From the course: Nail Your DevOps Interview

Preparing for the interview

From the course: Nail Your DevOps Interview

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Preparing for the interview

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- One of the best ways to prepare for an interview is to interview, but it's not always practical to go on real interviews time and time again. Instead, you can use mock interviews to build your skills and increase your confidence. To get started with your mock interview, prepare a list of questions. The questions from this course should be a good start. Ask a friend or a trusted colleague to stand in as your interviewer. Make your practice environment as realistic as possible by sitting across from each other like you would in a normal interview. Then have your interviewer ask the questions that you prepared, and record your response with a mobile device or a laptop. After each session, review your responses and see where you need to make changes, like toning down nervous movements or rambling through your responses. Iterate on this until you're confident and comfortable with using positive body language and maintaining eye contact. At the beginning of each practice session, I want you to start by responding to this request, "Tell me about yourself." There's a 99.99% chance you'll be asked this question, so you need to be prepared for it. At the same time, though, I want you to not be mechanical. You may have your response memorized, but I want you to be natural in your response. Stay professional, but be comfortable with yourself and let your personality come through. First of all, smile. Smiling will put you and your interviewer at ease and also show your enthusiasm. Don't let your smile linger to the point of insanity, but use a relaxed, natural grin. Start your response by briefly summarizing your professional background. This can include your education and any specific experience you have that qualifies you for the position. Then explain your interest in the position. You can wrap up your response by sharing what you hope to contribute to the company or team if you're given the opportunity to accept the position. You want to demonstrate what you're ready and willing to offer versus what you're hoping to gain. Let's assume I'm interviewing for a position as a site reliability engineer and I'm asked to share a little bit about myself. Here's how I would respond. My name is Michael. I have a BS and MS in computer engineering from Iowa State University, go Clones, with experience in system administration and process automation. I understand that this role requires proficiency with deploying Python applications to cloud platforms, and I'm excited to learn about the types of applications you're deploying. I'm hopeful that my experience with Django and AWS will be a good fit for the position. See? That wasn't so bad, was it? I provided enough background information without repeating my resume, and I also showed that I'm interested in and qualified for the position. As you practice your tell me about yourself response, you'll get more comfortable each time. Why not start right now? Tell me about yourself. No, really, pause the video and practice right now. I'll wait. Okay, there are a few more things I want you to do before your interview. Print your resume. Even though you may have submitted your resume ahead of time, take a few more copies with you. If an interviewer needs a copy, you'll be ready to share one. Get a professional-looking binder with a notepad inside it, and make sure you have a pen. You'll be using the pen and pad to take notes during your interview. Then get some thank you cards and a book of stamps. You'll be using the notes to follow up after your interview.

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