Trades, Tech, & Engineering Careers Articles

Article / Updated 03-20-2024

In mechanics of materials, Hooke's law is the relationship that connects stresses to strains. Although Hooke's original law was developed for uniaxial stresses, you can use a generalized version of Hooke's law to connect stress and strain in three-dimensional objects, as well. Eventually, Hooke's law helps you relate stresses (which are based on loads) to strains (which are based on deformations). For a three-dimensional state of stress, the normal strain in a given direction (such as x) is a function of the stresses in all three orthogonal directions (usually the Cartesian x-, y-, and z-directions), as shown by this equation: where E is the modulus of elasticity and ν is Poisson's ratio for the material. For a uniaxial stress, two of the stresses in the equation are zero. For a biaxial stress condition, one of the stresses in this equation is zero. The generalized relationship for Hooke's law for shear in the XY plane can be given as

Article / Updated 07-19-2022

If you’re applying for a software development job, always presume that many of your fellow programmers will apply for that job, too. Here are ten ways you, and not just your résumé and cover letter, can stand out to your potential employer and get you an interview. Have a professional headshot Use a professional headshot, taken by a professional photographer, as your profile picture on all of your social media profiles. Don’t use a good selfie you took of yourself while you were on vacation. Instead, get some recommendations for a photographer from friends, colleagues, and even your social media connections. Then dress professionally (at least from the waist up), get well-groomed, go to the photography studio, and get headshots that will show you’re a professional. Once you get the photos and you’ve decided on the ones you want to use, put that headshot on all your social media profiles to create a consistent brand for yourself. If you already use a professional photographer to take family portraits on occasion, here’s a tip on how to save some money on a professional headshot. Gather the family to get some pictures done for relatives and ask the photographer if you could get a couple of headshots for yourself as well. You should already be professionally dressed and groomed, so an additional headshot or two of yourself will cost you little to nothing extra — probably the latter if you’ve been using your family photographer for a while. Establish a GitHub profile to showcase your programming skills If you don’t have a GitHub profile to interact with other software developers, sign up for free on the GitHub website. A GitHub profile not only gets you access to other developers, it also affords you the opportunity to demonstrate your programming abilities. If one or more people who work at an employer can find your GitHub profile and can see the type of code you’ve written as well as the projects you’ve contributed to, they’ll have much more confidence that: You can write code. You are a good coder. You can actually do what you say you can do on your résumé. If you have a GitHub profile but you haven’t worked on any projects there in a while, now is a good time to get more involved so you can make it as impressive to prospective employers (and other programmers) as you can. Get plenty of referrals One big benefit of LinkedIn is that you can get and ask for plenty of online referrals, which LinkedIn calls recommendations, and post them on your LinkedIn profile for anyone to see. But you shouldn’t just rely on people to give you recommendations on LinkedIn — you should already have plenty of people you could ask who would be happy to recommend you for a programming job. So, ask those people if one or more people will write you a recommendation letter to send with your cover letter and résumé. The hiring manager or team manager may be a bit confused at first with all the papers included in your envelope, but then realize that you have plenty of people who are happy to recommend you and talk with company management about you. That added proof that you’re well-regarded in the industry will get your résumé and cover letter noticed. Referrals are not a panacea because you still have to make sure your résumé and cover letter look great, but including referral letters will make it much more likely that whoever is reviewing résumés looks at yours. You can show your appreciation by writing a recommendation letter of your own and send those to your friends and colleagues who recommend you. After all, your friends and colleagues may need recommendations for a job or other position they want. Have a video résumé on social networking sites We live in an age where it’s easy to make videos and post them online, so it’s a good idea to post a video résumé starring you on all your social media websites. You can hire a videographer to professionally produce your video résumé, but you can probably do it yourself using your webcam. Just be sure to practice talking naturally into the camera so you come off as authentic and genuine. When you’re ready to record, it’s a good idea to wear at least a shirt and tie (if you’re just sitting down) and groom yourself so you look professional. You can put a link to your video résumé in your printed one. When people reviewing your résumé type in the link, they should see a brief video that not only features you talking about who you are as a programmer and your experience, but also shows some of your personality so the viewer can get to know you a little bit. If potential interviewers feel like you’re someone they want to work with after they watch your video résumé, don’t be surprised if you get a phone call or email message asking to set up a phone screen or an in-person interview. You should shorten the link to your video résumé so people don’t have to type in a long and complicated URL in their browser’s address bar. One popular site for shortening a URL is Bitly. Create your own YouTube channel to show off your programming prowess If you want to go one step further with your videos and stand out not just to potential interviewers but to the software developer community at large, include your video résumé on your YouTube channel. This channel should also include several videos that show off your personality and expertise. A YouTube channel that you promote regularly on your other social media and software developer websites like GitHub will start to get you followers. What’s more, people at your prospective employer will look at your YouTube channel and think, “Wow, this person is teaching hundreds of developers on YouTube, so this is a good person to have on our team. This is someone who not only knows their stuff but will help our other programmers learn and grow.” Your YouTube channel may not only attract followers but may also prompt people to send comments asking if you’re looking for a job. If you decide to start looking for employment, you can create a video that says you’re looking for a job and feature that video on your channel so you can generate leads. Have a good blog to show your programming expertise Programming requires you to type code, so you should have a good blog that shows your coding expertise either in your preferred programming language and/or a variety of programming languages. A blog, such as the Simple Programmer blog you see below, can include instructional articles about how to perform a task in a specific language; discuss tips, tricks, techniques, and trends in software development; and include articles from guest authors who talk about their areas of expertise. If you design your blog so you feature your desired search keywords prominently and frequently, Google will have an easy time finding your blog when people search for those keywords. Don’t forget to promote your latest blog posts on your social media and software developer websites, too. You may find that during the interview, one or more interviewers will ask you about the blog because they’ve been reading articles on it. So, the blog acts as an extended interview that shows people at your prospective employer that you write well, can articulate your points, and that you’re an influencer and leader in the programming community. Update your blog regularly with new articles. If you haven’t updated your blog even in a couple of months, your articles will start to look stale, and you’ll give the impression to your interviewers that you’re inattentive and don’t follow through. Produce a podcast and/or vlog If you want to go all-out to promote your expertise and personality, then add an audio podcast or its video equivalent, the vlog (short for video log), to your blog and YouTube channel offerings. The vlog can be posted to both your social media websites, your blog itself, and/or your YouTube channel. You may also want to have your podcast on sites that host podcasts such as Libsyn. If you’re the host of a podcast, it’s likely you won’t talk during the entirety of each podcast. (The length of a podcast will vary depending on the topic.) Instead, you’ll be talking with other people and creating a lot of connections. You’ll also show that you’re involved in the developer community. As you build influence and a loyal listenership and/or viewership, you may become a celebrity among developers. Your popularity will make it easier for you to get the job you want because companies want to hire a famous software developer to work on their teams. Point to mobile apps you’ve already developed in app stores If you’ve published one or more apps in an iOS or Android app store, don’t forget to include this information in your résumé and cover letter, and ensure that any interviewers can easily find a link to the app on your social media profiles, blog, and YouTube channel. Showing that you’ve developed one or more apps gives interviewers proof that: You can write code just like your résumé says. You can develop software through the entire life cycle from design to publication, which shows you can contribute to the programming team and the company. You’re a winner. (So go get a chicken dinner.) If you haven’t built an app before, there are plenty of tutorials online — all you have to do is type build ios app or build android app in Google and you’ll get a results page full of tutorial links so you can get started. After you create and publish an app, produce a “making of” video on your YouTube channel. This video should tell viewers about the app, how you developed it, the discoveries and drawbacks you had during development, and what your plans are for the future of the app. That last part will show potential employers that you take care of your customers and keep thinking of ways to make the app better for them. Write and self-publish a book The one tangible thing you can bring with you to your interview, other than copies of your résumé, is a copy of a self-published book. It can be difficult to write books for major publishers unless you already have experience with them as a technical editor, you coauthor a book with a lead author, or if you’ve self-published a book. It’s easier than ever to publish and distribute a self-published book. You can sell your book as an ebook on websites including Amazon and Barnes & Noble as well as publish printed copies to give to people and sell on Amazon. The wikiHow website shown below gives you step-by-step instructions about how to write and publish your own book. A book can make you a little bit of money, especially if you take the time to study successful self-published authors — for example, look at Andy Weir, who self-published the novel The Martian. More important, the book serves as an advertisement for your services that shows interviewers that: You committed the time, money, and effort to write and publish a book. You’re a published authority on a given topic because not very many developers have self-published a book (though one coauthor of this book has). You have writing skills, which could help you make more money in your new job if you’re a technical writer as well as a programmer. After you publish the book, don’t forget to promote it not only in your cover letter and list it in your résumé, but also on all your online media and social networking websites. What’s more, if you have the book listed on Amazon, then include a shortened URL link to the book page so interviewers can see it; the interviewers will appreciate a short URL to type because Amazon page URLs are almost as long as lines to get on popular Disneyland rides. Speak at developer and business events You may not have thought about speaking at events, or maybe you don’t want to think of it because the fear of public speaking, or glossophobia, is considered by some (perhaps including you) to be worse than death. If you want to get up the courage to speak but don’t know where to get training, go to the Toastmasters International website and find a club in your area by clicking the Find a Club button in the upper-right corner of the screen. Then search for your nearest club in the Find a Club webpage. Toastmasters International is considered the premier organization for professionals to learn how to speak effectively and become better leaders. After you select your club, you can attend a meeting for free if there are no current restrictions to joining a club. (Some clubs have restrictions and the website will tell you if that’s so.) Once you decide to join, you can sign up as a new member for only $65 (this is subject to change); renewals cost $45 per year. It may take you some time to get yourself where you want to be as a speaker, but once you gain enough confidence, you can start looking for speaking opportunities at local or regional events. Check with Meetup events for software developers in your local area and ask the event coordinator about speaking opportunities. The same goes for local chamber of commerce and/or Rotary club meetings, though you’ll probably have to produce a different presentation for those business-oriented audiences. No matter where you speak, you’ll likely have members of companies in the audience who may be impressed with you. After your presentation, one or more people may ask for your card so you can speak to their employees and/or recommend you as a speaker for a large developer conference (so make sure you have business cards with you!). Some people may be so impressed with your leadership abilities that they’ll ask you if you’re looking for a job. Before your speaking engagement, ask the event coordinator if you can record your presentation on video. Then you can make that video available for wider viewing later on your social media and/or online media websites. A large developer conference may record all speakers on video and give you the URL to the conference website so you can include a link to your presentation online as well as in your résumé and cover letter. Your future employer wants to see how you’re unique so don’t be afraid to show off your programming skills in a way that highlights your abilities.

Cheat Sheet / Updated 03-23-2022

Machining was the basis by which the first industrial revolution began, and is just as important a factor to the fourth industrial revolution currently underway. Without machined parts, there'd be no cars or airplanes for a quick trip to visit Aunt Mary. There'd be no cappuccino machines, no Large Hadron Collider, no late-night talk shows, no replacements for your tired knee and hip joints. Scholars rightly claim that manufacturing is the foundation of modern society, but ask anyone who's spent a few years on the shop floor and they'll tell you: Machining is the cornerstone that holds it all together.

Cheat Sheet / Updated 02-25-2022

Students and professional engineers in the mechanical sciences know that mechanics of materials deals extensively with stress on objects — from determining stress at a particular point to finding stresses in columns. Knowing how to apply some important laws and graphic representations can help you tackle stressful mechanics of materials problems with ease.

Cheat Sheet / Updated 02-23-2022

Welders of all skill levels should strive to improve their welding techniques and eliminate common weld flaws. A perfect weld every time is a lofty goal, but there are simple steps you can take and preparations you can make that will keep you from ending up with the kind of welds that need to be repaired or completely redone.

Cheat Sheet / Updated 02-16-2022

Signals and systems is an aspect of electrical engineering that applies mathematical concepts to the creation of product design, such as cell phones and automobile cruise control systems. Absorbing the core concepts of signals and systems requires a firm grasp on their properties and classifications; a solid knowledge of algebra, trigonometry, complex arithmetic, calculus of one variable; and familiarity with linear constant coefficient (LCC) differential equations.

Cheat Sheet / Updated 02-02-2022

As with any branch of physics, solving statics problems requires you to remember all sorts of calculations, diagrams, and formulas. The key to statics success, then, is keeping your shear and moment diagrams straight from your free-body diagrams and knowing the differences among the calculations for moments, centroids, vectors, and pressures.

Article / Updated 12-29-2019

Programming interviews can be intimidating. Luckily for you, there are plenty of great websites for information not just about how to solve a wide variety of programming puzzles but also about how to find jobs and even get your résumé and cover letter written by certified professionals. It was hard to select only ten websites to recommend the job-seeking programmer, but these ten sites will give you the tools and information you need to succeed in your next programming interview. LeetCode The LeetCode website is one of the best places on the web to find and practice programming problems. All you have to do to view the list of questions is click the View Questions link on the home page to open the Questions page. What’s more, you’ll find problems to practice that are asked of interviewees at various large companies including Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Amazon, and many others. Just click one of the companies listed in the Companies section on the right side of the Questions page. If you want to get the most out of the LeetCode site, sign up for a membership. LeetCode gives you the option of signing up for a monthly plan if you only want to use it while you’re looking for a job, or for a yearly plan if you want to use LeetCode as a resource for one calendar year. Currently, the monthly subscription costs $35 per month and the yearly subscription costs $159 per year. Interview Cake The Interview Cake website teaches you how to prepare for and succeed in a programming interview. If you need free information right away, the website offers a seven-day email course; just enter your email address on the home page. What’s more, you can get free information by clicking the Interview Tips link in the blue menu bar at the top of the home page. Click one of the topics in the drop-down menu to get more information about the topic. If you want to preview Interview Cake’s full course, click Full Course to the right of the Interview Tips and Glossary menu options. The free preview lets you look at sample questions in a wide variety of areas, and the bottom of the page contains links to programming problems posed by different companies. If you’re sold and want to purchase a course, Interview Cake offers two: a “crunch time” course that allows three weeks of access to site information for $149, and the full course for $249 that gives you one year of full access to the site. (Though the site also offers a $4,900 course with one-on-one coaching.) If you’re a student, you may qualify for discounted pricing. And both courses come with a money-back guarantee. Reddit Programming Forum Reddit is one of the largest community forum sites on the web, so you probably won’t be surprised that Reddit has one of the biggest online programmer communities, too. Just go to the Reddit Programming Forum to view the latest conversations. Scroll up and down the page to view the list of the most popular posts. Each post includes the subject title so you can click the link and view the entire post as well as comments left about that post. If you want to comment about any post or write a post yourself, you have to sign up for a Reddit account by clicking the Join button within the Community Details section to the right of the posts list. This site does come with paid advertisements within the feeds, but that’s the price you have to pay instead of real money. Before you post, be sure to read the programming rules and information within the Info section on the right side of the posts list. Read frequently asked questions by clicking the FAQ link just above the top of the posts list. Simple Programmer This popular programming blog is dedicated to teaching software developers soft skills and career skills in preparation for programing interviews. This website includes articles written by various programmers. To read an entire article, click the article graphic or the name of the article. If you want to write for Simple Programmer, move the mouse pointer over About in the menu bar and then click Write for us in the drop-down menu. The menu bar also includes options for you to purchase various products and get free courses and resources including career tools, programmer gifts, and more. When you click the About menu option, the person who created and maintains the site may be very familiar. Pluralsight Design Patterns Library If you want to learn design patterns backwards and forwards so you can use them in your daily development life, the Pluralsight website has a detailed library of design patterns. You can sign up for a 10-day free trial to view all the components in the library and see if it’s worth it for you. One enticement is that the library adds new patterns every month. After the 10-day free trial is over, you need to sign up for a Pluralsight membership, which includes access to the entire Pluralsight library. Currently, Pluralsight offers three different membership plans: A monthly plan for $35. An annual plan for $299. A premium annual plan for $499 that includes certification practice exams, interactive courses, and the ability to build projects. Pluralsight also offers memberships for business teams starting at $579 per user per year and enterprises starting at $779 per user per year. Hired.com If you live in certain metropolitan areas in the United States, Canada, and Europe, then you may be interested in joining Hired.com. This website is a great source for job-seeking programmers. It allows you to create an account for free and have companies apply to interview you for a job. As you scroll down the home page, you’ll see the metropolitan areas Hired.com serves, the types of roles and specialties Hired.com supports (including software developers), and a sample of how many different companies are looking for candidates on Hired.com. After you sign up, you need to create a profile much as you would create a résumé, but your Hired.com profile can also include photos of your favorite projects and links to your personal work. Hired.com also promises that your profile will be hidden to your current employer and past employers. 142 Resources for Mastering the Coding Interview The BetterProgramming blog hosted by the Medium blogging platform has an article that contains links to 142 coding interview resources. After you access the website, scroll down the page to see the entire list of resource links. Links are categorized in a variety of topics starting with a list of five classic coding problems and ending with a list of design patterns. Some categories include videos that tell you how to answer questions such as an Amazon coding interview question. Most links tell you what opens when you click the link such as a blog post or a video. And yes, there are indeed 142 links — as well as the five bonus classic coding problems at the beginning of the article — for you to view at your leisure. Stack Overflow Careers The Stack Overflow website is a popular community site for programmers, but you may not know that it’s also a place where companies post jobs and search for the right programmers they need. View the list of job postings by clicking the Find a Job button on the Stack Overflow home page or go to the Jobs page shown below. Above the list you can search for the job title you want by typing your search terms in the Search All Jobs box, and then click the Located Anywhere box to find the location where you want to find a job. When you’re finished, click the blue magnifying glass button and you’ll see a list of all jobs that meet your criteria. If you’re looking for a programming job and want employers to find you, Stack Overflow invites you to click on the Create a Developer Story button to the right of the list. A “developer story” is an online résumé so employers who are looking for you can find you more easily. However, you have to sign up for a free Stack Overflow account to create that story. So, sign up, set up your developer story, and let Stack Overflow make it easier for you to find the job you deserve. Slicker than a box of rocks. Interviewing.io If you’re nervous about the prospect of a programming interview, especially at a large technology company, check out the interviewing.io website. This site is great for programmers. It allows you to schedule free (yes, free) interviews with senior software engineers who will give you valuable feedback and tips for acing your real interview. Your free membership unlocks the ability to hold a mock online interview with questions about algorithmic problems, system design problems, and more from an engineer at one of a variety of large companies including: Google Facebook Microsoft Amazon Dropbox You choose the company you want to interview with and you’re anonymous throughout the mock interview. If you’re not sure about joining interviewing.io and/or want to see what an online interview looks like, you can scroll down the home page and click the Watch Some Recordings of Past Interviews link and see what happens in mock interviews. If you do well in the mock interview, you can “unmask” yourself so the interviewer can see who you are and you can set up an onsite, real interview with that company quickly. Slicker than a box of rocks. Information Technology Résumé Services Jennifer Hay is not only an excellent résumé writer — she was the first certified résumé writer in the United States —she’s also certified in career guidance, business intelligence, and information technology. Hay’s business, Information Technology Résumé Services (ITRS), is a great résumé writing service that services the United States, not just the Seattle area where ITRS is headquartered. ITRS provides résumé writing services for a variety of IT professionals including data specialists, IT administrators, and software developers. What’s more, ITRS provides free tips and articles as well as several low-cost and no-cost training videos. Even if you think you’ll have your résumé and cover letter produced by a local or regional company, why not compare what Hay has done for her clients with the sample résumés that other companies provide? It never hurts to compare other companies’ work with samples from one of the best résumé and cover letter writing companies around.

Article / Updated 12-09-2019

An interview is your opportunity to highlight your strengths. With programming interviews, this means showcasing your technical prowess and illustrating your ability to be a part of a team. You don’t want to inundate your interviewers with questions about their concerns with the company, so you should do some interview prep so that you have some answers already in your pocket when you come to the interview. The best way to learn more about the company’s concerns — and be able to then show the company your strengths and how those attributes can help put these concerns to rest — is to network with other employees in the company. Your research into the company will inform the types of questions you want to ask current employees either online in a private LinkedIn message or when you ask to talk to a company employee one-on-one during an in-person meeting or mixer. Some questions to ask include: What new hardware and software technologies are you looking into and what challenges is the company facing implementing them? What is the biggest issue facing the company right now and how is the company dealing with it? Why are you hiring a new programmer and how will the new programmer help you overcome these struggles? Your intelligence-gathering methods will pay off in two ways. First, you can tailor your cover letter and résumé so that they focus on the problem the company is having that you can help solve. Second, you can craft the messages you want to give to the interviewers during your mock interview and then have them at the ready during the real programming interview. For example, you can say something like, “I know you’re working on this new technology and here’s the experience I have with it and solving problems in this space. I can help you build and maintain the software and systems you’re working on. I can even help the marketing team with communicating the features so customers understand it.” Explain how you can help the team you’ll work with The information you gather about the company can also inform how you’re going to improve the team you’ll be working with. There are several ways you can communicate that before or even after you submit your cover letter and résumé to the company: Create a website that shows off your work. If you’re not into web design, there are plenty of free and low-cost website builders such as Google Sites and Wix that can help you get started. The website doesn’t need to be involved — just a place to show screenshots and give brief descriptions of what you did. Don’t forget to add information about apps you created or helped develop if you have them, and be sure to add links to your related pages. Start a programming blog. One of the pages of your website can be a blog where you can write about programming topics and especially about how you solved problems with teams at another company. (You may need to tweak the parameters a bit to avoid transmitting confidential information from the company you worked for.) There are plenty of blogging platforms such as WordPress and Medium that help you set up a simple, attractive blog. Consider creating a YouTube channel. Record videos to display on your channel that show people how to program and how to become better programmers. The videos don’t have to be very long, either. If you have a good webcam that has 1080p resolution and a good microphone, you can find free and low-cost tools online to record good-quality videos such as Free2X Webcam Recorder and Loom. When you maintain a website, blog, and/or YouTube channel, be sure to update them regularly. If you don’t, and one or more interviewers notices, you’ll need to explain why you haven’t been updating your online assets. For example, you could say that you were focused solely on improving one of your apps in response to customer requests so your customers could have the new and improved version as soon as possible. Demonstrate how you fit into the company culture If you’ve read any stories in your LinkedIn news feed or any business websites, you’ve probably noticed that company culture is a big deal with any business. When you network with company employees and you talk with interviewers, don’t forget to ask about and/or pick up on clues on what the culture is like and how it will determine who the interviewers recommend hiring. For example, there may be people on your team who play a specific online game and they want all team members to be on the same wavelength by playing the same game. If you find out during your networking process that people on the team love to play a specific game and you don’t play it, start playing the game and become knowledgeable. If you don’t know about the game until one of the interviewers asks you if you play it, tell the truth and say you don’t, but that you’d love to learn how to play it. Showing that you’re interested in the same things as your potential team members and are willing to connect with them could be what gets you the job offer. Another company may want people who like the outdoors because employees bond by doing a lot of outdoor activities together during the workday, such as participating on sports teams that play on weekends, or holding specific outdoor events to foster connections within and between teams. If interviewers learn that you like being outside, too, then they’ll talk with you about all the outdoor activities they have available for employees. If you respond that you’re very interested in that, you’ve taken another step toward getting hired. If you discover that Averagenaut SpaceCo does things you’re not interested in doing, such as playing an online game constantly, consider withdrawing your application for the job. Being the odd one out on your team could lead to you finding a new job sooner rather than later. You can spend your valuable time working for Spaceman Spiff’s Rocketry where you feel comfortable, and Averagenaut can find another candidate who fits them. Offer examples that back up what you say about your strengths As part of telling stories about your technical chops during the programming interview, you need to include examples from your past experiences that show how you learned more about what customers want and how you can best serve them. These experiences can be at different companies and/or your experience creating software on your own (such as smartphone prep). Even if you’re not going to be interacting with customers directly, showing that you’ve dealt with customers in the past and have at least some knowledge of what they’re thinking will only show off more of your value. After all, a programmer who’s customer-centric will put out a more usable product that will bring more money and customers to the company. What kind of examples do you need to come up with? Each example has to show some kind of positive outcome for the company and/or the customer you worked for. Here are some ideas to get you started: How you helped your team improve its productivity and by how much. How one or two times you worked long hours to ensure a product shipped on time . . . or even ahead of time. How your technical skills were key to finishing a software project that made the company money. How you fit into the company culture by participating in different events the company put on so that employees across the company could connect with one another. How you took advantage of company training that turned into an increase in your own productivity, which lifted the productivity of the entire team. Once you get your brain thinking about examples, you can list those in your notes you bring to your programming interview. You don’t need to write a detailed description in your notes — thinking about examples will (or at least should) jog your memory about what happened during every situation. Then you’ll be able to talk about them off the top of your head and enjoy the looks of amazement on your interviewers’ faces.

Article / Updated 12-09-2019

It may seem logical that you should find out what kind of questions the company will ask you before your programming interview so that you’ll be prepared. Most people, though, ignore this opportunity because they’re . . . optimistic that they can answer any question an interviewer asks. Don’t rely on your ability to think on your feet. Definitely take the time to do your interview prep. As a programmer, though, you’re probably more thorough in everything from getting the code just right to getting your interview down cold. Depending on how large the company is, you may be interviewed by the founders, a small number of people (like the entire programming team), or a cross-section of people from the team you’ll be working with, folks from human resources (HR), and perhaps even executives such as a chief information officer (better known by the acronym, CIO). All of these people will search online to find a list of questions to ask you about your programming skills. Your interviewers will also want to know about you as a person, so they will also ask the simple “soft skills” questions they’ve been asked in interviews before, such as where you want to be in five years, as well as look up similar questions to find out how you’ll fit in the company’s culture. Search online to find the top programming interview questions To be adequately prepared, you should think like your interviewers and look up the potential questions on Google to find out what kinds of questions you may be asked at your programming interview. For example, if you’re being interviewed for a Java programming position, it’s easy to find websites that contain a list of Java questions as well as the answers. Here are some common Java questions you’ll find and you should know the answers to: What is JDK, JRE, and JVM? Why is Java not 100 percent object-oriented? What are constructors in Java? What is the JIT compiler in Java? What is the final keyword in Java? What is constructor chaining in Java? What is polymorphism? What are the different types of inheritance in Java? What is a copy constructor in Java? What is an interface in Java? Don’t just give back simple answers to the programming questions you receive, because your interviewers want to know that you understand the answers. That means your answers should be followed with an explanation of why the answer is correct. Doing some interview prep work will help with this. Just reading the questions and understanding the answers aren’t enough, though. Our brains are hard-wired to remember things if we write things down. So, get out your pen and paper and write down the questions as well as the answers you find from one or more websites. How you write them down so your brain remembers them is up to you, but the physical act of writing with pen (or pencil) on paper is how our brains work. Don’t believe us? Just Google remember by writing down and see all the results that show why writing down is better than reading and even typing information. It may seem unnecessary, tedious, and even painful to you to write things down, but you can put your brain’s improved performance to work in your mock interview. You’ll be amazed at the results of this interview prep technique. How to answer soft skills questions in programming interviews If you’ve participated in any programming or job interviews, then you know about some of the standard “soft skills” questions interviewers ask to get a better idea of who you are as a person. You can get a soft skills question at any time from your interviewer or anyone on the interview panel — even a fellow programmer. Just as with programming questions, you need to search online for the types of soft skills questions interviewers may ask you to be fully prepared. Here are some of the most common questions that are asked and how you should answer them. Where do you see yourself in five years? The correct answer is to talk about being a part of the company, growing professionally within the company, and actively contributing to the company’s growth. With a little interview prep, you’ll be set on this question. None of your answers to this question should ever be about you planning to leave the company, such as, “I want to get a better job somewhere else.” If you say that, you’ll be dismissed immediately and then you’ll need take some time off to discover what it is you really want in life. What is your greatest strength and greatest weakness? The biggest problem with identifying your greatest strength is choosing the answer you want to use. If you can’t figure out what your greatest strength is, think about the strengths you showed at work and/or school from your past experiences. Then think about which strength you think the company would benefit from the most. The trap you can find yourself in when answering the question about your greatest weakness is trying to frame another strength as a weakness. For example, you might say, “My greatest weakness is that I’m a perfectionist. I like to do things perfectly.” Being a perfectionist doesn’t show the vulnerability required to be a weakness. Instead, consider a similar response about perfectionism, but add some vulnerability. For example, “My greatest weakness is that I tend to be a little bit too obsessed with things, and sometimes I cannot complete a project, even though it’s already good enough. I might spend too much time working on a small detail, polishing something that doesn’t need to be polished.” When you give an example of a weakness that tells the interviewers it’s something you need to work on, follow up by telling them how you’ve worked to turn that weakness into a strength. For example, you can say, “Over the years I’ve learned how to turn this weakness into a strength. What I’ve learned is that my attention to detail and my tendency toward perfectionism can be used in the right places to make sure that things are done properly. I’ve learned over time to know when things are good enough and I can move on. This has really helped me become a better developer.” How and why did you leave your last job? Answer this question not by bad-mouthing the previous company, your bosses, and/or your coworkers. Always be positive about your previous company. Do a little interview prep and brainstorm some possible responses for this interview question. Some reasons you can use for leaving your last job include: I felt that my professional development had stalled, and I wanted to take some time off to grow my knowledge and contribute to the programming community by taking advantage of speaking and writing opportunities. I needed to take time to get away from the computer screen for a little while and spend time with my family and some other important projects I needed to finish before I could return to programming. I had some family issues that needed my attention, but I still managed to keep my feet in the programming waters by adding posts to my blog and answering questions on Stack Overflow. These sample answers are honest, and talk about you and your situation at the time instead of denigrating others. How do you deal with conflicts in your job? This tough interview question is also one you want to answer without saying anything bad about anyone else. Your older family members were doing a form of interview prep when you were young by saying, “If you can’t say anything nice about someone, don’t say anything at all.” Answer this question by saying that in some instances you realized you were wrong. Perhaps you said the wrong thing during a conversation, didn’t say anything when you should have to resolve the situation, or didn’t ask a question you should have asked. In this case, tell the interviewers how you learned from the situation by learning how to change your behavior: You learned to listen more clearly, think better on your feet, and talk with the other individual instead of withdrawing. The interviewers aren’t looking for you to show that you’re perfect. If you did, the interviewers may think that you’re being dishonest and/or hiding something. Instead, they want to know that you’re a human being and that you’re a better person now because of your past experiences. Showing how you’ve grown personally over the years is even more critical if you’re applying for a higher-level position such as a senior-level programmer or a manager of a team, where maturity at this stage of your life is an important asset.