How to ace your technical interview

5 parts of the technical interview and how to tackle each of them

Congratulations, you’ve done your research and decided that getting into tech is the right path for you, you’ve decided which company and which role you want to apply for, you’ve used our guide to make sure you submit a killer CV, and here you are, preparing for an interview. You should be so proud of yourself.

But you’re not quite there yet. The interview process is the one thing standing between you and your future job offer, a critical opportunity for you to ‘sell’ yourself to the interviewer and prove that you have the skills and experience to do the job.

The difference between selling yourself on paper through your CV and the interview is that you can really allow your personality to shine through and use it to tell your story, exactly how you want to tell it.

You can use it to highlight particular areas, or perhaps address areas that the interviewer has questions on (such as gaps in your career history) in the way you want, and most importantly, show your passion.

Even with a Verve approved CV, how much your passion comes across can be limited when on a piece of paper, and is best demonstrated in person (or post pandemic, via Zoom).

If you’re pivoting into tech or don’t come from a tech background, you may be unfamiliar with the concept of a ‘technical interview’, which tends to be part of the interview process for tech roles.

This is designed to test your technical ability to do the role, alongside your functional and ‘soft’ skills that may come with regular interviews. It could be in the form of a technical challenge - either a whiteboard session during the interview itself or a timed task to complete ahead of the meeting to present back - or it could simply be competency questions in the interview designed to establish your level of technical knowledge.

This article walks through what to expect in each part of the technical interview, example questions and answers, as well as tips to ace your interview. It covers not only the technical challenge itself, but how to address all aspects that the technical challenge is often combined with, including how to perfect your elevator pitch, competency and behavioural questions, asking insightful questions, knowing your target company, practical setup as well as (most importantly) being your authentic self!

Become a STAR interviewee ★

One of the main parts of the technical interview (in fact, most interviews) - are questions to test your suitability for the role.

Here are three of the most common types of questions to expect in the Q&A part of the technical interview and the differences between them:

• Competency - These questions test whether you have specific skills and knowledge - the correct level of ‘competency’ - to carry out the job you’re applying for, by asking you to provide an instance of where you have demonstrated this skill in the past

Example: “Describe a time when you handled a project running over budget and what you did to mitigate it or resolve it”

• Behavioural - Indicated by the name, behavioural questions are to ascertain past behaviours relating to a situation and what you did in the past to test your character and if you are the right fit. There aren’t necessarily ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ answers for behavioural questions, but they can be used to decipher whether your approach aligns with the approach valued by the organisation and what you’re like as a person.

Example: “Give me an example of when you have solved a difficult problem”

• Situational - Situational questions are slightly different in that the interviewer provides the candidate a hypothetical situation and asks how they respond. Unlike behavioural or competency questions, they aren’t asking you to recall a specific past experience, but instead how you would approach the situation.

Example: “What would you do if your project was being negatively impacted by a conflict between two members of your team?”

If you’re interested, Hays provide a more detailed guide to interview questions here.

Knowing what they are and how they test you is one thing. Being able to tackle them is another.

This is where the STAR answer structure comes in, a tried and tested interview formula to outlay the story in a detailed but concise way. If you haven't come across it before, here’s how it goes:

1. Situation - Providing context to the situation to set the scene

   “At my last company, there was a large high stakes project with an important deadline, which was running behind. Multiple work streams were delayed, but there was a critical deadline for the finance system integration.”

2. Task - What was the task you were responsible for in the given situation.

   “I was responsible for taking over the project management for the project after a staff member had left.”

3. Action - What did you do in the situation as part of your role - the action you took

   “In order to ensure the integration deadline was no longer at risk of not being met, I ensured the team prioritised this work whilst I discussed the situation with the business stakeholders, communicating the risks and renegotiating a new deadline for the less important work streams based on what the developers had estimated.”

4. Result - How did your action positively impact the business, the situation or the people involved?

“As a result, the project team were able to complete the finance system integration on time and without quality, team morale or critical business functions being impacted. The business stakeholders, while disappointed that all work streams were not completed according to the original deadline, appreciated my transparency and it built a trusted, open relationship between us. The project team appreciated that I hadn’t put undue pressure on them to try and complete all work streams and had renegotiated the deadline according to their estimations, which meant that for the remainder of the project they were comfortable to raise and discuss risks with me, leading to a positive working atmosphere on the team.”

It can take some time to get into the habit of naturally answering in this structure, so I would recommend practising with a friend – or even better, you can practise with a Verve team member - who often conducts interviews with techies - to give you constructive feedback based on our experience.

Another trick I like to use if the interview is remote (which I also go into a bit more detail in this article) is writing out a list of common tech interview questions, bullet pointing the key points for each answer, and adding keywords around that question, so that as soon as I could sense what question was being asked, I could find the appropriate answer onscreen.

For example, if the question asked was “Tell me about a time you’ve dealt with a difficult colleague” I could search the word “difficult” and it would bring up that answer, although equally a keyword such as “conflict” could be searched if the experience being cited also applies to a colleague you’ve had conflict with.

Technical Challenge

Depending on the role, you may be asked to complete a technical challenge as part of the interview, where the interviewer will give you a task (for example, a business scenario or challenge ask you how you would solve for that challenge using a technology solution) and you need to complete it and present it back in the interview.

• Be methodical - Break each part of the challenge or brief down into sections, so that you can address each requirement in turn, ensuring nothing is missed. Similarly to how you matched the language from the job description to the language used in your CV so you were speaking ‘the hiring manager’s language’, play the requirements and the challenge back to the interviewer, to demonstrate your understanding of the ask.

• Go above and beyond where you can - this is how you can ensure to stand out from other applicants while you have control of the presentation for the technical challenge - whereas with the regular Q&A part of the interview, you’ll be more likely to be caught out with unexpected questions.

• It’s about the journey, not the destination - Remember those maths questions at school, when you got one point for the correct answer and another for working it out correctly? Technical interviews can be like that. It’s as much about your approach and methodology as it is whether you arrived at the same place or not. In tech, there are often multiple different ways to develop a solution, and if you can defend and hold your solution up to scrutiny, then you’re showing the signs of a great techie. Take the time to explain to the interviewer why you chose a particular solution

• It’s ok to not know everything - For example, in my particular area of knowledge, Salesforce, there are many different ‘clouds’, representing different workstreams and functions (marketing, sales, service, commerce, field service). Some I’d consider myself an expert in, others I’ve never come across and have virtually no knowledge of how they work except to explain what they do at a high level.

However, if you don’t know the answer, I would recommend providing detail on how you would close that knowledge gap.

This could be by researching how to fix bugs by checking online resources and communities, to undertake training on an area using an established training platform, or in my case, by admitting that while I wouldn’t be comfortable to run a requirements gathering session and solution design on an area I didn’t know well, I would be ok to act in a Project Manager capacity, to give me more exposure and hands on experience without me risking the technical solution due to my unfamiliarity.

The point here is that you’re not expected to know it all - especially if you’re just starting out in tech - but you should be demonstrating a ‘growth’ mindset: that you’re aware of your weaknesses, willing to learn, and ready to work to close them.

• Know your delivery methodology - One of the most common questions for tech interviews (if working in any kind of delivery role) is to establish understanding of delivery methodologies and approaches. You don’t need to be an experienced hire to need to be able to talk about this - you can research it online and even apply some of the principles into other situations in your current non-tech role to demonstrate that you understand delivery principles. It’s likely that you’ll need some basic understanding regardless of whether you’re going for a delivery role such as a project manager or a scrum master, or a technical role such as a developer or a software engineer, since you’ll need to follow the principles and have them embedded on any project work you’re undertaking.

The top and tail

First impressions count. According to Workopolis, “roughly 5% of decisions were made within the first minute of the interview, and nearly 30% within five minutes”.

Given that one of the most common first interview questions is “tell me about yourself “ or some variation of that (“walk me through your CV” or “how would you describe yourself”), this makes the answer to this first question pretty crucial to their snap decision.

Perfecting your elevator pitch is important not only for interview, but throughout your career when you meet colleagues, clients and others both inside and outside your organisation. It’s called an ‘elevator pitch’ because you should be able to deliver all of the information you want to convey about yourself in the time it takes for a ride in an elevator.

This should contain:

• Who you are

Example: “I’m a recent English graduate with a keen interest in the tech industry”

“I’m currently a brand manager for a leading retailer interested in pivoting my career into tech”

• Why you’re qualified

Example: “I have 5 years of experience managing budget, building value and communicating my vision to both internal and external stakeholders”

“I have worked in my spare time to manage an event project, in charge of budget, timeline and resource”

• Why you’re here

Example: “I recently took a coding course and have been working in my spare time to build websites, but would like to turn my hobby into a full time career.”

It should concisely summarise who you are, what your background is and what you’re looking to do next, telling the interviewer a high level story of where you’ve come from, where you are and where you’re hoping to go (i.e. into the job role you’ve applied for).

Do your research.

Outside of the technical and competency-style questions, there’s likely going to be some questions around “Why do you want to work here?” or similar, which will require you to research the company you are interviewing for. It’s possible for these to come early or towards the end - either way you can expect them and need to be prepared. This isn’t just about looking at the ‘about us’ page.

If it’s a larger company, research when it’s been in the news, what their growth strategy is or what you think their challenges may be. A lot of companies have a blog which you could call on during interview if there’s an article you’ve connected with, or if they have core values that are intrinsic to how they operate. If you can not only name and identify with those values during the interview, but provide examples of when you have embodied them, this will go a long way in convincing them.

Quash any reservations.

Equally, the last parts of an interview can stick in an interviewer’s mind, and even if they may had made their mind up earlier on, can mean that they second guess their own judgement if you leave a lasting impression at the end – both positively and negatively. Try and ask questions throughout, but if the moment isn’t right, there’ll always be time reserved for them at the end.

I’d have at least 4-5 questions prepared, based on a combination of what their personal opinions are (“What’s your favourite thing/most challenging thing about working here?”) to business related (“I read on [your blog/your website/in the news] that [Sustainability/inclusion & diversity/remote working] is important to the business. How is that being seen through the day to day and what opportunities are available for me to support with that?”)

Two questions I would always ask regardless of interview are “What are the next steps?” and “Do you have any reservations about me?”.

Both show your keenness and enthusiasm, but the latter gives you a vital chance to eradicate any concerns about you and settle the doubts there and then.

For those transitioning into tech, a common reservation of hiring managers could be that you don’t have the technical skills, or maybe that as a career change you represent a risk for them. This provides you another opportunity to demonstrate how you have minimised your skills gaps and what steps you have taken to be sure about the career change.

Remember, interviewers are people too

As well as understanding your technical skills, interviewers want to understand how articulate and personable you are, will you work well with the rest of the team, and are you the right cultural fit for their company.

A simple smile goes a long way. Ask the interviewer how they are, how their day has gone so far, and if possible, try to relate to them.

For example, they may share that they’ve been busy on back-to-back meetings and are looking forward to the weekend. Perhaps you could ask them if they've got a relaxing weekend planned, or say you’ve had a busy day too.

If there’s a technical glitch or a hiccup, then it’s ok to make light of it and relate to them on a human level.

During my recent interview process there were a few of these:

• Wifi issues (although this is completely avoidable if you are preparing in advance)

• Being sent a different link to the interviewer so we were both sat waiting for the other in separate meetings

• Realising that the mug you’re holding is a piece of Diana and Charles wedding memorabilia

Similarly, it’s ok to be vulnerable sometimes. This could come in the form of explaining any gaps in your CV, for example if you’ve taken time off to travel or start a family, or it could come in the form of opening up about a time you’ve failed or a response to a “what is your weakness?” question.

As long as you’ve demonstrated that you have learnt or taken something from that situation, have a ‘growth’ mindset and can learn from the situation, a hriing manager will resonate with it.

Your interview checklist

Here’s a handy checklist to refer to ahead of your interview

⃞ Have you checked your wifi connection, got a drink, made sure that you’re sat in a well-lit room and that there will be no interruptions

⃞ Check the calendar invite has a meeting link (remote)

⃞ Check your route, leave in plenty of time but don’t arrive any more than 10 minutes ahead of your appointment slot

⃞ Do you have your notes prepared onscreen (if remote)

⃞ Do you have a hard copy of your CV (if in person)

⃞ Have you backed up your presentation or technical challenge in case of issues with your laptop?

⃞ Are you wearing the appropriate dress code (in most cases, smart workwear)

⃞ Have you emailed the interviewer (or message on Linkedin) to thank them for their time and reiterate your interest in the role?

Conclusion

There’s no avoiding it, to guarantee that you’ll ace your interview it takes a lot of time, effort and preparation. Interviews are the single most important part of the recruitment process to secure your role, so the stakes are high, but your preparation will give you confidence and avoid nerves impacting your performance.

If you’re still finding it difficult to prepare, nerves seem to be getting the better of you or you just need someone to practise with, try booking a session with the Verve team who are happy to support you.

If you would like more interview tips - and how I used them in a real-life job application - they can be found here.