HR Interview Questions for Programmers
A lot of developers know how to pass technical interview, but sometimes it may be difficult to communicate with HR or to answer correctly on HR questions. This is why in this post I want to talk about most common questions from HR, that you can get and how to answer them correctly.
Tell me about yourself
And the most popular question is of course "Tell me about yourself". And actually you must understand, that HR is not a technical person, who will ask you technical questions. Which actually means, when talk with HR, you must understand this, you should not be too technical, but you need to use some technical terms, that HR knows. Typically HR will know most common buzz words in programming world, like for example, JavaScript, TypeScript, PHP or maybe Ruby on Rails.
So, typically when you get a question tell me about yourself, this is a start of your conversation. And actually HR tries to find some points, to talk about something with you. So your typical answer should be like this: “My name is Alexander, I am a web developer with more than 10 years of experience, I typically do frontend projects, but I can also do backend, my typical technologies stack is JavaScript or TypeScript on frontend and NodeJS or Ruby on Rails on the backend".
If you stop here it is actually not enough, because you didn't give any points to continue your conversation. This is why it makes sense to tell a bit more. For example, additionally you can tell something like this: "I saw, that in this position you need a Typescript developer and actually in my last company I worked with Typescript quite a lot".
Why do we need to hire you?
With such introduction you typically answer on the second question of HR and this is "Why we need to hire you". And actually the best answer is when you have the set of skills, that is required for this specific position or you solved similar tasks before. If you don't have any real programming experience and this is your first job, then you can say "I implemented the web site, which is really similar to yours and I used there React with Typescript which is exactly technologies which are needed for this position.
So in focus here should be tech stuff, that can help exactly in this specific position.
What are your strengths and your weaknesses?
One more popular question, that you can get is "What are you strengths and your weaknesses"? And most of the people can’t really answer such questions fast, because they didn't prepare to answer them and this is not so easy to answer on the spot what strengths or weaknesses you have. Maybe you don't need to tell about them at all?
And actually it can be some cliché answer, which will be the same for all developers. For example you can answer, that you really like to implement frontend applications and this is really something, that you are doing on a good level. And for your weakness you can for example say, that you didn't work too much with the backend, which means your focus is lying only on the frontend. And this is completely normal, but if you answer something like "I don't know my strengths or weaknesses" or "I don't really have any weaknesses", this doesn't sound good in interviews.
Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
The next question, that you can get, "What are your goals in our company" or "What are your goals in programming at all"? And actually this question can be "Where do you see yourself in 5 years"? Yes, this is not the smartest question, but you will get it really often. So, actually here you must answer something friendly. For example, you can answer, that you are looking for the place to work and stay for quite a lot of time, to improve your skills as a programmer, to implement new things and improve company projects and if all sides will be satisfied then obviously you see yourself in this company in 5 years. And again this is just a general answer for all types of developers and it doesn't matter, what skills you have. Actually here you show, that you are friendly, polite, that you want to work in this company and you are just a good guy.
Tell me something about our company
One more popular question is – "Tell me something about our company". And this question is really strange for me, because when you are going in some small or medium company, you typically don't know anything about this company. If it is some large company, maybe you googled something or you at least know something about it. And I think this is completely normal to answer, that you didn't hear a lot about your company or that you hear this and that, which actually means you just briefly say several sentences about the company and HR can tell you much more about this company.
And this is extremely important, because you need a dialog, it shouldn't be a bunch of questions, you must also be interested in the company and obviously you want to know more about this company.
Problematic questions
And here are two important questions, that should ring the bell for you. If you are being asked "Hhow are you looking on working night shifts or maybe weekends?" or "What do you think about overtimes?" Then you should be really conscious. Typically when HR asks such questions, it means, that the company is bad. Period. It can’t be really another way, this means, that you constantly will have overtimes. If in the company, they really have overtimes like maybe once or twice per year, then you will never get such question. So, if you don’t want to suffer too much later, I highly recommend you to avoid this company after such questions.
How much money do you want?
And you will for sure have a question "How much money do you want"? And actually here you must know, what you will say. The worst answer here is obviously "I don’t know". You need at least to understand your level of knowledge, and how much money you can ask for it. And actually my recommendation here is to ask a little bit more, then you really want. Then you have some room for negotiation.
And typically HR won't answer you anything on this. Because actually they have some amount of money, that they can spend on the developer and they will never say you something like – "Oh, it is too much, we can’t pay this sum". Yes, it can happen, but it is super rare case. Typically, you won't get any answer and then if it was too much you won’t get any call from this HR.
Do you have any other questions?
At the end of your talk you will get a question, like "Do you have any other questions for me"? And this is extremely important to not say - NO, here. Because when you are saying no, it means, that you are not that interested in this company. You must ask some questions about team, about overtimes, about vacation, what ever you want, but you want to show that you are interested in this company and you want to learn more about this company. Because probably you might work there.
Why do you change jobs so often?
One more important question, that you can get – if you are a little bit advanced developer is – "Why do you change your jobs that often"? And actually you are getting this question, when you switched your job more often, that once in 2 years. So, you must prepare some good answer for this question. For example, if it happened only once, then you say, that the company was not that good and so on. But if it happened like 2 or 3 times in a row and people see that you worked there like 3 months or 6 months, then you are not reliable to work with. This is why I highly recommend you to avoid such situations, where you have a list of jobs, where you didn't work enough.
Bonus
And here is the bonus point for me. As I already said you must show interest in the company, you must ask questions, but here is more important point for advanced developers. When people have lots of experience and worked in lots of companies, it is really difficult for them to show some interest in the company. Which actually means they are looking bored. And I saw a lot of people with 10+ years of experience, who were really bored on the interview. So, yes, they need a job, they have enough experience, but they probably won't pass the interview with HR just because it is not looking like they are interested in this job.
I hope, that my recommendations help you to pass an interview with HR as well as a technical interview.
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