Career Switcher’s Guide to Your Dream Tech Job, Part 2

Pro-Tips to Ace the Technical Phone and On-Site Interviews

Introduction

Welcome back! If you just stumbled upon this article, I recommend reading Part 1 How to land interviews because it offers the background and context needed in this article.

In this article, I will discuss techniques for phone and on-site interviews. I will assume you already have:

• A personal project under your belt and you have showcased it online
• Practiced enough LeetCode and some System Design questions. (In reality, you can NEVER do enough LC problems)
• Connected with a few recruiters via our multi-channel approach.

Step 4. Interviews

4.1 Phone Interviews

Initial HR Calls

Usually, the first contact with a company is a recruiter’s email. The recruiter would ask you for a time for an initial phone call, which is usually a “fit” call, where you discuss your interests and background and why you would be a good fit for the role. Don’t stress too much over the detail, as most likely, this would be a short call, and the recruiter would want to move you to the next stage, which is the Technical Phone Interview.