This post is about my experience with job interviews. Two months ago I have started looking for a job. As you know there is plenty of job offers for .NET Developer, but in the beginning I decided to reject working in big corporation, and focus at small / medium companies. I have participated in six interviews till this moment (15 May 2013).

Ardua prima via est!

My first interview was quite good and it was leaded by owner. My friend has recommended this company. There is 10+ developers. First minutes was terrible because I had been a little nervous but after few minutes I was relaxed. There wasn’t any test.

The first meeting where I had to pass test was a small company with department in other city. This time, before we met I had invested my time to prepare, unfortunately even with preparation I had got stressed Damn it! After presentation I had to pass a skill exam, but what was great we just had discussion about problem described on paper. There wasn’t need of writing code in a paper.

The worst interview was few days ago, I got call and immediately I decided to meet up in same day. I wanted to check how it goes without any preparations, and it went wrong! Don’t do it! Always schedule your interviews at least one week ahead. 

In six meetings I had to do three skills exams, so if HR or recruiter will call to you. Remember to ask him/her if there will be skill exam, because it’s the most important case! Prepare properly your knowledge
For basic and some intermediate issues try : C# 5.0 in a Nutshell, 5th Edition. Moreover you should know answer to this questions. Now I will list me skills question that I got.

• Interfaces of LINQ.
• Basic usage of LINQ.
• Basic SQL queries (PL/SQL, T/SQL).
• Difference between abstract class and interface.
• What is interface.
• Difference between ref and out.
• What new technologies came up in .NET 3.5.
• What is order of calling virtual methods.
• Write a method that reverse string backwards.
• Enum
• Factory Pattern
• How works MVC

In conclusion, here I am a little wiser than two months ago, so to the next interview I will focused on this next things :

• More preparation in basic aspects of language
• Practise with someone, it’s a great opportunity because it shows you “if I understand what I’m talking about? ” Let’s assume that you are talking about some kind of project, and your partner asks you what is mean that you use “abstract class”, or tell me what is “ORM”. Moreover it’s potential questions that you can get in interview
• no more interview on the front of white board!! and writing the code on it. I get stressed and I forget about everything…
• Schedule meeting at least one week ahead.