Hi! My name is Welly Setiawan Limantoro. I am currently working as a Software Engineer in one of the companies at Hsinchu Science Park. I finished my post-graduate degree at NYCU in September 2019, before the COVID-19 outbreak. In this article, I want to share how tough the job interviews were and how finally I managed to pass them after trial and error for about ten months of job hunting in Taiwan.
During the beginning phase of the COVID-19 outbreak, I was juggling the job interviews since most companies did not want to hire new employees due to companies' layoffs and maintain their existing employees. At that time, I planned to return to my home country since I did not pass any job interviews after six months of job hunting, but suddenly the airline I chose canceled my flight in March 2020 due to an overseas flight ban and all of the countries' health care facilities collapsed. I have to extend my stay in Taiwan, waiting for a better situation and deciding whether I should try harder on another interview or go back to my home country after my resident permit ends.
There are a lot of interviews I have attended. There is one of the statements I remembered when interviewed as a Data Engineer. "Your thesis processed 1000 data. We process billions of data every day." I failed in that interview, but thanks to that experience. It enlightened me on how to deal with real-world challenges once a candidate joins the company. An interview is to fail the incompetent candidates. There are a lot of challenges you have to face, either with the available or unavailable knowledge.
Based on my experiences, job interviews mainly consist of personality and technical interviews. Most companies will begin to filter candidates by personality interview. Candidates can continue their technical test once their character meets the company's values.
Technical interviews are about basic knowledge about coding, specific terms used in particular roles, and the last is about programming languages or frameworks the company implements. They are tough. A candidate needs to prepare it properly. For example, given a case, how is the complexity of an algorithm performed on real-world implementation. Is it effective? Or is there any room for improvement?
Another technical interview is a competitive programming test. Given three sets of problems, candidates need to solve them within 1.5 to 2 hours, depending on the setup by the company. To pass this test, I suggest the candidates prepare well by training themselves in an online judge platform. If the company gives candidates a hint about the used online judge platform, practice a lot of coding problems in the corresponding platform. Find a forum where people discuss a solution if your problem's answer is not passing the online judge criteria.
Some companies will also give candidates a project. They need to finish within a given timeline. I was lucky enough that I was able to join the current company since I managed to complete the trial project within the given timeline. At that time, I received a full-stack web project, where I had to design a database and a user interface for an application with a framework that the company uses. The point of my technical interview is not how perfect my design is but how I managed to deliver it on time. I realized there is no need to be flawless but to make it as perfect as my current ability. In the real world of software development, there is always room for improvement. Once releasing a version, there will be a process to evaluate and optimize the existing code. That is the real-world lifecycle of software development.