Senior Dev Advice for a Bootcamp Grad

- Honesty/Authenticity (in general, but also about being fresh out of a Bootcamp) 

- Being able to talk about previous projects that affected the bottom line 

- Expressing genuine interest in the company, it's values, and where it should be in the future 

- Being able to demonstrate you're a "problem solver" not just "I learned how to code".

- "I'd say expressing some combination of enthusiasm about the company/work, and a willingness to learn new things. Other people can probably speak to this more, but to my knowledge, one of the best things to see in a junior dev is the ability and desire to learn new stuff"

- The advice I give is simple. Don’t Bullshit. Be confident about what you know and be humble to admit what you don’t. We don’t expect a junior developer to know everything. We expect gaps in experience and knowledge. What’s important is the ability and willingness to learn. Show them that and tell them what you’re excited about learning and they know exactly where to place you. If you try to BS your way around an answer to appear more knowledgeable than you are, then they will know immediately and at that point, you will lose credibility and their confidence."

- Assuming you have the time, this can be a great book to read for someone new in the industry: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23232941-soft-skills IIRC, there's a section in there about interviewing.

- I think the discussion of past projects is crucial since it is the closest thing to "real-world" development experience. Describe the goal/problem statement of the project, how you worked towards that goal, and what the final outcome was. I make sure to describe obstacles I had to overcome because it demonstrates that you can problem-solve, be reactive, and have humility.

- In response to the last point: "One of my favorite questions to ask for this very reason is, “What was your biggest mistake. How did you recover or what did you learn from it?” It can apply to code or irl projects."  - be ready for that, with a good answer.

- Also, concerning white-board coding, always always always describe your thought process out-loud as you are working through a problem. That way, even if you mess up, it demonstrates your problem-solving process and the ability to communicate your ideas.

- The small things are really important to me. Making eye contact when talking to people, adjusting your tone when you’re asking a question to not be too curt, coming in prepared: Having extra copies of your resume, looking up the interviewers LinkedIn to see what they’re interested in and adjusting questions to that (might be overkill), having a big list of questions to ask. Smiling during an interview also goes a long way, some people take it too seriously. When talking about yourself, don’t only mention your technical aspect, talk about your hobbies, and things you like to do outside of work. Be willing to talk about your failures, it opens up the “formal” atmosphere in the room. Technically: Hit up “Elements of a Programming Interview” book, it goes in much greater depth than cracking the coding interview."

All the advice given here is provided by Chip Cullen and his team at PBS
https://chipcullen.com