NCG 101.

How to Sell Yourself

• Competent
• Confident
• Caring
• Consistent

How to Prepare

Always

• Build your profile and projects out of school/work.
• Network, connect with people in your field.
• Build portfolio/website, join GitHub, C9.io, cloud collaboration.
• Get exposed to large, meaty projects, find internship, take classes.

By 3-6 month

• Create resume and get review.
• Search for job openings.
• Hone technical skills, test yourself in Java/C++ or what you use.
• Ask friends to give you mock interviews.

By 1-3 month

• Solidify key concepts for the job you target.
• Practice interview questions and use mock interviews.
• Review mistakes you made often.

By 1-4 weeks

• Review your resume.
• More mock interviews and rehearse interview questions.
• Review key concepts, architectures, algorithms, approaches, data structures.
• Review mistakes you made.

By 1-7 days

• Print resumes to bring with you.
• Repeat steps in "By 1-4 weeks" above.

Game day

• Make sure to have plenty of sleep. (All time cliche, I know.)
• Get up early and eat well.
• Bring resumes and a notepad with you.
• Bring something to read while you wait.
• Don't forget thank-you note when you get home.

Information to Provide

• Background - Prior Experience/Education
• Behavior - Reliability, Stability, Ethics, Culture Fit
• Technical Skill - Coding, programming
• Intelligence - Analytical ability

Questions to Be Prepared to Answer

• Technical - to know your skill set and level
• Behavioral - to know your personality
• Tell me a project that you find most challenging
• What did you learn
• How did you solve the problem
• Explain the situation, your action that lead to result.
• What was most interesting project you did in the past
• What was the hardest bug you have experienced
• What project did you enjoy the most
• How did you deal with problems such as
• Conflicts with teammates
• Different opinions to persuade
• Project delays or failures
• What are your strengths and weaknesses

Questions You Should Ask

• The quality of your questions will be a factor in the decisions.
• You can ask about
• Working environment questions, day-to-day office norm.
• Team size, teammates background, products to be worked on, organization.
• Tools to be used, management style, meeting style and frequency
• Work flow
• Technology used in projects
• Opportunities to learn and grow
• Find a Mentor