SWE interview: how long are your responses for work history questions?
I've never been interviewed about my work history so I don't know what to expect. I imagine we should answer questions concisely so that the interviewer stays engaged and their mind doesn't start wandering. But if I don't provide enough context about the problem we were trying to solve and why we chose that solution, it will be harder for the interviewer to follow what I'm saying. If an interviewer asks an open-ended question about your work history, how long is your response? What kinds of things do you include in your answer? I'm interested in how you handle this both in phone screens and in interview rounds dedicated to work history. Thanks in advance.
I’d be curious to hear from someone who has interviewed candidates. Here’s what I do (take with a grain of salt): I used to spend time trying to answer to give them a good idea of my work and background - it seems, in my experience, that they don’t really care (unless it’s a behavioral round). The response is often ‘cool. Want to start coding?’ Or worse, they ask more and more questions then you only have 20 minutes left to code (had this happen on multiple occasions - I imagine they were rookie interviewers). I wonder if it’s used as an ice breaker and I’m also curious about the weight of your response as a data point. CTCI has a piece of advise for this, something along the lines of: I studied Computer Science at X. During my summers, I interned at Y. After graduation, I joined Z where I did A,B,C. Now I’m looking to get into D, so that’s why I’m here. I usually play around with it, going from that script to an abbreviated form, just talking about my current role and why the change. My goal now is to minimize this discussion (during phone screens/coding/system design rounds) so that I can maximize my time for the actual problem. So to be honest, probably around 15-30 seconds. To reiterate, I’m not sure if this is the right strategy, but I’ve been burned in the past by taking too much time here then having very limited time afterwards. If anyone has been an interviewer at a top tech company, I’d love to hear your thoughts. Good luck!
Sounds solid. Will use this in the future.