Shortages of Decent Java Developers (part III)

I've been interviewing Java developers now for two years. My interviewing skills are strong enough now that I can pinpoint where in the grey "maybe" area a candidate lies. Here's a few tips on helping you move from maybe-grey to "yes".

1. Your Head Hunter Resume

Admit it. You polish your resume up for head hunters, adjusting the content so they can find you jobs without having the technical skills you have. There's a chance they take your resume and make further modifications to it when they give it to potential companies. Find out if this is the case and come prepared. Ask for a copy of the "adjusted" resume, either from your head hunter or from the company during the interview - have a copy of your correct one on hand just in case.

The adjusted one may incorrectly stress or hide aspects of your knowledge and this may skew the questions being asked of you. Provide feedback to both the interviewers and the head hunter if this is the case.

2. But That's Not What You Want To Ask

Realize that an interviewer is trying to figure out if they should hire you. If they ask you to draw the architecture of a previous project on a whiteboard, ask yourself if that project is a good example of something you've done. Is it reasonably complex? Do you remember it well enough? Is there a better example? If there is, turn around and suggest you sketch out a different project and give a reason relevant to the interviewer of why you should.

Along the same lines, if you find yourself talking about a project you're not so proud of, or technology you don't claim to be an expert in, let them know this. It's perfectly possible that they either misunderstood the importance of the technology/project to you - or they've simply gone off track in their interview.

I was once being interviewed for a Java development position and the interviewer spent 80% of the time asking me about shell scripting. Sure I know enough to get by, but I still have to check the syntax of "case" each time I use it. I only wish I had thought to interrupt his questions and get him back on the right path.

3. Out With The Old

Open your resume up right now. Do you list any languages or technologies that you couldn't write a sample of in an hour (yes, you can use Google)? Delete them. I recently interviewed a fellow who had RMI, FTP, (Microsoft) COM and CSS listed on his resume. I had just come off of a SWAT performance team for a project that was fairly COM heavy - knowing effectively nothing about the technology, I was hoping to find out what the candidate knew so he could teach me about it.

"I suggested its use in some analysis work for a project." was his reply.

He had no hands on experience with COM (knowing nothing of threading models, or how to look up COM objects, etc..). His answer was the same for RMI, and when asked what the difference (other than the spelling) between HTTP and FTP was, he was unable to come up with anything.

For me, this brought the validity of his entire resume into question.

I hope this helps some of you who are truly rock star developers but are having issues in interviews find your way.

And if you are a rock star developer, perhaps it's time you found a new job? We're hiring.