You've submitted a polished resume and got invited in for the first round of interviews. You aced the interview and were told you're ready to move on to the next step: a technical interview. Ack! "What do I do now?" you think to yourself as you fret about the technical interview. "It's with a Senior Architect??? What if I don't know the answers?"
Over the past couple of years, I have performed dozens of technical interviews of people and have seen everything from downright fright to overconfidence. The first tidbit of advice I have for you is: don't worry about the technical interview!
The Purpose of a Technical Interview
First, you need to understand the purpose of a technical interview: to gauge and understand a candidates level of technical expertise. Most technical interviewers don't expect you to know everything, but will ask you questions of varying difficulty to measure your technical knowledge and experience. There are some awful technical interviewers out there, so you have to watch out for them, but for the most part, technical interviewers just want to help the company find the best qualified candidate for the position.
How to Ace the Technical Interview
You do not need to know everything in a given subject area to ace a technical interview: you just need to know what it takes for the position you are applying for. If you're applying for a Network Engineer position and you have only been on a level one helpdesk, you are not going to ace the technical interview. If, however, you have several years of networking experience, you are not going to have a problem.
A technical interview saves the company from hiring the wrong person and saves you from making a mistake and reaching for a position you can't do.
Follow the steps below to ace your next technical interview:
Steps
Refresh your knowledge. If you are a Windows System Engineer and have focused on Exchange for the past couple years, it would help to refresh your knowledge of Active Directory and DNS. Even though you may be applying for an Exchange System Administrator position, the technical interview may go in a different direction than you expected.
Ask about the interviewer. Get to know the person interviewing you - ask for what their current role is and for a little of their background. Getting to know an interviewer a little before the interview will calm the nerves.
If you don't know the answer, say you don't know it! One of the biggest mistakes people make during a technical interviewer is trying to make up an answer for every question. If you don't know the answer, don't be afraid to admit it.
Don't just give up on a question that you can attempt - but if you're applying for a development position and the interviewer asks you to design a SDLC for a hypothetical project and you haven't had experience with software development lifecycle, admit to it!
Be confident in your answers. One of the tricks I would use in a technical interview is ask probing questions which indicate a candidate's response is wrong to see how they react. If they are quick to give up their position and have doubt in their responses, it indicates how they might be in a role. If you are confident in your answer - be confident!
Of course, this is a double-edged sword. I have had candidates very confident in their incorrect response to the point of yelling at me that "I know I am correct, I just did that this week!!" Turns out they were wrong and as I walked them through the process described in the question, they realized they were wrong. After that, the candidate wasn't confident in any of their answers. Be confident - but not overconfident.
Always give a path to answer the question. One of the things I am looking for in a technical interview is how the candidate does trouble shooting and what process they use to find answers. If you don't know the answer to a question - tell the interviewer how you would find the answer.
For exampe, if you didn't know a certain QA process, you would tell the interviewer that you would speak with a Senior QA Analyst or search for the answer on Google.
Saying "I don't know" and not providing a method of finding the answer is never a good answer!
Be careful of questions with no answer. I have used this during technical interviewers to see how far someone is willing to troubleshoot before giving up. Questions with no answers typically go down a path and the interviewer always responds with, "No, that didn't work. It now has this error."
If you encounter a question which seemingly has no end, take the interviewer as far down the troubleshooting path as you have knowledge of and then tell them how you would find the answer.
Be willing to ask questions. When you're troubleshooting a problem with the interviewer, don't be afraid to ask them questions to narrow down the issue. Oftentimes, the interviewer has a real situation in mind and is willing to provide tremendous detail to help you troubleshoot.
Tips and Tactics
If you're asked if you want water - always say "yes." Water provides a great distraction when you need to delay an answer and think about it.
When asked a question that you need a second, say, "Great question." Reach for your glass of water and take a sip. This will provide you a few extra seconds to gather your thoughts. Don't do this too often!
Practice answering technical questions with someone you know and trust.
Look the interviewer in the eye while speaking.
Don't disparage your current or former employers.
