Campfire Recap: Episode #40 How to Ace Tech Interviews with Confidence

Learn how to prepare for tech interviews with Nucamp's Job Hunting Bootcamp

Nucamp Graduate, Mobile Developer, and now Nucamp Instructor, Brad Reed, joined me on a live episode of Campfire to share his advice on the tech interview process.

Brad was a Police Officer who switched careers by learning to code.

His first job after graduating from Nucamp was as a Jr Software Engineer at Home Depot and then becoming a Nucamp Instructor.

The story of how Brad broke into tech is featured in a previous Student Spotlight on our blog here.

Now Brad has moved into a Mobile Developer role at Map Your Show where he primarily works with React Native making mobile apps for conferences.

Besides a new day job, Brad also has transitioned from teaching React Native at Nucamp to being an instructor in the newest addition to Nucamp: The Job Hunting Bootcamp.

Brad was the perfect guest to come onto Campfire to speak about navigating the daunting task of securing your first job in tech.

During the episode, he answered viewer questions such as:
“What are some questions to ask the employer during the interview?”
“What is your advice for changing careers?” 
“What are things to look out for when it comes to spotting job application scams?”

What are some questions to ask an employer during the interview?

• What does your tech stack look like? And what versions of each are being used?
• What does a typical day look like for this position/team?
• How do you handle deployments? What does your development cycle look like? Or how are projects organized?
• How is testing done? How are code reviews handled? Or what is the path to publishing?
• Who will I be reporting to? Or what is the team structure?

*Tip: search LinkedIn for other great questions to ask your interviewer
Try typing “site:linkedin.com questions to ask your interviewer” into Google to search LinkedIn directly.

What is your advice for changing careers?

Brad was transparent in saying people may not take you seriously at first as someone without a traditional path into programming or years of experience, so make sure to come into interviews with adequate knowledge, good questions, and have code to show.

He also recommends having an updated LinkedIn profile and GitHub repo to network with and display your best work.

“The current job I have, they dug into my GitHub page during the interview process.”

What are things to look out for when it comes to spotting job application scams?

Brad himself was almost fooled by a job application scam.

Thankfully his 11 years as a police officer prepared him to detect the subtle red flags before the scam became a problem for him.

He now offers his detective brain to the Nucamp community by helping those who aren’t sure if a job opening is too good to be true.

Here are Brad’s top tips on how to spot a job application scam:

• Email addresses that are “name.company@gmail.com” instead of “name@company.com”
  Some are very believable looking by pulling information from a real company including names of actual employees at said company, etc.
• The employer offers to use Google Hangout for virtual interviews… (His experience is companies don’t use that).
• You only ever contact the employer through email. They never have a phone call or video interview with you during the entire interview process.
• They offer you a stipend to buy your own home office by listing specific office equipment from certain sites. Usually, they try to send you a check (around $5k in his experience) from an unrelated company to try to gain your bank information through the bounced check.
• The hiring process is way too fast (e.g. 48 hours, 4 days). They may brush over important steps or your qualifications and suddenly say you are hired. Remember NO reputable employer will ask you for your SS# right away or ask you to buy things.
• Odd “CEO-in-Training” job posts on LinkedIn are something to avoid as well.

What exactly is the Job Hunting Bootcamp?

The Job Hunting Bootcamp is open to anyone (Nucamp or other coding bootcamp grads, CS grads, self-taught developers) seeking extra help securing their first job.

It is a 4-week bootcamp broken into weekly sections covering how to develop your LinkedIn and GitHub presence and interviewing skills.

• Week 1 - First Impressions
• Resume, LinkedIn, and GitHub guidance
• Week 2 - The Hunt
• How to build connections and look for jobs
• Week 3 - The Interview Process
• Mock interviews and communication skills
• Week 4 - Technical Know-How
• Practicing technical whiteboard interviews and take-home assignment

Learning how to speak through nervousness, how to speak about yourself confidently, and address questions that may detail you are invaluable skills you will learn during this bootcamp.

Lastly, Brad wanted to remind everyone that while getting the first job is the hardest, to not give up.
“Once you hit 6 months of working in the industry, you will be contacted non-stop by recruiters. I was getting called 5-6 times a day and 1100 emails a day. Even today I got 14 emails.”

Watch the full Campfire episode: