Job Interview Questions (CS Major)

[jimithing2077]

Well right now I'm a Junior in college majoring in Computer Science. Recently I applied for an internship program with Daimler Chrysler and I really didnt think they'd want to interview me because the job description stated I should know C/C++, Unix, Java, HTML.

My resume states that I'm very equipped in both C/C++ and also Unix but I have very minimal HTML knowledge (I could make a basic layout but nothing w/ flash and other graphics) and I dont know any Java (although I've heard its quite similar to C++, and its easier for someone to go from C++ to Java than going from Java to C++).

Anyways, friday morning I have my interview for the position and tonight (thursday) they are having a "casual" dinner that is informal and just lets us get more comfortable around the interviewers.

My question is this: The position is for an IT Management internship. This is the first "big" interview I've yet to have and was wondering if anyone can give me some tips as to what to expect, types of questions, how many people interview you...that sort of thing. It said each interview per person is 30 minutes.

Thanks for any tips!

 

[Gibson486]

The closest thing to software I have interviewed for is firmware, which is software. I was aked questions like :

Make a routine to rearrange this array in reverse.

Show me 5 ways to make an inifnite loop.

What is the difference between Java and C/C++.

How does a compiler work.

What is wrong with this code (probably will have somethign to do with pointers)

 

[Ausm]

"I hear you have been missing alot of work lately"






Ausm

 

[Titan]

I am not the best at interviews nor am I that familiar with IT specifically but I can give you my take as a professional code-head.

Be genuine, and prepare. Ahead of time, ask fundamentally important questions of yourself and then come up with the answers. Why do you want this job? What do you expect to get out of it? Don't bother preparing technical things, this is not an exam. If they ask you something technical, either you know it or you don't. If you don't, tell them how you would solve it. It's important to be a team player and a proactive problem solver.

It's also important to be genuine with yourself. Yeah, you need a job and living off college pizza sucks, but if the job isn't right for you, you shouldn't take it. Prepare and ask a lot of questions of them, try to get a feel for their work environment. During the interview and get detailed about what kindof work you may be doing. Showing genuine interest in their bussiness and problems you may be able to help them with goes a long way to showing them you're not all talk, and you may be able to help.

So be prepared, you only have 30 minutes. And be genuine, if the job is right for you, make sure they know that.

 

[NogginBoink]

If it's a management internship position, they're going to want to see that you have business skills as well as technical skills.

Sometimes decisions have to be made when the technical forces say do one thing but business forces say do the other. You have to be able to appreciate and see both sides.

You'll probably have a leg up on the other candidates if you can clearly demonstrate that you know this.

Example,

"Well, the web server was hacked, which means that we have to treat any data on the server as suspect, and we have to assume bad guys can read all of our web traffic. From a technology standpoint, we should shut down the web server immediately and rebuild it.

However, from a business standpoint, the company loses lots of money in lost orders, and lots of customer confidence, when our website is down. So the business interests are that we should fix what we can on the web server as long as the site stays up."

If you're considering IT management, the ability to think like this is golden, IMO.

 

[spidey07]

Don't forget the "never season your food before you taste it" rule.

 

[yobarman]

Lie about your knowledge of HTML.. You can learn it in like 2 days.

 

[jimithing2077]

Haha that is nice, you guys are great. I appreciate all the tips you guys are giving me. I'm sure that by them having this "informal" dinner tonight it will help me get to know what they are expecting.

To the first reply, I can pretty much answer all those questions, but I think my only trouble would be if they ask any Java questions..but I'm sure I can wiggle my way around by making me look better in other areas

 

[purbeast0]

you are majoring in comp sci and taking an IT job?

j/k I did that too one summer. I took an IT type position as a summer intern. However i really dont think it meant much on my resume when I got my real software engineer job.

 

[jimithing2077]

Originally posted by: yobarman
Lie about your knowledge of HTML.. You can learn it in like 2 days.

Yeah, I'm not too worried about that. I know how easy it is to understand the basic concepts. Obviously I wont be a HTML master, but I use to make some websites here and there a couple years ago and havent since. So if I do read up on HTML it'll be like getting back on that old bike

 

[jimithing2077]

Originally posted by: purbeast0
you are majoring in comp sci and taking an IT job?

j/k I did that too one summer. I took an IT type position as a summer intern. However i really dont think it meant much on my resume when I got my real software engineer job.

Yeah I know. The job was posted and I thought "why not..ill apply" and they seemed interested enough to want to interview me.

I figured that it would look good on a resume, especially for a big company like chrysler. Plus from what I've heard finding a good software internship is pretty darn near impossible unless you have connections

 

[purbeast0]

Originally posted by: jimithing2077

Originally posted by: purbeast0
you are majoring in comp sci and taking an IT job?

j/k I did that too one summer. I took an IT type position as a summer intern. However i really dont think it meant much on my resume when I got my real software engineer job.

Yeah I know. The job was posted and I thought "why not..ill apply" and they seemed interested enough to want to interview me.

I figured that it would look good on a resume, especially for a big company like chrysler. Plus from what I've heard finding a good software internship is pretty darn near impossible unless you have connections

yah dude if you are going to do IT internship, trust me, you won't have jack shlt to worry about. when i went to my interview, after the interview, i was like "are you serious? thats it?".

the questions they asked me were so simple, and had nothing to do w/stuff i learned in school, and rather stuff i learned on my own, like how to install software, build PC's, etc.

trust me, you will be fine

 

[Sam334]

He might bring out a camera, refer to you as "Coco" and ask you to get topless.....

 

[Reel]

I have done about 10 interviews in the past month for various computer related positions. They have ranged from "tell me about a time when..." interviews to just relating stories back and forth. There have also been some inevitable highly technical interviews. I had one this morning that was fairly technical for a firewall company. They asked me to describe the OSI model, the basic steps in creating a client/server connection in C, describe a deadlock, explain a firewall to a non technical person. Some of my bad interviews have been highly technical where they just sit there and ask definitions of obscure topics or describe what happens at a single step of an obscure process. In all likelihood though, your interview will probably focus on you and your experiences. If they have a second interview, they may ask you some more technical questions but most interviews tend to not be so detailed on the first interview.

 

[mitmot]

internships will make landing a job much much easier.

that is all.

 

[jimithing2077]

Originally posted by: purbeast0

Originally posted by: jimithing2077

Originally posted by: purbeast0
you are majoring in comp sci and taking an IT job?

j/k I did that too one summer. I took an IT type position as a summer intern. However i really dont think it meant much on my resume when I got my real software engineer job.

Yeah I know. The job was posted and I thought "why not..ill apply" and they seemed interested enough to want to interview me.

I figured that it would look good on a resume, especially for a big company like chrysler. Plus from what I've heard finding a good software internship is pretty darn near impossible unless you have connections

yah dude if you are going to do IT internship, trust me, you won't have jack shlt to worry about. when i went to my interview, after the interview, i was like "are you serious? thats it?".

the questions they asked me were so simple, and had nothing to do w/stuff i learned in school, and rather stuff i learned on my own, like how to install software, build PC's, etc.

trust me, you will be fine

Oh man, if its like that I'll be golden. I've built computers for about 5+ years now. Thanks for the tips everyone!

 

[jimithing2077]

Quick question : Do you guys all usually bring like once of those nice little legal pads to write in or what exactly should I bring?

 

[Gibson486]

Originally posted by: jimithing2077
Haha that is nice, you guys are great. I appreciate all the tips you guys are giving me. I'm sure that by them having this "informal" dinner tonight it will help me get to know what they are expecting.

To the first reply, I can pretty much answer all those questions, but I think my only trouble would be if they ask any Java questions..but I'm sure I can wiggle my way around by making me look better in other areas

No one has ever asked me to code anythig in Java, but I am in engineering and everyone laughs at that lanauage in this industry. I think they only wanted to know if i knew what an interpted langauge was as opposed to a system level langauge.

 

[Gibson486]

Originally posted by: jimithing2077
Quick question : Do you guys all usually bring like once of those nice little legal pads to write in or what exactly should I bring?

I bring one of those leather folders....you can get them at Walgreens for $7.

 

[mitmot]

Originally posted by: jimithing2077
Quick question : Do you guys all usually bring like once of those nice little legal pads to write in or what exactly should I bring?

I have this leather folder thing with legal pad in it and pretended to write things during my interview