Do you want to start working as a programmer, have spent a lot of time learning a programming language, and do not feel confident in your knowledge? If you do not know if you are moving in the right direction, we will try to help you. But, first, we will walk go over and reveal the essence of the main stages of training and preparation for the interview.
Knowledge Test
Let’s start with the base to make sure you don’t have gaps in basic things. Then, try solving 150 simple tasks at LeetCode or a similar site. That will be enough.
You will have to write simple code with lists, hash maps, loops, and conditional statements at work. Therefore, these skills must be brought to automatism. If you can solve any two problems in 40 minutes, you have passed this level.
The next step is object-oriented design. Again, the ability to apply OOP design approaches is a must. The programmer needs to know how to break the program into modules, avoid spaghetti code, refactor code, and write a user-friendly API. Do you have a sense of “correct” code? Do you know how to develop using TDD methodology? If so, then move on. If not, you should follow the design templates and read the classics – GoF. We also highly recommend Robert Martin’s Clean Code.
Practice, Practice, Practice
All your knowledge should be based on practice, engraved in the brain through the fingers, not through the ears. The theory is quickly forgotten, but practical skills stay with you for a long time.
You can get an internship at programming courses or find a team of like-minded partners who will additionally motivate each other not to stop halfway. In any case, we advise you to give the practice as much time as possible.
If you’re a college student currently looking to get a programming job, then it might even be a good idea for you to delegate some of your academic load to assignment help services. By have more time to dedicate to specific programming, you will be increasing your job application chances significantly!
Empirically, it has been found that only one in five students can meaningfully recount what they heard in a lecture. And you can easily check this in an interview by giving him a small task to solve. If knowledge is limited to theory, the interview is likely to fail.
Pet Projects
You need to brag to your employer about the interview. It is desirable to demonstrate several projects completed by you using current/popular frameworks. And it should look impressive so you can impress the interviewer. Of course, writing a project will take some time – expect on three months.
To do this, it is better to find a team like you or at least one partner. You will motivate each other, which is important. You can pick just about any project you want; however, the more visual aspects it has, the better. Why? Because not all your interviewers will have related technical knowledge. That’s why creating an online service mock-up, for example, of a writing service like grademiners.com, will be much better than some command-line program.
Requirements for the project: it must be clear not only to IT professionals but be easily digestible for non-tech people too. The project should contain answers to all the interviewer’s questions. At the interview, you will be able to refer to your project experience. In this case, the answers will confirm that you really understand the subject of the conversation.
Mentor
In the process of learning, it is very desirable to find a mentor. Even if online education reaches all possible limits of effectiveness, there is still a problem of emotions and energy that you will not get from a computer. Motivation for online education is rarely enough for a long time. We think in the near future, teachers will be engaged exclusively in motivating students.
How to find a mentor? The first option is to turn to a career counselor who has contacts and will help you. Another option is to go to a meeting of programmers on topics of interest to you and invite an expert to be your mentor or ask him to recommend any other specialist. Of course, not everyone will agree, but someone will be willing to help.
It’s Not Only About Technical Skills
At this stage, you need to be ready to answer typical recruiter questions. The leader here is Amazon. They themselves develop many tests and questionnaires to test personal qualities. Just search for Behavioral Questions and Attitude Questions. If you hear such questions for the first time and try to improvise, the chances of success will be quite low.
In preparation, you can take some common behavioral interview questions and write out answers to them. Even if you’re not the greatest essay writer there ever was, doing this will still help you immensely getting through this part of the interview.
Take Every Chance
When you’re only starting out in the IT field, your possibilities are extremely limited – the employers are not yet “hunting” for you. Therefore, it is not necessary to waste any such possibility and try to apply no matter what.
