Are you making these common interview mistakes?
In this article, I talk about common interview mistakes made when being interviewed for a software engineer position at a company.
Interviewing is hard.
Finding a new job and having interviews can be one of the most anxiety inducing things, especially when it’s your first one.
But here’s the thing, interviewing doesn’t have to be scary!
It’s all about mindset.
Without further ado, let’s get into the list of the most common interview mistakes I see when speaking with candidates in the industry.
Not preparing about you
I think it’s very easy to get caught up in the technical interview preparation that a lot of candidates forget to talk about themselves!
You’ll probably be asked questions about:
who you are as an individual
what projects you’ve worked on
what challenges have you overcome
have you worked with Scrum or any other agile frameworks.
You’re less likely to be caught off guard if you’ve written a list of questions to talk about yourself and have looked up common competency based questions, and have an answer prepared for them.
Not researching the company
This is your opportunity to show them that you want to work FOR THEM. Whilst it might be true, companies don’t want to think you want to work for them, only because you want a job. They want to know what are the things about them that you find interesting.
And so you have to do some market research *yawn*…
Yes, it can be time consuming, but I promise you it’s worth it.
I suggest:
Looking at the company website to try to understand the types of services they provide.
Choosing a few areas of their products that spike your interest, so you’re able to ask questions about them during the interview.
Providing possible suggestions of what you would like to see in the product (okay this one is me wearing my Product Owner hat, but honestly companies love the enthusiasm!)
Looking at the reviews on somewhere like Glassdoor and seeing what others have said about the company and interview questions.
Seeing what their tech stack is and seeing what parts of it spike your interest.
Researching them on LinkedIn to see if there is any posts from candidates that work there to see if you can get a feel for the culture.
Honestly, there’s so much information available over the internet, use it to your advantage!
Or maybe I’m just a stalker…
Getting flustered
We’ve all done it, we’ve been asked a question we’re not sure of and suddenly we start going red in the face.
We can’t think straight.
We’re just stumbling over our words and nothing coherent is coming out.
If you’re in that situation, pause and take a breathe.
I think a big part of getting flustered is the expectations we put on ourselves to know everything.
And not knowing everything is perfectly fine.
You don’t have to answer things instantaneously and it’s important to remember not everyone is good at interviewing either! Adding filler words/phrases like ‘that’s a really good question’, ‘let me have a think’, ‘I’ve not thought about that before’, ‘give me a second to think about that’ lets the interviewer know that you are thinking about the question.
You can also ask clarifying questions if you need more information or if you really don’t have any idea, honesty is the best policy and you can tell them you don’t know.
Don’t beat yourself up about it, you won’t know everything.
Build a rapport
Often the people who are interviewing you are going to be your team mates, it’s good to try and find a way to connect with them, given that you are likely going to be working together if you are successful.
Building software is more than just being an individual, showing how you can be a team player demonstrates soft skills that are usually required to be successful in any role.
Even if you’re unsuccessful this time round (maybe you are a little inexperienced for the role you’ve applied for, but then another role comes up), they’re likely going to consider you for the next time they have an opening because you’ve made a good impression and they think you’ll be a good fit.
Making connections and networking isn’t always instant gratification, it’s long term thinking.
Having the wrong focus
Many candidates forget that the interview process is a two-way process. They are so focused on just getting a job, they forget to question whether or not it’s the right place for them.
Maybe I’m arrogant, but when I have interviewed previously, I go into the interview process trying to determine whether or not I want to work there too.
I try to determine what issues they have with their products, with testing, facilitation and DevOps.
I try to see if my skills can help them and if I like the sound of the problems, products and vision they have.
This has made the interview process a lot less scary for me, because I no longer saw it as a ‘I need to get this job’, I saw it as an opportunity to find the right job for me.
Not taking notes
The interview process is a chance for personal improvement, a lot of candidates wait for feedback from the company in order to see how they’ve done, however you are perfectly in your right to do your own introspection.
If you stumble on something, or aren’t sure of a particular thing they are talking about. Write it down!
Once the interview is over, you can have a look at all the notes you’ve done and see whether or not you need to go away and research any topics.
Depending on the interviewer, you may have questions you couldn’t possibly know, and that’s okay.
But there will be a lot of times where you will be asked a question, that maybe you should know going forward.
(And you’ll be thankful you wrote it down and researched it.)
Being overconfident
Don’t lie.
Too many times people try to blag their way through topics and keep their answers very high level, but then get caught out very easily when a good interviewer tries to dig for substance.
If you have listed something on your CV, don’t try and pretend you know it more than you do, specify the things you’ve done with that language or framework and if they ever ask you about it in more detail and you’re unsure it’s perfectly fine to just say ‘I’ve not thought about that or done that before’.
A good interviewer will be able to determine your level of skill, there’s no hiding it.
Not asking questions
Asking questions is the chance for you to understand more about the company.
It’s a perfect opportunity for you to show your interest and enthusiasm about working there.
Some questions could be:
about a typical day in the life of the role you’re applying for
how the teams work
the team size
the team structure
the working practices
the benefits
any out of work events
I would always make sure you have a few prepared before going into the interview.
Whatever questions you ask, make sure they’re about areas you’re passionate about and that most of all you’re invested in the conversation.
And please don’t ask someone ‘what would they do if they were a fish’, I can’t even.
And finally…
Remember that no matter what you do, not all companies are going to be the right fit for you.
Some companies will have completely different morals, ethics and standards than you, and it’s perfectly okay for you to realise during the interview “this isn’t right for me” and for the interviewer to think you’re not right for them either.
Whether you get the job or not, each interview is a learning experience for the next one!
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Excellent points, Jade!
I like the emphasis on taking notes and reflecting on what went wrong in an interview.
I think it can help reduce the anxiety levels that happens after an interview.
I also think that the mindset you enter the interview with greatly affects your performance.
If you go with a mindset that knows that you can't control everything, and that it's not the end of the world to lose the position (regardless of how big and shinny the company is) helps reduce the tension and fear.
When you go with a calm and clear mind you'll likely to do your best. And, that's all you need. To do what you can and not worry about the results.
Great tips, Jade.
Part of the mistakes come from before the interview too. Best thing in my experience has been to do mock interviews with friends and get feedback.
Thank you for the mention, by the way!