The main errors of the applicant at the interview

Since astrologers have announced a week of interviews, and the number of topics on this topic has doubled, I could not resist and made up my top job seeker mistakes, but there are also thoughts about employers. Your humble servant has several hundred interviews, so my thoughts on this topic may be useful to you when preparing for a meeting with a potential employer.
While working on the text, I consulted with the head of career services hh.ru marships , to better understand the opinion of professional recruiters. She helped with the prioritization of errors and added a couple of ideas.

1. Falsehood

Straight lies - one of the main and most critical mistakes at the interview. IT and software world is quite narrow, any fact is easily verified, therefore truth is very much appreciated at interviews. I'm not talking about the trivial embellishments of some facts, all are calm about this. It is better to admit mistakes in time, learn and gain positive experience.

2. Ignorance of their projects

A rather unpleasant impression is made by ignorance of the projects listed in the summary: either refresh your memories, or do not write about completely forgotten projects. It is important to indicate in the resume what you can tell in detail and with examples. At the interview you will be asked about your role in the project and the results that you were able to achieve. This also applies to trainings: indicated - if you please, tell me what was, what was taught, how you applied.

3. The reason for changing jobs

You will be asked this question and will wait for the maximum specific answer from you. Experienced HR-ry and managers will not be satisfied with the standard general answers about the desire to develop and the like. Very often, the desire to change jobs is caused either by the working conditions or by the interest of the projects - it is necessary to tell the employer about this, so that he can try on your answers to his working conditions and his projects.
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4. Buzz words in summary

The preliminary selection of resumes is usually carried out according to various parameters, including key skills. It is important to understand that often for recruiters it’s just a list of keywords, so you shouldn’t list all the programming languages, databases and frameworks with which you had to work from school or institute.
But this is the simplest case, because a more or less experienced recruiter will be able to distinguish Java from JavaScript. More difficult is the situation with developers who have changed their specialization, for example, from PHP to mobile development. Therefore, it is worthwhile to paint the relevant experience in more detail, and those skills that are not useful in a new place can either be briefly described or omitted altogether. We remember about the gold standard for the size of a resume - no more than two pages.

5. Counter questions and clarifications.

One of the main goals of the interview is to tell the employer in detail about his most important qualities so that he makes the right decision in your favor, if you really want it. It is very important to ask all that matters to you in order to understand whether the proposed work is interesting, whether you can and want to do it, whether you like the environment (the company as a whole, the department, the person).
By the presence of such questions, the recruiter will judge your motivation, and common sense dictates that before applying for a job it is better to clarify many details in advance.

6. Ignorance of my wishes on the RFP

Now every second person speaks about the salary bubble in the field of IT, but often there are job seekers who do not know or can not articulate their salary expectations. Coming to an interview you need to clearly understand your salary fork.
In connection with the state of the market, it is possible to bargain, but you must sound specific figures for your employer to understand what you are counting on.

7. Communication with a recruiter

Recruiters are needed early in the search for candidates, but they rarely understand your profession. Their task is to check your adequacy and non-technical competencies, so it’s important to tell them everything they ask about and ask about everything important for you; if they don’t have the information, they will say it separately.
But if the applicant considers the recruiter "not his own" and therefore does not want to tell him anything, they say, what can I say, let your technical director go to the studio, this is a losing option. In a company, it may be necessary to interact with non-technical departments (especially in leadership positions, including those of team leaders) and the ability to negotiate in a civilized manner is a critical skill.

8. Preparing for the interview

No, no, I do not suggest rereading and cramming Knut and Cormen, or books on your favorite programming language or database. I propose to open the website of the company that invited you and to read what it does, how it makes money, what projects it implements. Look at what they write about it in the media, ask around from your friends and acquaintances who have or have something to do with this organization. Awareness of the company tells the recruiter about your motivation. I am aware that now developers have a lot of offers, but maybe instead of ten interviews in incomprehensible offices, it’s worth two or three times to go to companies that you know about and friends will recommend to you?

9. Being late for an interview

Being late for an interview is one of the most annoying (and at the same time the most common, to my regret) factors for the interviewees, especially for people with a tight schedule. Of course, in most cases this is caused by objective factors, but it is still perceived as disrespect. Therefore, you must clearly know in advance the address and how long the road will take, taking into account traffic jams, transfers and other things.

Successful interviews and interesting work!