interview if you have time or complete a course. With additional certifications, interviewers are more likely to hire you.
- If it is a technical interview, then make sure you practise writing code on paper. This will allow you to write clean code on a whiteboard or paper during your technical interviews as generally IDEs are not used in on-site interviews and other technical interviews.
- If you are a working professional and you are applying for senior developer positions, then ensure you study System Design and OS properly before sitting for a technical interview.
- Practise your logical skills and estimation abilities as interviewers might ask you random questions such as how many fish are in all of the oceans combined or what is the combined weight of all the trees in the world.
- Ask questions about the company, the job role and the next steps of the interview process.
Top 11 DON’Ts for Acing Interviews
Here are a few things you definitely should not do during your interview:
- Never be impolite to your interviewers. It is always advised to remain calm and polite during your interviews as being rude can get you immediately ineligible to proceed further with the interview. Also, be respectful to everyone you meet before and during the interview as employers might be watching how you interact with other candidates.
- Do not make excuses and do not blame your ex-employers, seniors, managers, professors or colleagues. This will make it harder for companies to select you as they might assume you will say the same about your stay in the company you are applying to.
- Never act desperate or like you will take up any job you are given. Also, do not ask about the salary till the interviewers bring it up themselves. You should also not seem like you are too heavily focused on the geographic location of the office.
- Do not make interviewers guess and communicate as much as possible. Do not speak about unnecessary things but also talk in detail about whatever you are asked. Also, always maintain eye contact.
- Never go to an interview smelling of smoke or while chewing bubblegum.
- Do not dress casually and dress as formally as you can. Though formal shirts and pants are enough, use ties and coats if possible.
- Do not assume if female interviewers are ‘Mrs’ or ‘Ms’. If your interviewer is a professor or has any other doctoral degree, use ‘Dr’ or ‘Professor’.
- Never keep your mobile phone on loud during interviews. Remember to always keep your phone on silent.
- Do not take your friends and family for the interview and even if you for some reason need to, never mention that anyone is waiting for you to your interviewers.
- Even though you should act composed, never act too relaxed or slouch during your interview. This will make you look unprofessional.
- Do not be late for the interview and never forget to greet your interviewers properly. Do not respond to questions hesitantly and never act disinterested.
The Difference in Interview Preparation for Freshers and Professionals
There are two main differences that you should keep in mind when preparing for interviews, depending on if you are a fresher or a professional. Here they are:
- When it comes to technical interviews, freshers need to practise coding or programming more as that is what they will be evaluated with. In the case of professionals, they need to focus on learning System Design and other concepts such as Advanced DSA or OS.
- When talking about general interviews, freshers will not be expected to talk about their professional experiences and instead will be asked to talk about projects and academics. So, you must prepare accordingly if you are a fresher. You might also be asked to speak about your goals and aspirations. Thus, you are recommended to use an online mock interview service to prepare yourself for these questions. And, if you are a professional looking to ace the interview, then you should prepare yourself to talk about your professional accomplishments and work experience.
Frequently Asked Questions
You can prepare yourself by taking mock interviews. There are many mock interview apps and mock interview practice services that you can use.
You should dress formally for your interview while ensuring that you are absolutely neat and clean. You must also ensure that your hair is not all over the place and does not look messy if you have long hair.
You should arrive 15 minutes earlier at your interview location, at least. If you are joining an online interview, ensure that you are in the waiting section 15 minutes before your turn.
As a fresher, revise the topics you have learnt in your degree programme and look up your project details properly.
As a professional, you must prepare yourself by enhancing your technical skills and learning System Design or other advanced concepts.
A mock interview is fundamentally a practice interview meant to help you crack the real thing.
Technical interviews are less focused on the personality and the behaviour of the candidate. Instead, they are completely designed to evaluate a candidate’s skills.
You must be polite, honest, calm and composed. You must never act rude, desperate or scared. You must also take care not to slouch or fidget.
If your interview has gone south, you must apologise to your interviewers and ask for a second chance to start the interview again or from where you have left off.
Key Takeaway
There is nothing better than practice and if you are able to arrange for a mock interview with a software engineer who has worked in the same role you are applying for, then that is even better as it will increase your chances of acing interviews. You can also choose to get evaluated by other industry experts, recruiters or even seniors from your previous office in order to learn what you are lacking and identify how you can improve.
Getting feedback from others is as important as following a to-do list when your aim is acing interviews. It is highly recommended that you use Google interview questions from CodeStudio by Coding Ninjas to simulate a Google mock interview on your own. If you need help with technical interviews, then you can also choose to prepare yourself for other companies such as Amazon, Cognizant, and Microsoft with the help of CodeStudio.
