OK, as some of you may remember, I have been to 2 job interviews in my 
life so far. On Wednesday, I'm going to number 3.

Don't worry. I already know I won't get the job. This isn't just an 
interview; they're talking about having a panel of 4 department bosses 
grill me for 2 hours, and then they're giving me a test, and then 
there's some kind of team interaction exercise, and then there's 
something else after that, and at the end I'm supposed to give a 
presentation. /Clearly/ I don't stand a snowball's chance in hell of 
getting this job.

On the other hand, presumably it'll be good interview experience. When 
you think about it, most of my competitors will have been to hundreds of 
thousands of interviews. They are all interview experts. Compared to 
that, I don't stand a chance. So getting more interview experience has 
to be a good thing, right?

Looking over the job description again, it says "junior developer 
analyst". The "analyst" part worries me. But we'll see. Reading the 
description, they want a degree in CS or similar, and ideally 1+ years 
of commercial development experience. Conspicuous by its absence is any 
mention of /what technology/ they're using. Is this a C++ application? 
Java? VB? C#? COBOL? FORTRAN? APL??? It doesn't say. (Neither does the 
product website, but then, /that/ isn't unusual.)

OK, so I know vaguely what the product they sell actually does. I know 
where the building is. I need to figure out what to wear. Is there 
anything else I can actually do to "prepare" for this?

(I mean, aside from practising being given the third degree by the 
Spanish Inquisition. :-P )

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On Mon, 20 Aug 2012 15:44:04 +0100, Invisible wrote:

> OK, as some of you may remember, I have been to 2 job interviews in my
> life so far. On Wednesday, I'm going to number 3.

Good luck with it, Andy.  Remember to breathe, and one of the best pieces 
of advice I received from a friend of the family before my last in-person 
interview was this:  keep your pants on. ;)

The only people who are "interview experts" are people who can't keep a 
job.

Jim

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On 20/08/2012 3:44 PM, Invisible wrote:
> I'm supposed to give a presentation. /Clearly/ I don't stand a
> snowball's chance in hell of getting this job.

Here is an idea: Prepare beforehand a presentation about something you 
know very well, say Haskell. Make it short and keep it simple. If you 
can do some power point slides then save them onto a flash drive. It is 
good to say that you have done some preparation. They might not be used 
but brownie points anyway. Don't over prepare, though, send a maximum of 
a couple of hours on it.

Good luck and the best of British. :-)

-- 
Regards
     Stephen

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Invisible <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
> Don't worry. I already know I won't get the job.

Good.  Now that you got rid of that pressure for not failing, you can fail so
epically and beautifully that they feel hard-pressed to give you a chance.
Instead of trying and failing to be another bozo in a suit, just try your best
to show them you are a computer geek at heart.

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Am 20.08.2012 20:14, schrieb nemesis:
> Invisible <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
>> Don't worry. I already know I won't get the job.
>
> Good.  Now that you got rid of that pressure for not failing, you can fail so
> epically and beautifully that they feel hard-pressed to give you a chance.
> Instead of trying and failing to be another bozo in a suit, just try your best
> to show them you are a computer geek at heart.

Word!

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On 20/08/2012 07:14 PM, nemesis wrote:
> Good.  Now that you got rid of that pressure for not failing, you can fail so
> epically and beautifully that they feel hard-pressed to give you a chance.
> Instead of trying and failing to be another bozo in a suit, just try your best
> to show them you are a computer geek at heart.

Hmm. In every job that must be done, these is an element of fun. You 
/find/ the fun, and SNAP... the interviewer's gone insane!

No, wait...

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On 20/08/2012 04:19 PM, Jim Henderson wrote:
> Good luck with it, Andy.  Remember to breathe, and one of the best pieces
> of advice I received from a friend of the family before my last in-person
> interview was this:  keep your pants on. ;)

Marcus suggested the following: At least they can't string you up by 
your balls with a cheese wire.

That guy is slightly odd...

> The only people who are "interview experts" are people who can't keep a
> job.

I didn't say they're good employees. I said they are more likely to get 
hired.

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On 20/08/2012 06:59 PM, Stephen wrote:
> Here is an idea: Prepare beforehand a presentation about something you
> know very well, say Haskell. Make it short and keep it simple. If you
> can do some power point slides then save them onto a flash drive. It is
> good to say that you have done some preparation. They might not be used
> but brownie points anyway. Don't over prepare, though, send a maximum of
> a couple of hours on it.

Heh, I remember that time I had to do a presentation at uni. You 
remember the old projectors with the light table and the mirror? Do you 
know what it looks like when you puke on one? :-S

At any rate, it might be amusing to try to put together a presentation. 
I very much doubt I could do it in front of actual humans though. (How 
do you get over the fact that your audience doesn't give a damn, for 
example?)

> Good luck and the best of British. :-)

Heh, thanks.

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Am 21.08.2012 11:17, schrieb Invisible:
> On 20/08/2012 06:59 PM, Stephen wrote:
>> Here is an idea: Prepare beforehand a presentation about something you
>> know very well, say Haskell. Make it short and keep it simple. If you
>> can do some power point slides then save them onto a flash drive. It is
>> good to say that you have done some preparation. They might not be used
>> but brownie points anyway. Don't over prepare, though, send a maximum of
>> a couple of hours on it.
>
> Heh, I remember that time I had to do a presentation at uni. You
> remember the old projectors with the light table and the mirror? Do you
> know what it looks like when you puke on one? :-S

Please, tell me you didn't! >_<


> At any rate, it might be amusing to try to put together a presentation.
> I very much doubt I could do it in front of actual humans though. (How
> do you get over the fact that your audience doesn't give a damn, for
> example?)

If you're positively excited about it, you might have a chance.

Best advice when standing in front of a crowd looking at you: Find a 
friendly face. (And then talk to that face, or whatever other friendly 
ones you can find. Don't address the audience - address the individual 
people sitting there.)

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>> Heh, I remember that time I had to do a presentation at uni. You
>> remember the old projectors with the light table and the mirror? Do you
>> know what it looks like when you puke on one? :-S
>
> Please, tell me you didn't! >_<

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exMCfpUG5r4

>> (How
>> do you get over the fact that your audience doesn't give a damn, for
>> example?)
>
> If you're positively excited about it, you might have a chance.

Perhaps. But it's difficult to come across as excited and passionate 
when you're terrified to your mortal core.

> Best advice when standing in front of a crowd looking at you: Find a
> friendly face. (And then talk to that face, or whatever other friendly
> ones you can find. Don't address the audience - address the individual
> people sitting there.)

I don't know, man. If you're in a small gathering of people and you're 
having a private conversation with just one of them, that might come 
across as rude.

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