This what Jon really meant to say:
The 2nd interviewer said that they needed a 'ready-made' guy who could work at the hardware level on their products, not somebody who 'wanted to learn to do so' as I put it to him :-))
OK.
Having been the interviewee and the interviewer for a long, long time. Here are my opinions.
- I was never hired to do a job that I was ready-made for. Never. There was ALWAYS something that I had to learn (on the job) in order to get my work done. So, anyone telling you they want a ready-made guy may be making an excuse NOT to hire you.
I once went on an interview for a job that required the applicant be an EXPERT at C and C++, OOP, maritime navigation, GPS, 8051, emulators, PC hardware design, RF antenna design, test equipment, oscilloscopes, RTA, CASE tools, VGA programming, logic analyzer setup and configuration, and blah blah blah blah.
I was actually an EXPERT on everything they requested and I still didn't get the job. In fact, the job went to a PhD for about $28,000.00/year!
So, in reality, experience is NOT the only thing that matters. In the above case, the company was REALLY looking to spend 28K/year for an engineer who knew all of that stuff.
- NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, tell a potential employer that you want to learn on the job. It just sounds bad. You can simply say that you love challenging work. Your employer should HOPE that you try to learn things to apply while you work for him. But, no employer wants to pay someone to go to school.
- An interview allows the interviewer to figure out if you are a good match for the position the company has available. As an interviewee, you should be figuring out during the interview if you really want to work for this company.
Good interviews include programming tests, experience tests, problem-solving tests, and personality tests.
If the employer asks only yes or no questions, they aren't doing a good job of trying to learn anything about YOU. To a company, YOU are an asset. Just like a car or a truck or a pallett of manuals. The company should try to find out as much about the asset as possible before they buy it (or hire it).
The interviewer SHOULD ask plenty of open-ended questions to get you to tell them about something you've done or how you did it. They should ask questions about your successes and your failuers. They should ask you about things that annoy you and things that make you really excited.
The whole point here is to determine two things: your communication skills (can you tell them something in a way that they can understand) and how you handled yourself in different situations.
You should probably get a book on how to interview people for a job and you'll quickly learn how to answer questions like these. I'm just telling you what to expect.
The REALLY good interviewers can ask several easy questions and figure out your body language to determine when you are remembering something and when you are making something up (or lying). But, most interviewers aren't REALLY good!
- There are many skills that an employee needs--technical knowledge, communication skills, writing skills, people skills, presentation skills, enthusiasm, attitude, and focus. But, these must be balanced depending on the demands of the job. You could be the best software developer in the world, but if you aren't excited or focused on your work or if you lower the morale of everyone around you, I wouldn't want you around.
- If you have done something that is obviously similar to what the company does or makes, bring it up in the interview. We recently hired 2 summer interns in part because they showed up with some 8051 hardware/software they had designed. That kind of thing gives interviewers confidence in the potential employee.
- Finally, keep in mind that your ultimate purpose is to earn more money for that company than you are paid. Every company has budgets and you are a part of the R&D or Engineering budget. And, that means you must contribute something to that company's bottom line.
The more you contribute, the better off you will be because: 1) A company that is financially strong, won't need to layoff employees (especially the ones who contribute the most) in a slow economy and 2) Management tends to reward the employees who perform.
Well, those are my observations. I hope they help you and don't discourage you too much.
Jon |
