Interview for programmer role coming up... Anyone got any guidance?

[AmiNeo]

Hey guys. Quick one for all you programmers who are currently employed or have experience interviewing for similar roles!

I have an interview coming up on 19th. Its for a graduate developer / analysts role for a company called Civica. They apparently do software for health and social care.

They told me the interview will last around 1h 45mins and will include meeting people I would be working with plus a few "tests".

Any ideas what to expect??? How best to prepare etc?

Would love to hear from anyone with more interview experience in these roles, as this will be my first interview for a purely programming role.

 

[wmsteele]

Hi, I'm a developer primarily using Civica's UPM package, not sure what the tests will be but they will be very interested in you Java/C++ skills. The development team in Leeds are a great bunch, best of luck with the interview.

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Oh, and SQL as well.

 

[AmiNeo]

Thanks, I will brush up on those then over the weekend

 

[sir_beaker]

I joined my company about 14 years ago after leaving Uni. What you want to do is do absolutely no research on the company whatsoever, and I can't stress this enough... on the day of the interview get everyone's name wrong even if they correct you. I am sure, it's making that sort of impression that got me the job..... or, they may have been desperate We did write an export to Civica a good 5+ years ago from our solution.

Hopefully it will just be an aptitude test as your fresh out of Uni so no one is expecting you to have much experience. So things like (OOP) Object Orientated Programming explaining what it meant by encapsulation, inheritance and polymorphism and examples of how you would use them. Differences between public, private and protected methods and when you'd use them. Software Design Patterns seemed to be a big thing 5 or 6 years back so that might be included. When I went to Uni it was all about 3 tier programming, but that changed to N-tier.

Basically it's all bollocks. As long as you write simple readable code with plenty of comments and logging within the deadline everyone is happy. The company wants to spend as little time as possible on something so it can make more money so forget about all your methodologies you may have learnt at Uni, you'll use them as much as trigonometry in every day life. If there is a problem, customers and support don't want to be waiting too long for a solution or fix so you'll have to balance writing an amazing routine that does everything in a few lines of code and writing one that's just easy to read and break apart if there's a problem. The good news is computers are fast and have plenty of memory these days so you can afford to be lazy in places The biggest problem with new developers is they think they know it all and every single one will without fail suggest you upgrade a 2003 c# project to 2010 say because "it only takes a few minutes" when in reality it may do but the whole solution will need to go to QA for a week for be fully retested because of it, so if something is blindingly obvious, probably best not to suggest it as someone else would have thought about it before... Finally, watch Office Space, it will show you how jaded you'll become in 5 years

Good luck at the interview

 

[commodorejohn]

Basically it's all bollocks. As long as you write simple readable code with plenty of comments and logging within the deadline everyone is happy.

Double-stressing this point. I got my last job on the strength of the code sample I submitted prior to the interview; it was a super-simple oldschool vector-display mimicry coupled with a woefully incomplete spaceship game in C++, but I had made a point of coding it clearly with ample comments and a clean design that left room to expand it with all the features the actual game would require, and they liked that enough to hire me.

 

[AmiNeo]

Excellent comments guys! Feeling better already. Most of what sir_beaker mentioned I will be fine with and I already have a half complete space ship game I could potentially submit for review!



Thanks for the luck sir_beaker. I will take everything I can get!!!

 

[deadb0y]

Basically it's all bollocks. As long as you write simple readable code with plenty of comments and logging within the deadline everyone is happy.

I'll third that one, the times I've picked up a half finished project and had to basically start again from scratch because of overly complex writing style and lack of comments is un countable!

Another thing I would always say is be honest and be yourself..

I would say good luck but I'm not a strong believer in the lady myself so I'll say impress them

 

[AmiNeo]

Updating... It went quite well I thought. I had a good chat and a bit of a laugh with the manager and team leader. Discussed the role, the company and the work and then they talked me through a test they had. It was insanely easy. Design a form GUI based on a small spec, comment on the spec given, look for errors in a COBAL function (which was surprisingly similar to C#) and then write a few SQL queries to solve some simple tasks, progressively harder.

They gave me 40 minutes and I was done in under 25. Pretty sure I aced everything except the final SQL question for which I wrote pseudo code instead and a note explaining that I was unsure of the syntax. There wasn't anything I was unsure of.

I thanked them for seeing me and they said I would hear back from them within a few days (presumably by the end of the week).

After I got home I sent an email to the guy that arranged the interview to thank him.


Now I'm waiting

 

[soeter04]

One thing i'd like to add: take some time to read up on the company, their market, their products etc. Be sure you know what they do. Prepare some follow-up questions too. As an interviewer, it's nice to see someone who's actually interested in the company/product, rather than only landing a big fat paycheck. I've had numerous candidates on the other side of the table that knew their technology, but seemed to lack any kind of knowledge on (and/or interest in) the business we do, and despite their awesome tech skills, they we're 1-0 down at the end of the interview..

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Oh ****, i hadn't completely scrolled down, didn't see you already had the interview

 

[moggsie]

Updating... It went quite well I thought. I had a good chat and a bit of a laugh with the manager and team leader. Discussed the role, the company and the work and then they talked me through a test they had. It was insanely easy. Design a form GUI based on a small spec, comment on the spec given, look for errors in a COBAL function (which was surprisingly similar to C#) and then write a few SQL queries to solve some simple tasks, progressively harder.

They gave me 40 minutes and I was done in under 25. Pretty sure I aced everything except the final SQL question for which I wrote pseudo code instead and a note explaining that I was unsure of the syntax. There wasn't anything I was unsure of.

I thanked them for seeing me and they said I would hear back from them within a few days (presumably by the end of the week).

After I got home I sent an email to the guy that arranged the interview to thank him.


Now I'm waiting

I hope you get the job duder...

I must admit, I've been quietly observing your time at uni as a mature student with interest. I don't know about you but I was not mature enough at 18 to of done the Uni route (not that it was on my agenda at the time anyway - I wanted money). In fact, I only really started any real post School education at 21 when started working towards my electronic quailifcations which then lead on to my current job 4 years later. But I do sometimes think maybe I should had taken the chance to do an OU course or something similar back then to further my opportunities. Trouble is now, at 34, with a mortgage and a full time job I just don't have the time or motivation to do it. But you are living proof that it can be done and I admire that.

Do let us know when you get this job!

 

[AmiNeo]

Hey Moggsie. It's never too late buddy. There were a few guys on my course who were easily into their 30s. Just make sure you can afford to keep up payments and if necessary, work part time alongside doing it. It's not as difficult as you might think, particularly if you're already half decent at what you want to study. Maybe try a 6 month night school course to whet your appetite first if you're unsure. I will never happen if you don't try

All the best, whatever you decide!

 

[AmiNeo]

Forgot to update. I didn't get the role, but only missed out apparently because another interviewee had recently done a project that was similar to what they do.

Decided to look for part time work and stay on to do a Masters in Information Systems, which should go hand in hand with the CS degree. Though I'm going to have to move out of my current place due to not being able to afford both. Depending on the work that comes along though, who knows.

 

[Harrison]

I was lucky with my masters degree. I left uni and got a job working for a design agency, and one of the directors asked if I wanted to do a masters, so they gave me 1 day a week off to attend uni.