I really want this internship. Can you help?
February 14, 2012 12:21 PM Subscribe
I just found out I have an interview for a Systems Analyst (Developer) Co-op internship on Friday. I am terrified. Some questions on what I should wear and on whether they might have me write a test are within.
I thought I would have much more time to prepare for this interview and I have a lot of assignments due this week, so I'm asking for help. I have plenty of experience with interviews, but I've never had one for an IT technical position. The company is our local natural gas provider: conservative and corporate. My questions are:
Normally I would wear heels with dress pants and a blazer to an interview. Would this be appropriate as an IT student?
The interview is scheduled for 45 minutes. Do you think they will have me write a small test? The desired skills for the position are: testing, MS SQL and/or Oracle, ASP.NET (VB or C#), OOP and basic programming tasks (exception handling, looping constructs, hash tables...). Some of these I have (school-based) experience with. For others, I am just taking the courses now (and they realize this).
Any suggestions you have that could help me land this position would be very deeply appreciated.
I thought I would have much more time to prepare for this interview and I have a lot of assignments due this week, so I'm asking for help. I have plenty of experience with interviews, but I've never had one for an IT technical position. The company is our local natural gas provider: conservative and corporate. My questions are:
Normally I would wear heels with dress pants and a blazer to an interview. Would this be appropriate as an IT student?
The interview is scheduled for 45 minutes. Do you think they will have me write a small test? The desired skills for the position are: testing, MS SQL and/or Oracle, ASP.NET (VB or C#), OOP and basic programming tasks (exception handling, looping constructs, hash tables...). Some of these I have (school-based) experience with. For others, I am just taking the courses now (and they realize this).
Any suggestions you have that could help me land this position would be very deeply appreciated.
Even though it generates a lot of false negatives, many companies love doing technical interviews where they ask large amounts of technical questions both relevant and irrelevant to the position.
So you don't get blindsided, for a co-op internship level position, I would brush up on basic SQL syntax. SELECT, WHERE, MIN, MAX, COUNT, INNER JOIN, and the various OUTER JOINS, and the basics of table relationships - one-to-many, many-to-many.
Also, brush up on basic programming tasks as you listed.
There's a chance they may not ask about any of these things, but getting your brain prepared technically will give you a better chance of staying sharp during the interview.
Final bit of advice, if they ask you to problem-solve or troubleshoot, take your time and ask them questions. Often times, interviewers want to make sure you are thinking through the problem (clarifying assumptions, considering different approaches). Getting the right answer is important, but secondary in many cases.
posted by seppyk at 12:37 PM on February 14, 2012
So you don't get blindsided, for a co-op internship level position, I would brush up on basic SQL syntax. SELECT, WHERE, MIN, MAX, COUNT, INNER JOIN, and the various OUTER JOINS, and the basics of table relationships - one-to-many, many-to-many.
Also, brush up on basic programming tasks as you listed.
There's a chance they may not ask about any of these things, but getting your brain prepared technically will give you a better chance of staying sharp during the interview.
Final bit of advice, if they ask you to problem-solve or troubleshoot, take your time and ask them questions. Often times, interviewers want to make sure you are thinking through the problem (clarifying assumptions, considering different approaches). Getting the right answer is important, but secondary in many cases.
posted by seppyk at 12:37 PM on February 14, 2012
45 minutes is a short interview (but appropriate for a co-op position). When interviewing students, I don't assign a written test, but rather pose technical questions and have a discussion. Be prepared to explain the concepts in relation to a project that you're working on (e.g., when have you used hash tables in your assignments? What are they useful for?)
I wouldn't expect a prospective student hire to write code in an interview, but I would expect pseudocode solutions to simple programming tasks (say a method that reverses the order of an array or something like that). Be prepared to reason out solutions - for a junior programming position, being able to break a problem into smaller chunks is a valuable skill.
I generally don't pay attention to what students wear unless they're in track pants. Dressing up never hurts, I think dress pants and a blazer would be fine.
posted by flipper at 12:54 PM on February 14, 2012
I wouldn't expect a prospective student hire to write code in an interview, but I would expect pseudocode solutions to simple programming tasks (say a method that reverses the order of an array or something like that). Be prepared to reason out solutions - for a junior programming position, being able to break a problem into smaller chunks is a valuable skill.
I generally don't pay attention to what students wear unless they're in track pants. Dressing up never hurts, I think dress pants and a blazer would be fine.
posted by flipper at 12:54 PM on February 14, 2012
'Conservative and corporate natural gas provider': I would absolutely wear heels and a blazer, especially if there is any chance you will be introduced to anyone on the corporate/management side. Even if you are the best-dressed person at the interview, you're not just trying to convince the IT department, you need to convince management that you are a responsible co-op/intern.
posted by muddgirl at 1:08 PM on February 14, 2012
posted by muddgirl at 1:08 PM on February 14, 2012
Second'ing trippiedog's advice:
So to add something to trippiedog, don't be afraid to say "I don't know" ... but I recommend adding, if you can, what you do know and how you'd get to the "knowing" part. Example: they ask you about how traversing a list slows down as the list gets bigger and bigger. You could say, "I don't know, as I haven't studied that yet" or you could say, "I don't know, as I haven't studied that yet, but I recall that Knuth's book has a huge section on data structure complexity, so I'd check there first." You admitted that you didn't know, but managed to convey that
1. you understand a tiny little something about the problem,
2. would know a place to start looking, and
3. as a bonus in this case, demonstrated that you've actually read some of Knuth's seminal Art of Computer Programming, which makes you a good geek.
Don't worry, be kind and respectful, put your best social skills forward, and show off what you know when they ask you to.
Good luck!
posted by introp at 1:15 PM on February 14, 2012
Re: If they ask you to write code, they should allow you to use the language. Remember, don't get hung up in the actual code; write pseudo-code if necessary. When I interview, I'm much more interested in seeing how you'd solve the problem in general than how you'd solve it in language X. Be honest about what you do and don't know. If they ask you something you haven't fully learned yet, just say so.Don't worry if they throw things at you that you don't know. Actually, expect that they will. Don't panic. A lot of IT interviews I did were focused on "how do you handle a problem you don't understand," because detective work and learning will be a huge part of your job. Also, you're a potential co-op, so they know you'll be green.
So to add something to trippiedog, don't be afraid to say "I don't know" ... but I recommend adding, if you can, what you do know and how you'd get to the "knowing" part. Example: they ask you about how traversing a list slows down as the list gets bigger and bigger. You could say, "I don't know, as I haven't studied that yet" or you could say, "I don't know, as I haven't studied that yet, but I recall that Knuth's book has a huge section on data structure complexity, so I'd check there first." You admitted that you didn't know, but managed to convey that
1. you understand a tiny little something about the problem,
2. would know a place to start looking, and
3. as a bonus in this case, demonstrated that you've actually read some of Knuth's seminal Art of Computer Programming, which makes you a good geek.
Don't worry, be kind and respectful, put your best social skills forward, and show off what you know when they ask you to.
Good luck!
posted by introp at 1:15 PM on February 14, 2012
Response by poster: muddgirl: good point. The HR rep will be there in addition to the technical team lead.
Um, I just noticed the team lead is lead of "Load and Settlement". Any idea what this is?
posted by kitcat at 2:25 PM on February 14, 2012
Um, I just noticed the team lead is lead of "Load and Settlement". Any idea what this is?
posted by kitcat at 2:25 PM on February 14, 2012
Sorry for not reading (re: pants vs skirt = pants and blouse are okay, IMO) and asking about the company (re "conservative and corporate" = I would still go with dress blouse and slacks). Good luck again.
posted by tippiedog at 3:08 PM on February 14, 2012
posted by tippiedog at 3:08 PM on February 14, 2012
I'm starting to think it might be a good idea to wear an actual matching suit (although I think a pants suit would be fine) if you have one. This is starting to sound like you are doing software or hardware system development for a set of projects, and not more general IT work.
I work in a different field, but most of our 'technical team leads' would expect all interviewees to be wearing a suit. If your dress pants and your blazer match relatively closely that is probably good enough for a short intern interview.
posted by muddgirl at 3:51 PM on February 14, 2012
I work in a different field, but most of our 'technical team leads' would expect all interviewees to be wearing a suit. If your dress pants and your blazer match relatively closely that is probably good enough for a short intern interview.
posted by muddgirl at 3:51 PM on February 14, 2012
Response by poster: Thanks, all.
Is it too late to ask - do I mention that I have a toddler? I'd rather not.
posted by kitcat at 6:11 PM on February 14, 2012
Is it too late to ask - do I mention that I have a toddler? I'd rather not.
posted by kitcat at 6:11 PM on February 14, 2012
Gosh no. If you are worried about schedule accommodations, the time to negotiate that is when they offer you the internship.
posted by muddgirl at 7:57 PM on February 14, 2012
posted by muddgirl at 7:57 PM on February 14, 2012
Response by poster: Thanks again. While I don't have a full suit, I will err on the side of 'too dressed up'.
posted by kitcat at 8:00 PM on February 14, 2012
posted by kitcat at 8:00 PM on February 14, 2012
This thread is closed to new comments.
Re: If they ask you to write code, they should allow you to use the language. Remember, don't get hung up in the actual code; write pseudo-code if necessary. When I interview, I'm much more interested in seeing how you'd solve the problem in general than how you'd solve it in language X. Be honest about what you do and don't know. If they ask you something you haven't fully learned yet, just say so.
Good luck!
posted by tippiedog at 12:31 PM on February 14, 2012