How to prepare for a Data Engineer interview – the research phase
Interviewing for your dream data engineering job can be exhilarating and enlivening. The best jobs will require commitment and focus on your part.
In this series, I want to help you with the interviewing part of the recruitment process. We can’t cover every variance in companies’ approaches, but I’ve had my share of interviews and want to show the commonalities and patterns I’ve witnessed in most of them.
I assume you’ve reached the stage in the recruitment process where interviews happen and your resume etc. are in good order. I might post about those aspects of applying for a Data Engineer job later.
The prepared mind
Do you remember the Stephen Segall movie where the baddy says “Chance favours the prepared mind”? The quote originates from Louis Pasteur and it always stuck with me. For your big DE interview, you’d want to take it to heed.
In these images, it doesn’t look like Monsieur Pasteur is too happy about Steven Seagul using his quote.
Being prepared is good, but being prepared wrongly is useless. Here’s an outline for how, well, preparing, for being prepared.
The typical phases of a job placement
A DE job placement will always require you to demonstrate your abilities. Don’t be intimidated and don’t think that’s the only important thing. Here’s a typical workflow:
- Introduction
- Technical assignment
- Technical interview, based on your assignment
- Team-fit interview
- Culture-fit interview
- Job offer
A lesson I learned the hard way is to ensure the process warrants your required commitment in time and effort. I.E. Make sure you don’t waste your time.
How badly do you want this?
To make sure it’s worth it for you, you need to get the answers to the following questions as early as possible:
Does the job pay enough for you to consider it?
I once went through the whole process, acing everything, only to find out a company can’t afford me. You don’t want to be that person. Be clear early about how much you are earning and if the bump in salary warrants continuing. If the prospective company doesn’t want to talk about salaries at the onset of the process, it’s even more important to be explicit about it.
Are you technically capable of doing the job?
You might feel that faking it till you’re making it work, but consider that your technical prowess will be assessed during the process. Too many times, I’ve been stuck in interviewing people when everyone in the meeting knows it’s not going well. That is not to say you shouldn’t be confident in your abilities but consider the Dunning-Kruger effect when assessing yourself.
The job spec should provide you with a good starting point. Be sure to read every line of the job spec on the company’s website. Understand what they are asking of a successful candidate. Are you that person? If not, be courteous and let the company know it’s not the right fit for you at this stage of your career.
Is it a good company to work for?
Money is one thing but, do you want to be the richest person in hell? You don’t. Your vocation has a profound impact on your life. The first thing I do when considering a new job is to look at their reviews on Glassdoor. If you haven’t registered on Glassdoor yet, there might be some hoops for you to jump through first. It might feel like a pain, but it’s worth it to know what the company’s employees feel about the company.
It’s easy to imagine the grass being greener, but reading the positive and negative reviews provides you with a more objective view of the company.
To align your evaluation, look at the reviews of your current company too. You’ll understand if the reviews are a fair reflection of working for the company.
Green pastures and a sense of familiarity
There are two biases to be aware of when switching jobs. The Novelty bias causes us to believe new experiences will be better than our current ones. We believe a new job will be perfect when that’s an impossible expectation.
The status quo bias counters novelty. I.E. our current situation is better than any change. How do you make the perfect decision between these extremes? A certain amount of uncertainty is inevitable. Accept it as part of the process.
These questions help you be more objective:
- How happy am I really at my current job? If someone I cared for had my job, would I recommend they pursue this new opportunity?
- How do I rate the company, based on the research I did on it?
- What do I prefer at this point in my career – familiarity or a new challenge?
You can tell from the questions that the key is to find an objective, third-person evaluation of your options. Achieving pure objectivity is impossible but aiming for the best effort is invaluable.
Decide your level of commitment. Don’t cheat yourself.
After careful research and thinking, you’ll know what your level of commitment should be. If you are still convinced that this is an opportunity of a lifetime, get obsessed with landing the job. Rember the immortal words of Master Yoda:
Do or do not, there is no try!
If you’re ready to move to the next level, follow the series to prepare for the next phase.