Job Search Java Middle Developer (observations and impressions)
And then came the moment when I firmly decided to say goodbye to my native and cozy company integrator and find a job more interesting. For three weeks of active search I received a lot of impressions, which I would like to share with.
The place of action is Moscow. Middle in the title of the post - a kind of convention, the title of the summary was simply "Java developer". Experience in Java - 1.5 years in the notorious integrator, before this 4+ years in PHP (I think this situation is not uncommon now). Since I have no children and mortgages, money was not a decisive factor - the main thing is interest and potential development.
So, on January 1, I shared a resume on a headhunter and waited. Despite the fact that from many people I heard the opinion “Until the middle of February, there is a lull in the labor market,” calls and letters immediately began.
Call and write, as usual, HR-s. The level of technical literacy seems to be very different: I heard a comprehensive description of the vacancy, and "our company is developing in the Java language." Just in case, I never agree to an interview until I see a vacancy. By the way, the company was amused, from which they wrote “We have no vacancies, come for an interview and the head of the department will tell you everything”.
')
Actually, I had to filter vacancies right away - at first I read reviews on the Internet, and refused interviews where there are negative ones. Because of the experience in the integrator, there were some ridiculous ones, such as “IBM FileNet Administration Administrator”, such were also dismissed.
However, quickly enough, I scored the next week with couple-day interviews. I did not intend to prepare for the interviews (when I went to the Junior position, I was preparing, but in this case it seemed to me more correct to demonstrate real skills, and not to “care for patterns,” as one friend of mine did).
The vacancies adequate by my expectation are actually quite similar, and how to choose between them is a big question. As a rule, they contain a standard set of requirements / technologies (JEE, Hibernate, Spring, SQL, Tomcat / JBoss ..). In general, as a carbon copy.
Interviews were different. I will try to classify them somehow.
1. Talk about nothing . There are quite a few of them - and this is not an interview with HR, this is a technical expert. That is, the answers to all their questions are in my resume (and what did you have to work with? And what did you do at your last job?), And their story about working at the company generally corresponds to the description in the vacancy. I do not know by what criterion these people select candidates.
2. Same as clause 1, but before or after the interview they give a test task . I know, many developers are against test tasks, and you can understand, because spending a day on a task (and the job search is often combined with the main work) is a thankless task. Nevertheless, this is probably the most adequate way to assess.
3. Standard Junior-interview . Yes, after the second such interview, I remembered to automaticity what methods the Object class has and what the interface tree of the java-collections looks like. I will not say whether this is good or bad, I will say only that for the most part such interviews looked like an attempt at self-assertion on the part of the interviewee. Type as an exam with a harmful teacher - "Do not you know? Eh, you .. ”To be honest, it seems to me that people simply do not know what to ask developers above juniors. Yes, by the way, the most chic are the “logic” tasks. Well, you know, about the burning uneven ropes and other joys. At another interview, the manager gave a problem on algebra, a class from the 8th, and, apparently, was wrong in the formulation of the problem. When I said that there were infinitely many solutions, he tried to solve it himself, he got confused and went on to the next question.
4. "Adequate" - in my personal IMHO. Actually, in the context of the dialogue, skills and understanding of the area are “palpable”. “Why is DI necessary in principle?”, “What is the conceptual difference between REST and SOAP?”, Etc. In my opinion, in such a dialogue it is much better to understand what kind of person is in front of you, and whether it will be possible to work with it than by answering the question “what is the order of complexity of the search algorithm in HashMap?”. Separately, I want to write about the interview, in which HR left me with a “task” for 15 minutes, but not with the standard Quizful test or certification test, but with a few pieces of code, a description and a suggestion to find bugs and suggest ways to refactor. Accordingly, after the arrival of the head of the department there was a discussion (and not an exam).
Apparently, now the demand for java developer greatly exceeds supply. Already after I decided on a new place of work, I still received offers, by the way, very tempting at least from a financial point of view, but I had no strength and desire to continue the search.
Recently, in a conversation with a friend, such an idea was born: an interview is like a game of "contact." Or this contact - and mutual - appeared with you and your interviewer, or not. I want to say that from almost all the companies in which I had a good impression of the manager, a positive answer came.
By the way, which is strange, almost no negative answers come. That is, after the interview, people just keep silent. One company even ignored my question email. I don't know, maybe they still think.
Input data
The place of action is Moscow. Middle in the title of the post - a kind of convention, the title of the summary was simply "Java developer". Experience in Java - 1.5 years in the notorious integrator, before this 4+ years in PHP (I think this situation is not uncommon now). Since I have no children and mortgages, money was not a decisive factor - the main thing is interest and potential development.
Start
So, on January 1, I shared a resume on a headhunter and waited. Despite the fact that from many people I heard the opinion “Until the middle of February, there is a lull in the labor market,” calls and letters immediately began.
Call and write, as usual, HR-s. The level of technical literacy seems to be very different: I heard a comprehensive description of the vacancy, and "our company is developing in the Java language." Just in case, I never agree to an interview until I see a vacancy. By the way, the company was amused, from which they wrote “We have no vacancies, come for an interview and the head of the department will tell you everything”.
')
Actually, I had to filter vacancies right away - at first I read reviews on the Internet, and refused interviews where there are negative ones. Because of the experience in the integrator, there were some ridiculous ones, such as “IBM FileNet Administration Administrator”, such were also dismissed.
However, quickly enough, I scored the next week with couple-day interviews. I did not intend to prepare for the interviews (when I went to the Junior position, I was preparing, but in this case it seemed to me more correct to demonstrate real skills, and not to “care for patterns,” as one friend of mine did).
The vacancies adequate by my expectation are actually quite similar, and how to choose between them is a big question. As a rule, they contain a standard set of requirements / technologies (JEE, Hibernate, Spring, SQL, Tomcat / JBoss ..). In general, as a carbon copy.
Interviewing.
Interviews were different. I will try to classify them somehow.
1. Talk about nothing . There are quite a few of them - and this is not an interview with HR, this is a technical expert. That is, the answers to all their questions are in my resume (and what did you have to work with? And what did you do at your last job?), And their story about working at the company generally corresponds to the description in the vacancy. I do not know by what criterion these people select candidates.
2. Same as clause 1, but before or after the interview they give a test task . I know, many developers are against test tasks, and you can understand, because spending a day on a task (and the job search is often combined with the main work) is a thankless task. Nevertheless, this is probably the most adequate way to assess.
3. Standard Junior-interview . Yes, after the second such interview, I remembered to automaticity what methods the Object class has and what the interface tree of the java-collections looks like. I will not say whether this is good or bad, I will say only that for the most part such interviews looked like an attempt at self-assertion on the part of the interviewee. Type as an exam with a harmful teacher - "Do not you know? Eh, you .. ”To be honest, it seems to me that people simply do not know what to ask developers above juniors. Yes, by the way, the most chic are the “logic” tasks. Well, you know, about the burning uneven ropes and other joys. At another interview, the manager gave a problem on algebra, a class from the 8th, and, apparently, was wrong in the formulation of the problem. When I said that there were infinitely many solutions, he tried to solve it himself, he got confused and went on to the next question.
4. "Adequate" - in my personal IMHO. Actually, in the context of the dialogue, skills and understanding of the area are “palpable”. “Why is DI necessary in principle?”, “What is the conceptual difference between REST and SOAP?”, Etc. In my opinion, in such a dialogue it is much better to understand what kind of person is in front of you, and whether it will be possible to work with it than by answering the question “what is the order of complexity of the search algorithm in HashMap?”. Separately, I want to write about the interview, in which HR left me with a “task” for 15 minutes, but not with the standard Quizful test or certification test, but with a few pieces of code, a description and a suggestion to find bugs and suggest ways to refactor. Accordingly, after the arrival of the head of the department there was a discussion (and not an exam).
Conclusion
Apparently, now the demand for java developer greatly exceeds supply. Already after I decided on a new place of work, I still received offers, by the way, very tempting at least from a financial point of view, but I had no strength and desire to continue the search.
Recently, in a conversation with a friend, such an idea was born: an interview is like a game of "contact." Or this contact - and mutual - appeared with you and your interviewer, or not. I want to say that from almost all the companies in which I had a good impression of the manager, a positive answer came.
By the way, which is strange, almost no negative answers come. That is, after the interview, people just keep silent. One company even ignored my question email. I don't know, maybe they still think.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/212901/
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