Mastering A Technical Interview

​In this blog post I will show you how you can ALSO become a MASTER of technical interviews.

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But first, why the technical interview is so important?

When you are looking for your first position in IT, or changing a job you usually go through multiple stages:

• CV Filtering
• Soft Skills HR Interview
• Technical Interview
• Offer

You see, the PAPER that determines if you will be able to go to Bali next year (YOUR OFFER), goes right after the technical interview.

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Of course, your past experience is also important, but I've seen situations when people were receiving 200% higher or 200% lower salaries just BASED ON THE TECHNICAL INTERVIEW results.

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So based on 1-hour technical interview call, the company will decide whether it should add $20,000 to your annual salary or not!

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Let's now break down the stages that you'll need to go through to become a master of technical interviews and make your life easier.

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Stage 1. You are very bad!

My first technical interview was a disaster!

I was so stressed, that I was barely able to say anything about my skills.

And that was the main problem. Stress literally makes you 2 times worse than you actually are.

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Some people naturally stress less, some more. And YOU WILL NEVER get rid of interview stress completely. I still stress a little during tech interviews.
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But there are TWO VERY IMPORTANT things that will help you to stress less:

• 🕰 Time. The more interviews you go through, the less you stress.
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• 🧑‍💻 Your skills. What do you think most people stress about in interviews? They are scared, that they will get a question they don't know the answer to. So the more skilled you become, the more confident you feel, therefore the less you stress.

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So if you are at that stage the only thing you can do is to BECOME AS GOOD AS YOU CAN within your tech stack.

And then just practice through mock interviews, or through real ones.

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Stage 2. You are still bad, but know why!

Let me be honest with you. Even if you've already had a couple of interviews, you still s*ck!

BUT

You have some DATA, that you can use to improve.

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For example, in my first interview, I struggled with explaining how closures in JavaScript work.

So right after the interview, I read EVERY SINGLE ARTICLE on the first Google page about closures to make sure that I will never ever fail to answer this question!

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And up to this day, I know what are closures in JavaScript 😅.

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In fact, if you are able to get to the technical interview stage, the only thing that separates you from the offer is your KNOWLEDGE.

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You are literally a couple of programming concepts away from your dream job 👩‍💻🧑‍💻.

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So just keep applying for jobs, keep failing interviews, but make PROPER CONCLUSIONS after interviews and work on things that are missing.

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🎁 BONUS TIP: After failing an interview ALWAYS email back the rectuiter a couple of times to get an EXACT REASON and as much feedback as possible about why they decided not to hire you. It will hurt, but you can use this info to improve.

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Stage 3. You are still bad, but getting better!

You've somehow nailed your first job.

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You think that you are a genius, but the first time a more experienced developer reviews your code he/she smashes you RIGHT IN THE FACE 🙂🥊.

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And it's good. It will help you to grow SUPER FAST!

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At this stage focus on getting real-world experience, and learning from others.

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Take as many projects and work AS POSSIBLE. Because the more you work, the more you learn, therefore the faster you will be able to get to the next stage ➡️.

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Also, if you see that you don't have enough knowledge for your position, use your free time to fill in the gaps in your knowledge and learn things that are missing.

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Starting from the next stage, you won't have enough time or motivation to learn a lot of new things.

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Stage 4. You are good!

You've gained some experience and learned a lot from others.

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You should change a job because it's the only way you can start making x2 💵 of what you make now overnight.

And you don't even need to leave your current job for now.

Just start applying for jobs in your free time, and leave your company only when you get a new offer.

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So you nailed your new job or client that pays you good money 😎.

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You are proud of yourself.

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But it's not time to stop.

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You can make x2 of what you currently making by just adding a couple of new skills to your skillset.

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At this stage, you are good enough to start helping other people, a.k.a become a mentor.

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So just find a couple of people who are on stage 1 or 2, and start helping them to get to stage 3 or 4.

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There are thousands of places, where you can find people whom you can mentor:

• You Connections on Social Media (just make a post that you are looking for a student whom you will mentor for free).
• Your Company (most companies have internship programs, or Juniors, so just ask your manager if you can help these people).
• Your Friends or Relatives.

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Stage 5. You are an interviewer yourself!

It's time to take your "uno reverse card", switch places and start conducting technical interviews yourself.

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Just ask a company, if you can help them with interviewing process for other candidates (unless they ask you first).

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I've conducted around 50 interviews myself and here is my main advice:

• If you interview Junior: Your Main Goal is to determine if this person is able to learn fast and has good core knowledge. Don't ask too deep framework-related questions, focus on the programming language (e.g. JavaScript). And check if this person understands this language well (use both: theory and practice-based questions).
• If you interview Middle+: Make sure that that person actually good and has project-building experience. Then check if this person is capable of managing a small team of devs and able to plan project infrastructure from scratch.

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You will see, that conducting interviews is not that hard!

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After 10+ of conducted interviews, you are ready to go to the next stage...

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Stage 6. You are a master of technical interviews!

Congrats 🎉. You are almost at the top of the Software Engineer Career ladder 🪜.

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From there you should start thinking about starting your own business or growing into more management positions (Tech Lead, CTO, VP of Engineering).

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Conclusion

This is how you can become a master of technical interviews and be super confident about your position in life. Because even if you lose your current job, you will easily land another one, AS YOU KNOW EXACTLY how to pass a technical interview.

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Andrew "Mastering Interview Skills" Zacker