Recently, since I was looking for a 6-month internship in software development, I applied to many US companies. As I really wanted not to get hired, I stricly followed some basic mistakes in order to succeed... Of course I'm joking! The following are some things I did... that you should avoid.
Put your photo on your resume
Everyone knows, adding your photo on your resume is a really good thing. The recruiter will be pleased to see your lovely face.
(phone rings)
- Hello?
- Hi! I'm the recruiter. WHY DID YOU SEND ME A RESUME WITH YOUR PHOTO?!
- ...
The phone interview looked like something like that. Avoid it.
Ask to be reached on a different phone number than the one on your resume
Adding your mobile phone number on your resume might be a good idea since it enables you to be reached wherever you are. But for international calls, the audio quality gets a bit worse than with a landline phone. That's why I gently asked, by email, to be reached on my landline phone. The recruiter totally ignored it, called me on my cell phone and got very angry with me when I said that I would prefer my landline phone. However, he called back a minute later the correct number.
Don't know the algorithms you wrote
Sometimes, recruites merely send you a text file with lots of technical questions, such as algorithms to write, code to fix, etc. Then, when it comes to face to face interview, the recruiter is very likely to ask you to prove your algorithms. It can be about:
- Complexity: give the complexity of your algorithms and explain how you calculate it
- Prove that it works for every case (basically it's: loop invariant, pre-conditions, inductive step, post-conditions)
- Provide alternative algorithms (or alternative implementation when dealing with OOP)
Don't sleep enough the previous night
So that you'll seem so tired that you won't impress anyone. And worse, you won't be able to think, your brain will be so slow that you'll get confused at every sentence you'll hear.
“ We won't move forward with your candidacy ”
Congratulations! If you ever received this, that means that you carefully followed every point in this article.
Good luck!
Tips for resumes
- The Difference Between a Resume and a Curriculum Vitae (CV)
- CV vs. Resume: The Difference and When to Use Which
- Official European CV templates
- This résumé for Elon Musk proves you never, ever need to use more than one page
- The Biggest Mistakes I See on Resumes, and How to Correct Them
- The Biggest Mistakes I See on Resumes, Part 2: Your top 8 questions
Useful books
- Cracking the Coding Interview, 6th Edition: 189 Programming Questions and Solutions (really good, in Java)
- Programming Interviews Exposed: Secrets to Landing Your Next Job (quite elementary and obsolete)
- Elements of Programming Interviews: The Insiders' Guide (for really hard interviews, in C++)
Salary
- Software Developers: Here’s how to get a raise without changing jobs
- The Ultimate Guide To Salary Negotiation For Software Developers
Further reading
- My Personal Formula for a Winning Resume
- Google Executive: 6 Ways to Win Your Next Interview
- Un stage chez Google : le parcours d’un ingénieur de Google, d’Aix-en-Provence à Mountain view
- Multiprogramming, Multiprocessing, Multitasking, and Multithreading
- Resources for becoming a hacker (and for interviews)
- Entretien d'embauche: maîtrisez le langage corporel!
- ABC: Always Be Coding
- Trouver un job tech à San Francisco ou dans la Silicon Valley
- How to Get a Job at Google
- Free Programming Books
- What Is Code?
- Ten questions I’ve been asked, most more than once, over six technical JavaScript / Front-end Engineer job interviews
- Why you should understand (a little) about TCP
- Awesome Interviews
- Retour sur la pénurie de devs
- Front-end Job Interview Questions
- Why Do Employers Rarely Offer Explanations to Rejected Candidates?
- Google's "Director of Engineering" Hiring Test
- So you think you know C?
- You Are Not Paid to Write Code
- Always Get/Give Interview Feedback, It Matters
- Interviews: what I'm thinking while I'm interviewing you
- The Guerrilla Guide to Interviewing (version 3.0)
- The Tech Recruitment Process At Drivy
- You fired your top talent. I hope you’re happy.
- What you should know as a founder of a software company
- F*** You, I Quit — Hiring Is Broken
- Interviewing for a Technical Position Doesn’t Have to Be Scary
- Ask an expert: How do you interview an engineer?
- Mais… pourquoi vous mettez des barres de compétences sur le CV ?
- Preparing for the Systems Design and Coding Interview