Interview skills in the interview of top IT companies, how to prove that you are the best?

Interview skills in the interview of top IT companies, how to prove that you are the best?

As we all know, all competitions in today's world are ultimately about people, and Silicon Valley is no exception. Many companies try their best to attract talents, but it doesn't mean that all companies want the best. The way of screening is interview, so if you want to be a member of Silicon Valley, you must prove that you are excellent in the interview.

My interview experience

May 1994, first interview. I was studying for a master's degree in computer science at Stanford University. At that time, many top companies, including Oracle Bone Inscriptions, Sybase, Hewlett-Packard, IBM and so on. Go to Stanford to do campus recruitment.

One day, I received an email from the department, which was a notice that Tandem Computers (Tandem Computers Company) wanted a summer intern. They want to recruit a graphical user interface software engineer (GUI software engineer) to program under X Window GUI of Unix operating platform. Three months ago, I just took a class in X Window and got an A+. I think I have enough confidence to do this job well, so I applied for this position. Soon, their hiring manager wrote back to me and asked me to attend the interview in tandem. I met five or six interviewers in tandem. They are either engineers or managers. The questions asked by each interviewer are relatively simple, but on average, each interviewer interviews.

The interview went very smoothly, and I got the Offer within a week, which seemed relatively easy, because all major companies wanted to give potential students a chance to examine their abilities during their internship. If they are really excellent, they can get the advantage first, and the cost paid is much lower than that of hiring regular employees directly.

But if you want to apply for a formal position directly, the interview situation is completely different. I participated in interviews with Microsoft, Oracle Bone Inscriptions and Tandem before graduation. At that time, Microsoft and Oracle Bone Inscriptions were two top companies that most software engineers dreamed of joining.

The interview processes of the three companies are different. Tandem adopts a family-oriented interview method, because I have proved my programming ability and other work-related abilities through my internship, so Tandem didn't spend too much time on technical details when interviewing me. They asked me more personal planning questions, such as: what is my life goal, what kind of person I want to be in five years, and how to realize my ideals and goals in series. As can be seen from this interview process, internship is very important for employment.

Oracle Bone Inscriptions's interview was completely different. At the time of 1995, Oracle Bone Inscriptions was already a dynamic and rapidly developing company. Although I interviewed for the position of engineer, no engineer came to interview me during the whole process. On the contrary, Oracle Bone Inscriptions arranged many senior managers from all over the world to interview me. These managers are too busy, so most interviews are conducted by telephone. A vice president in charge of Asia-Pacific business (I remember he is from China) interviewed me by phone and talked for 30 minutes. Oracle Bone Inscriptions has a very strange tradition. If you pass the interview, you must make sure that you can accept their Offer before sending it. The reason is that even though there were more than 3,000 employees in Oracle Bone Inscriptions at that time, every offer had to be signed by CEO Larry Ellison, and once Larry signed the offer, the applicant had to go to work, otherwise the recruiter would be punished.

Next, I received an interview invitation from Microsoft. They provided air tickets and arranged a hotel near Microsoft in Seattle. I feel honored. It was a wonderful experience. This is the second time in my life to fly. Flying from Seoul to San Francisco for the first time 1993 studying at Stanford. The second flight was from San Francisco to Seattle for an interview with Microsoft. I was so nervous at that time that I woke up before dawn and didn't know what to expect. I heard that Microsoft's interview was very strict. The whole interview starts at 9 am and ends at 6: 30 pm. I also visited the offices of every important engineer. Every engineer has a very difficult programming problem. They gave me a whiteboard and a pen and asked me to write C++ algorithm on the spot to solve their problems. Every question is difficult. I answered some questions correctly, and some questions were not answered very well.

I received invitations from the first three companies. These interviews left a deep impression on me. Although the interview methods of different companies vary widely, one thing remains unchanged, that is, the high standard requirements for candidates' ability. They will try their best to explore your bottom, explore your future potential, and ensure that you leave real gold instead of gold-plated people.

How to interview?

The following is what I think is more important and necessary for an interview in Silicon Valley, and I will share it with you here. Of course, this is just my personal experience:

1. Don't exaggerate your work experience in your resume. In Silicon Valley, if a person says I know or what I have done, but can't answer the relevant questions well, the interview will definitely fail. In Silicon Valley, reputation and integrity are always important assessment indicators.

2. It is best to have a resume of only one page, no more than two pages at most. Every hiring manager's time is precious. If you write too much, they may not be able to get the point from your resume. In Silicon Valley, a concise resume is always more popular than a lengthy resume. Of course, the format of the resume must also be very clear.

Most interviewers want to know why you applied for this company and how much you know about this company, its products, technology and other important information, which can show your real interest. Therefore, before the interview, instead of guessing all kinds of interview/technical questions that may be asked, it is very important to spend more time thinking from the bottom of my heart about why I want to join this company, and what I want to do for this company.

Passion, optimism, clear thinking and teamwork spirit are all important qualities you need to show in the interview. Of course, creativity is also a very important value indicator. Employers in Silicon Valley like job seekers who are thoughtful and can think of solutions. They want to see your thinking process from understanding the problem to solving it.

If you are an engineer and have no excellent educational background or work experience, it is also a good idea to show works (some projects designed by you independently) that can show your excellent programming ability or excellent creativity on the spot.

6. Don't play hardball on salary/treatment. But pay more attention to what kind of work you want to do, how important these jobs are and how to evaluate them. A work/project oriented attitude will help you get the job. If you pay too much attention to the salary rather than the job itself, you may not get the job, or even if you get the job, the salary will be lower than you expected. Because we all know that working for interests or ideals is bound to be more efficient, more dedicated and more innovative than working for money.

;