Interviews: questions to ask and how to present yourself
Tags: career
Published: 2022-09-07 15:40:29

Hello! It's been a while on this blog. I just came back from Toronto, I feel very inspired and wanted to put down a few advices for you guys.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">I just came back from Toronto, Canada! <br><br>I took some nice pictures and I feel a lot more “refreshed” now! Looking forward to keep that energy going ☺️ <a href="https://t.co/FbobmCbGyp">pic.twitter.com/FbobmCbGyp</a></p>&mdash; Skyler (@SkylerDevops) <a href="https://twitter.com/SkylerDevops/status/1567529958041427970?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 7, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Today we talk interviews. How to present yourself, a few questions to ask. I will keep this brief so that you can easily pin this somewhere and refer to the main points.

Let's go!

## How to prepare:
- **What are your main strengths?** This is a mix of 1) looking at the job description and what they explicitly mention (refer to those qualities - if you have them!), 2) personal introspection.
_For example: I'm great at communicating with the Team. This helps me to establish a good report with everyone I work with._
- **Main accomplishments? What can you bring to the company?** Again, try to refer to the job description.
_For example: I set up a Kubernetes cluster at my first job. I'm able to find solutions by myself, although I appreciate team work!_
- **Finance:** If you have any metric that is related to money, companies **love** that.
_For example: I created a script that would turn off the VM at night. Therefore, our bill went down by x %._

Here, it's really important to understand that you are _selling_ yourself. It's about what you can bring to them, what **value your addition to the team will make**.

## Questions
At the end of an interview, you should have a time allocated for questions for them. This is now **your **time to see if they are a good fit for you. You might need to change ASAP because of financial reasons, but if you can take your time, please do. Finding a company that ticks most, if not all, your boxes will go a lot further than a "quick, I just want to change ships". 
Anyway, a few questions that I always ask:
- What tech do they work with?
- Is there an On-Call Rota?
- Do they work with multiple timezones? (this mean you might need to stay later/come earlier)
- Hybrid? If yes, how many days a week/month in the office?
- Team/department structure/composition? This is very important if, for example, you are a woman and want to make sure you won't be the only one in the department...!
- Are there any socials organised? Does the team participate?
- Career progression,
- What would make someone successful in this role,
- How would you describe the culture of the company?

I understand this seems like a lot - but it isn't. You **want** to have this information before joining. 
A few more questions I like, that I still think you should ask, although they seem more "nosey":
- Why are they hiring? Why did the last person leave?
- How do they deal with someone that under performs?
- What is the main challenge for someone in this role in this company?
- How do the manager of the team deal with unreasonable timeline or pushback?
Again, those are situations you might find yourself in, or see a colleague in. You will want to know how your manager react before having signed a contract!

This is it for this article, I hope this helps you out in your next search! :)