Full Interview Simulation Guidelines

During week 3 of Mod 4, students will sign up to do a full 30 minute interview simulation. It’s important to get practice with answering questions in mock interviews so that you can feel more prepared for the real thing. This interview will include a combination of both behavioral and technical questions. Although these lists of questions are by no means exhaustive of what you’ll encounter in the interview simulation or in real interviews, it’s a great place to get started. Note that interviews will last around 25 minutes followed by several minutes for feedback. Feedback may be given either at the end of the interview or in between questions.

Remember to bring the following to your interview:

1. Please slack the instructor that will be conducting your interview simulation your up-to-date resume. Questions may be asked based on the technologies listed on your resume. You will also receive some feedback on it towards the end of the simulation.
2. Please also bring your diversity/inclusion question that you plan to ask in future interviews. Details and examples are included in the Gear Up Template.

Tips and Considerations

Behavioral & Technical

• Remember that it is okay to take time before answering a question. This might include repeating the question, asking for more context, or simply stating that you need a moment.
• Consider your past experiences before Turing when answering behavioral questions. While your Turing experiences are important to discuss, you can definitely bring up the skills you’ve developed from your previous career as well!
• Don’t lie to your interviewer. If you’re unsure of a technical question and remain unclear after getting more context, it’s safer to state that you don’t know than to make something up. That being said, it’s fine to give the interviewer an educated guess as long as that is communicated.
• Although not necessary for all questions, it is highly recommended to give specific examples when answering both behavioral and technical questions. Give a brief overview of the situation to the interviewer and include the answer in your story. Having clear examples makes you more memorable than an interviewee who knows all the correct answers. It may also lead to more questions/discussions about your experiences!

Resume

• While it’s terrific to have a “fancy” looking resume to send/email to employers, make sure to have a more standard resume that is ATS-friendly. In general, it is preferable to have your resume as a .doc over a .pdf.
• Make sure that there are links to all projects including GitHub and deployment links. Also double check that READMEs are fleshed out on those projects as well!
• Double check the order that projects and skills are listed. Interviewers are more likely to ask questions about your top 3 skills and look at maybe 1-2 projects, so consider which you feel most confident speaking to and make sure to list them in your preferred order.
• Double check the technologies you have listed in your resume and confirm that you feel comfortable answering questions to those. Also be on the lookout for anything that might be repetitive. If JavaScript and HTML are listed along with React, it’s probably fine to just keep React as the interviewer will expect that you are comfortable with the correlating technologies it is built off of.
• Please also double check for typos as well as ensure that technologies listed are formatted and capitalized correctly.
• To remove any bias your interviewer might have, it is recommended that remove your address or years you graduated.