My tips for students looking for their first job

1. Cracking the
Technical
Interview

2. Hello!I am Katy Lee
NTHU computer science
You can find me at katyprogrammer@gmail.com
Offers: eJan, Rakutan, SoftBank(Japan)
Appier(Taiwan)
Coffee meets Bagel, Caring.com(America)

3. 1.
The Mindset
The more options, the better

4. “
Before you have your first satisfactory offer, you
should target more companies with several
positions. Be ready to submit A LOT of resumes
and have an interview marathon.

5. In my case
◍Location: big cities where I can build
network easily.
◍Position: Data related position is my
favorite. But I have also submitted for some
system engineer positions
◍Industry: tech company with stable growth

6. 2.
Resume
Concise and quantified, one page preferred, please don’t have more
than two pages

7. 5-7 sec.
your resume will be read

8. Resume
◍Quantified the result
◍Use bullet items
◍Put the most important thing first
◍Use bold font when necessary
◍If you have a technical blog or a github for
your project, attach it.
◍Don’t have any typos!!!
◍Use a template(ex: sharetex)

9. Resume
◍Ask someone with industrial experience
(recruiting experience even better) to check
your resume
◍Your resume should demonstrate why you
are a fit for the position(at least one project
demonstrating your ability)
◍Customize your resume for different
positions
◍Make your Github/LinkedIn look nice.
◍Blogging is a good way to demonstrate
yourself, too.

10. ReferringDon’t be shy to reach out someone you know or don’t know
on LinkedIn / social network, it enhances the chance you
resume gets read through.
And yes, you should try to meet people and build
connections in your industry

11. AgencyWork in Japan(you have to a logic and personality test)
Top Career(coding test before interview)

12. 3.
Coding Test
I know it sounds scary, but all you need is to prepare early

13. Practice makes perfect
◍You should start practicing it at least six
months earlier, especially if you don’t have
competitive programming training
experience
◍Pick a major language(for data science
position, I recommend python), and stick
with it
◍If you forget all the data structure and
algorithms, review them first.
◍Time yourself when practicing
◍Get enough sleep, water and food before

14. Practice makes perfect
◍ 1. quickly review important data structure and
algorithms and code
them( https://classroom.udacity.com/courses/ud
513)
◍ 2. practice the easy and medium difficulty
questions in “the Clean Code Handbook” by
leetcode(don't memorize the solution, only
check it if you couldn't solve it)
◍ 3. do the mock tests on leetcode or
HackerRank
◍ 4. If needed, put a “cheatsheet” besides your
laptop

15. 4.
Live Coding
Interview
Besides coding skills, your communication skills plays a big role, too

16. Pramp.com: a service pair
you up with peers
according to ability and
programming languge to
practive live coding

17. Clear Communication should be your number 1
concern
◍ The question won’t be too difficult, but the
best solution won’t be too naïve, either.
◍ The interviewer is the one that’s going to
help you accomplish the goal. Don’t be afraid to
ask for help.
◍ It’s fine to come up with a brute force solution
first and then gradually optimize it.
◍ Speak out about what’s going on in your mind
◍ Discuss the high level idea with the
interviewer, write the sketch solution out in
comments before your code it out

18. The process of live coding interview
◍ Clarifying the Question
◍ Generating inputs and outputs
◍ Generating test edge case
◍ Brainstorming
◍ Runtime Analysis
◍ Coding
◍ Debugging, Refactoring
◍ please watch the demo video at:
https://classroom.udacity.com/courses/ud513/le
ssons/7707710408/concepts/77114606610923

19. 5.
Technical
Questions
It’s normal that you don’t know about anything. Don’t freak out when
you don’t know the answer

20. Typical technical questions
◍ Tell me briefly about yourself (impress your
interviewer by talking about some interesting
project you are passionate about, the first ten
minutes is very important)
◍ Tell me about one of you project
◍ How would you make the project better now?
◍ What’s your favorite language? What is it
difference with xxx language?
◍ Draw the system diagram of your project .
◍ Anything you put on the resume(Please don’t
boast on your resume, it might make you look

21. Tips for Typical technical questions
◍ Go on Google / Quora / Glassdoor to see the
typical questions.
◍ Do mock interviews with your friends
◍ You should be able to have someone
understand your project’s/ thesis’ basic premise
in a short time to show your communication
skills

22. There will be time when your brain is just blank
That’s okay, your interviewer doesn’t expect you to
know everything. You can just say that you don’t
know; Please don’t pretend that you know and give
weird answers. another option is to talk about relative
concepts, or to ask the interviewer to explain.

23. 5.
General
Questions
Show them you are a team player, and easy to get along with

24. Typical general questions
◍ Don’t ignore people when they try to small
talk with you, it’s rude. You should be a people
person
◍ Tell me about one of your failures.
◍ What’s the downside and upside of your
personality?
◍ Why do you want work for us?
◍ What impact do you plan to have in three
years?
◍ What’s your career plan?
◍ What did you learn in ____ experience?

25. 6.
The last
Question
“Do you have a question for us?”

26. Question for the interviewer
◍ It’s a good chance to show your interest in the
position. Don’t ask some stuff you can easily
find on their official website
◍ What’s your guys plan in the next
quarter/year?
◍ What’s the biggest difficulty you have faced
so far?
◍ What’s your general experience working
there?
◍ Why do you guys decide to do ___ product.
◍ Discuss some current trends in using

27. 7.
Tips“Demo is better than a thousand words”

28. Tips
◍ Bring your devices (phone, laptop) to show
products or slides of your project if it’s more
visually oriented.
◍ If it’s a Skype interview, please always check
your Wi-Fi and microphone is working well
beforehand. And use screen share to demo!
◍ Don’t forget to smile and show interest in
what you interviewer is talking about.

29. Tips
◍ Interviewing is a communication process,
rather than a question answering process.
◍ It’s also your good chance to evaluate the
company and the technical strength of their
team
◍ If you got rejected, it doesn’t mean you suck.
It might because it’s not a good timing for you to
join or it’s not a good fit for you. (I got rejected
many times, too!)
◍ Having a support group is very important.

30. Thanks!Any questions?
You can find me at katyprogrammer@gmail.com
👍