Starting the journey...

In the last quarter of 2018, I said goodbye to my University campus after a year working as an Intern in the IT Department, it was a great experience that opened my eyes to the many facets of a tech career and where I could possibly fit in, there were desktop native developers, web developers, graphic designers, UI/UX designers, networking and user support roles and others that I perhaps didn't get exposed to, The exposure fired up my interest, I wanted more, so I did a little bit of everything, a jack of all trades and consequentially, a master of none.

I built websites with Drupal, made designs in photoshop, provided user support services, network services, the only thing I probably missed out on was administrative duties, which weren't necessarily within my reach and more in the jurisdiction of my superiors. All of these many hats that I wore did prove quite useful for my eventual first real job right after.

Interview at Company P: Let's start with the worst...

Company P was the first company that I ever worked for after school, the interview experience was relatively very friendly as they were trying not to intimidate me, it was a smooth interview but not without several red flags, (red flags that I only picked up on after a year on the job).

Flag 1: There was no technical lead in the interview, not even an IT professional, just the CEO, The Finance Head, and HR. Perhaps that's due to the fact that one of my former bosses recommended me and they wanted to discuss an offer straight away, nonetheless, looking back it was a terrible experience for me and that's not a good sign. The job description was entirely IT, from Web Development to System Administration, I was going to be expected to do it all, too many hats and I should have walked away, but the hunger for experience was dire.

Flag 2: The fact that there was no tech lead means that the company was not taking IT seriously and therefore choosing to work for them was definitely not going to be beneficial.

Flag 3: There was no job description on the table (just generics), however, we still had to negotiate salary, not knowing what exactly I was going to take charge of, I lowballed myself, a low remuneration that was also due to my naivety, Please research salaries in your experience range and location before stepping into an interview, have a reasonable expectation. Don't undersell yourself if you made it to the interview, that means you have something they want and are willing to discuss.

Interview at Company T: One good apple, many bad apples...

My professional experience with Company P was pretty much terrible to sum it up, I got fired after two years during COVID, I had put in so much to push the company technologically, I made many product innovations and sought to do more but there's only so much that you can do without proper support and a people who believe in success coming from monotonous hard work and prayers, not technology, I had been overworked, underpaid and sickened, it was time to move on. I took some time off moping around to get into web development again and then applied for frontend jobs, hence, Company T...

Company T is still the best interview experience I have had thus far, it thought me what to look out for in a tech interview (developer interviews to be precise), I had just switched from my sysadmin career path into web development and was looking for my first job after 3 months of personal prep. I knew HTML, CSS, JS and was halfway through my John Smilga React course (good course by the way), I lacked much professional experience as a web developer and had to prove myself.

Company T reached out with a friendly email, commending me on my impressive professional profile and GitHub, I was given a date to meet up with the team to take a test, and this is where the road ended for me, but you know what's good, Mr Saforo (The CEO), sent me feedback, FEEDBACK!, and it wasn't generic either. He told me why he couldn't choose me and what I should focus on, I knew I knew a lot but having practised less, I failed the HTML CSS test, I couldn't finish the assignment on time, not even 50%, all because of inadequate practice. This was my first real-world taste of what a developer career holds, and I have come to embrace it. The sad thing is out of ten interviews you are likely to get less than 30% feedback or even a response. Feedback helps point you in the right direction, helps you know what you have been doing wrong and that's one of the most important things that either a successful or failed interview should convey.

Companies W and M: Recruiters exist...

I didn't know there were such people as recruiters until, I applied for this internship, since am an average graphic designer who knows Figma and XD and can write code, I thought I might give this internship opportunity a shot, I applied, got called and had to demo some of my simple applications to the recruiter, I was shortlisted and referred to Company M, an SMS app company, The interview was smooth and simple, we reviewed my application and that's when we hit a snag, Company M was actually not looking for a developer but a designer, apparently the recruiter had failed to understand his job description, therefore I didn't get the internship, reason: I wasn't qualified enough for UI/UX design. Lessons learnt: Try and get as many questions as possible answered from whoever is your current contact for the job, questions can range from the job description to salaries, that should help you clear up any confusion, If anyone refuses you the answers you deserve, that's a job offer you should probably skip. Also, it's hard out there for a new dev or designer so it's ok to take up even obvious shady offers and work it just for the experience. However, if it offers even lesser than that, move on!

Interview at Company R: Networking is important...

There's a good reason why, you should always network or at least try to, networking here doesn't necessarily mean try and establish friendships with all the people in your space, just target the ones that align with your goals and acquaint yourself, this will help you in the long run, however, remain nice to everyone else (this is my experience as an introvert).

When I left my job at Company P, I had made contact with many software developers and I made sure to make them all know of my interest in software development professionally, one of these contacts helped me with this internship, he introduced me to their CTO, who reviewed my portfolio and decided to give me a shot. I made the best of the opportunity and got abreast with their front end, it wasn't a paid internship but it was worth it, my development experience there definitely added up to my eventual contract with company D. One thing that I wished they did better was providing feedback, I really had to chase them around to get feedback on my work, perhaps they were all just too busy to care about the intern.

Interview with Company D: Every newbie's dream...

After randomly clicking on apply to any dev role on my LinkedIn jobs list that had the tag "frontend developer", I received an email a week later, the email led to an interview, turns out I was quite the match for the task at hand, the dream that every fledgling software developer wishes would come true, we had a couple of conversations and I got the job as a frontend developer for a fresh french-ish startup seeking to launch their very first product. This team reeked of youth and much inexperience but it was worth it, it gave me the first real shot to prove my learning and I gave it my all, to this day, I am still grateful for the opportunity, and I wish that for everyone breaking into tech, to stumble into the right opportunity that will birth the much-needed experience.

Interview with Company H: So far, so bad...

During my first job, I didn't stop reading nor learning..., I sought to grow a bit more every day and eventually stumbled on an article that suggested a thing: Interviewing even when you are not in need of a job, an exhausting process for anyone interested but great, however. First off, you have nothing to lose as you are not in desperate need of a job, it also presents to you a better negotiating opportunity as you can bargain more effectively knowing you are already in the service of a similar company with possibly similar needs.

Anyways, I walked into the offices of H with quite the pride, as I had just secured my first role and had nothing to lose on this interview, I was prepared but not for an on-site test, I guess there's a first time for all things. Undoubtedly I failed, although the tasks at hand weren't new, neither the ideas, I just couldn't submit a solution in the time given, also I had already felt belittled by their flimsy attempts to make me feel at home, I mean who makes a joke of an interviewee's laptop?!, perhaps they thought it was funny but it rather made me uneasier and the imposter in me, grew even stronger, no wonder I failed. Anyways, I learnt my lesson, to expect anything from an interview. I got home crushed and feeling stupid, but guess what someone else in the frontendmentor.io slack channel sent me a DM with a similar problem, given to him as a take-home test by his interviewers, within 15 minutes I had helped him solve it. I hope he landed the job. That reaffirmed my belief that under different circumstances, I would have pretty much nailed that interview, but it's all a good experience that I shall use for growth.

Thank you for reading and getting this far, I hope you have managed to pick up a thing or two for your own good. I will update this article at a later time as I pick up more experiences.