1st Stage Interview Styles
Cultural
As the market has evolved to become more technology centric, there has been a considerable shift towards an initial 1st stage interview being based purely around cultural expectations. This isn’t to say not to expect any technical questions in a cultural based interview, it’s more common for there to be a bias towards culture with a technical undertone to the conversation. Always remember, it is as important for you to deep dive into the culture of the business as it is for you to match their culture. An interview is commonly viewed as a one way conversation, and this is wrong. It should be approached openly and you must make sure you have prepared a variety of questions which can help you dive into the organisational culture. Here’s a few which can help:
‘Why did you the business and what makes you stay?’
‘What makes your team a better environment to join?’
‘How does your team work at the moment? Eg schedules, childcare allowance, flexibility, remote’
Technical
Whether it be a 1st stage or a final stage process, across the Technology & IT space you must always be prepared to experience some form of technical test. When including technical tests, businesses will often take vastly different approaches. Our clients utilise methods across the range from an overviewed technical conversation where you run through your experience and previous projects (both commercial and personal) which you may have worked on, through to a short hands on test which may revolves around solving a minor issues under a scenario basis. Gone are the days where it is acceptable for employers to task potential candidates with technical tests which last HOURS, it is now a more personal approach focused around matching knowledge and culture to the business needs.
To give yourself the best opportunity, it is worth revising and revisiting any personal projects / code repositories in the specified languages or technology. For example, as a JavaScript biased Front End Developer, you may have a preference towards building systems using Angular but the businesses bias may lend itself towards React. Prior research into how to transpose your knowledge of Angular into React will ensure you are able to confidently address technical issues in the interview whilst showing your cross-functional capabilities. This exact situation can be seen throughout the industry, whether you are a full stack PHP Developer interviewing for a Symfony or Laravel role, or a Microsoft developer interviewing for a .Net Core position.