2020 job search summary

The sudden epidemic caused a sharp decline in the global market and hit various industries. Many technology companies serve the tertiary industry, so the impact was naturally not small. The shrinking market and the lack of confidence have made the job market extremely difficult this year. I am fortunate to have personally participated in job hunting this year and achieved good results. I would like to make a summary to share with you.

When I first started looking for opportunities, I was still deeply worried, but as the interview progressed, I slowly felt relieved. Generally speaking, although the current market is not as good as before, it is not bad enough to panic. The market is still very friendly to experienced people. After completing the last two onsites next week, this job search operation has been successfully concluded. Here are my achievements:

• I invested in N companies, and 39 companies responded.
• Among them, 8 companies were not very suitable after chatting with them, and 5 companies did not have suitable positions after chatting with them.
• One company fell to OA, and seven companies said they were hiring freeze halfway through the meeting.
• 12 companies successfully obtained Onsite, 8 offers

Generally speaking, some companies are no longer hiring (they do not respond to resumes after submitting them), and there are also a few companies that have stopped hiring because of the epidemic, but there are still many companies in the market that are hiring. In this campaign, 19 companies successfully completed the interview, 12 companies were given to Onsite, and 8 companies got the final offer. Among them, 2 companies upgraded me (one from senior to lead, and one from lead to staff), setting a new record.

timeline

In fact, the idea of ​​​​changing jobs started at the end of last year (the specific reasons will be shared later), but I hesitated until March this year. I had to work full-time (the work was quite stressful). The whole process was quite hard, and it took a total of 3 months. The timeline is as follows:

• End of March to mid-May: brush up on questions and prepare for interviews
  • Since I work full-time, I have only answered less than 200 questions. I still recommend not to answer too many questions, as long as you know each type and basic skills. You can prepare according to the specific interview experience of the specific company. I didn't prepare much for system design. I relied entirely on my daily projects and accumulation within the company. I just had to take a closer look before the interview.
• First of May: Start submitting resumes
  • I divided the companies into 3 levels. The first level is the target companies (4-5), the second level is the companies you can go to (about 20), and the third level is for practicing (about 20). This time, the investment was still only in the second level, and the first level could not be arranged. In addition to investing in companies, I also opened Linkedin's Open to market option, and set aside 2 days a week to focus on investing in newly released suitable positions.
• Mid-May: Interviews begin
  • The first week may take a lot of time, but as the interview progresses, there will be no time to review questions later, so try to be prepared at the beginning of the interview.
• Mid-June: Unified arrangement of Onsite
  • I divided the onsites into two weeks (one onsite per day) in order to make the offers come at about the same time to avoid regrets.
• End of June: Make a decision
  • There are definitely some fish that have slipped through the cracks, but it’s not a big problem

Comparing the timeline of job search last year, the overall results are similar. If you don't work full-time, you should be able to prepare to answer the questions within a month, but you can't rush for success. Having good basic skills will be of great help for later interviews. When time is tight later, I will do a lot of bare-faced work, and the basic skills will be used at this time.

Difficulty and skill

After this interview, I feel that the difficulty is actually pretty good (maybe I didn’t interview those companies that are more BT). Most of the algorithm questions are in Medium. Occasionally there are a few high-frequency Hard questions, but it doesn’t mean that you can’t do it at all. You can still come up with ideas by using your brain. This is why I said that you must have a good basic skills and use them at any time in a crisis.

The reduction in physical difficulty does not rule out the improvement of my interview skills, but I prefer to believe that it is because the position is more senior. This has a lot to do with the interviewer. If the person interviewing you has a high position, then they actually don't answer the questions very much, so they will test you with some questions that you often encounter, and more to test your knowledge, conversation and cooperation ability. And if you meet an interviewer who has just become a senior or has just started working, the difficulty will be relatively high (speaking from experience).

Don't make the interview too difficult. No one is dedicated to answering questions. If the difficulty is too high, the recruiter will lose his job and the company will find it difficult to recruit people.

Technically, I basically arrange interviews on a weekly basis, with Mondays and Fridays being the most difficult (and most important) to arrange, because there is a longer preparation time on the weekends, and I can also take time to review during the week. For interviews from Tuesday to Thursday, you basically just need to prepare the day before. The preparation work is nothing more than going to the field and looking for interviews on GlassDoor, and mastering all the questions on the interviews.

It should be noted here that the phone screen actually has room for cheating. If the original question comes up and you still remember what question it is, you can open the browser to find the answer you have done before. However, this is a paradox: if you have done it before, you should be able to write it yourself, and if you can think of the title by looking at the topic, it should basically be a familiar topic for you.

Friends who use the above method, remember that many online coding sites actually have the function of detecting whether you are on the page. If you leave the page, the interviewer will know it.

Virtual Onsite Tips

Thanks to the epidemic, there is no need to go to the office to onsite, which has advantages and disadvantages. From the company's perspective, it saves travel expenses such as air tickets and hotels, but it also loses the opportunity to showcase the company to candidates, especially some startups. For candidates, they can smoothly arrange continuous onsites, but they also lose the opportunity to understand the company face-to-face. I personally think this is still very important. Going there in person can feel a lot of things that cannot be seen outside, especially the company's culture and the usual status of employees. This sometimes plays a decisive role.

For virtual onsite at home, it is easy to feel numb after the interview, especially when there are continuous onsites. After all, after the interview, there is no feeling of switching to refresh.

For virtual onsite, here are a few things to note:

1. The second screen is very important. The laptop is still too small. When writing code, it is best to switch to the second screen to write, which can greatly improve efficiency.
2. Virtual onsite is very unfavorable for system design. Although the online drawing tools are well designed, mouse drawing is still a little weird (if you don't believe it, you can try using a drawing pad to draw a picture), but the interviewer doesn't mind it very much, so it's okay. My suggestion is to either get used to it, or prepare a blackboard and watch the video for them to draw.
3. The "auxiliary" techniques mentioned above are still possible, but packet capture is also very easy, because not only the browser detects it, but the interviewer also looks at you, and it is easy to detect eye changes, screen reflections, etc.

Here is a key word:Calmly, this will allow you to communicate with the interviewer on the same level, and will also help you win a lot of favor. When interviewing others, a calm person will make me feel that he is more capable than others, and will also make me feel that he has many options. But remember that being calm does not mean pretending to be B...Basically no one wants King B...keep your balance.

Resume Importance

The success of this interview can largely be attributed to the effort I put into my resume. Many people ignore this. Although the resume is just a stepping stone, the interview is actually very casual. Sometimes you meet someone who is not in the right position, and it will be useless no matter how good the interview is. Sometimes you meet someone you are very compatible with, and you may not answer well but still get accepted.

Based on this random probability event, the more recruiters and hiring managers that your resume can take a look at, the better. Moreover, many times the resume is the first impression for the interviewer. A few minutes before the interview, or when you are answering questions, they will take a second look.

This time, several companies promoted me after interviews. I feel that it is largely due to my resume. Although the underlying logic is that the interview was good, the experience on the resume must also match the position at the upper or lower level.

Q&A

Here are some answers to frequently asked questions:

Is referral important?

It's best to have it, and it's okay if you don't have it. The greater significance of internal referrals is to let you know whether the company is hiring.

What kind of company is good?

Companies that are eager to recruit people are more likely to be interviewed. Companies that don't have many pitfalls will be picky when interviewing. Companies that are really short of people will be more friendly to you and have a higher chance of passing. How to know? Chat with the interviewer and ask him.

How long does it usually take to give feedback during an interview?

I would say it usually comes within 1-2 days, if not, it's basically useless. Due to my timeline problem, I basically never urged the company to give feedback. Most of the time, I gave feedback within 1-2 days. Those that were rejected were usually sent out on Friday a week later.

Onsite is generally slower because after the interview, the interviewer will organize a meeting to give unified feedback on the results. But now many companies schedule feedback meetings at the same time as your interview, usually on the next day, or on a fixed day every week (you can ask the recruiter).

By the way, many companies interview only to see if you are a match, without comparing you to other players. Such companies produce results very quickly. Companies that compare to other players are generally very slow. Ask the recruiter about this. I personally don’t like horizontal comparison, it’s more ink-stained and very bottomless.

How to choose a company?

Check the information yourself to see if it suits you. My tip is to ask the interviewer more questions that interest you. It’s okay to be sharp. Don’t miss the opportunity to ask questions in each round of interviews. This can greatly help you make a choice. Here are a few better questions:

1. Why did you choose this company in the first place?
2. Over the years you have been working, what is it about the company that attracts you and makes you uncomfortable?
3. What problems does the company face now (technical or non-technical)
4. Ask about the composition of the team and how they run the project
5. etc.

In addition, I am generally not very good at choosing companies with unfriendly interviewers. After all, it is a two-way choice.

If you have any other questions, please leave a message or contact me privately.