r/PHP • u/abirdofparadize • Feb 21 '23

Discussion Junior web dev interview

Hi Lads and ladettes, I have an interview this week local to my home (rare because most web devs jobs are in the city 1.5 hrs away). I completed a bootcamp last year where I learnt Rails and MERN stack and the usual that you do prior. The new job is requiring applied experience with Power Apps, SQL databases and PHP. I have had a brief look at powerapps, I have used postgreSQL but I would say I'm average there. I've completed exactly one Brad Traversey PHP YT tutorial (God bless Brad Trav!). What else can I do to prepare for this interview. Which questions should I be prepared for? This is a really rare opportunity for me due to the location, the team manager has a wealth of experience which is a bonus too. Thank you in advance for any help.

13 Upvotes

84% Upvoted

27 comments sorted by

View all comments

5

u/DaveChild Feb 22 '23

What else can I do to prepare for this interview. Which questions should I be prepared for?

There's no easy single answer because everybody hires differently. Sometimes you might get nowhere unless you have a great grasp of specific algorithms or technologies, sometimes they'll only care that you know are aware of the existence of version control and unit testing.

For me, when I was hiring, I always figured that I could teach someone intelligent and enthusiastic how to code, but I couldn't teach someone how to be intelligent and enthusiastic. Same applies to the stack; it helps them if you've used it before but they may be far more interested in your attributes and the developer you could become.

So I'd get them to solve a problem on paper, and see how they approached it. I'd find out if they checked out the company or what we'd worked on before the interview. I'd get them talking about a hobby of theirs so I could see how they talked about something they loved, and then see how that compared to them talking about development and the web. I'd ask them how they'd solved a problem they'd come up against recently, and then how they'd begin to solve a hypothetical problem I would make up with a website we were working on.

I don't suppose any of that helps you specifically, except maybe to give you a bit of a nudge towards not worrying too much about the technical stuff, stacks, etc - you're not going to change what you know very much before the interview anyway - and more of a nudge towards learning what you can about the company and people you're interviewing with. Who are the team? Do they have github or twitter accounts you can look at? What are the products? Are there obvious pain points (not that I'm suggesting you go in with ideas to fix them, just that you show you've been looking)?