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Interview questions

 
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I found following qestions on the web.
can any body tell me how I can answer them?
1. How you can demonstrate skills in working as part of a team?
2. Are you a self starter?
3. What can you bring to our company to benefit our team ?
Thanks for your help!
 
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Not that I want to discourage others from answering, but I would recommend you try posting your answers first. This helps in two ways:
1) It forces you to think about the question in ways mere speculation doesn't.
2) It lets us see hwo you're thinking about it, so if we need to alter your model, we can address the root issue.
--Mark
 
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Originally posted by Michelle Lee:
1. How you can demonstrate skills in working as part of a team?
2. Are you a self starter?
3. What can you bring to our company to benefit our team ?


These are questions only you can answer. That said:
1) Consider the question worded differently. How would you answer if I asked you instead "When in the past have you worked as part of a team? How/Why/Where/With Whom/Doing What?
2) Consider the question worded differently. What have you done on your own, not without prompting by someone else?
3) Well, this depends on the company and the team, doesn't it?

The best answer in any interview if you don't understand the question is to ask for clarification. See my above examples of rewording, for example.
Asking questions demonstrates an active intelligence, and an interest in getting to what the real issue/problem is rather than just spouting back a prepared answer.
[ February 11, 2003: Message edited by: David Hibbs ]
 
Michelle Lee
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Thank you, mark and david! Now I am more clear
about how I should answer this questions.
[ February 12, 2003: Message edited by: Michelle Lee ]
 
Michelle Lee
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Below are same of my answers to some interview quesitons. If any thing you think is wrong, please
point out, even with my English problem. (I am not a native English speaker). I was
asked more than twenty normal quesions in my last interview and finally failed. So I determine
to make better answer next time.
Thank you very much for any light.
- Why you want to work at our company,
After visited your web site, I admire about the broad ranges of services and products your company provides. I am also excited about the colleagues and opportunities shown. Especially I like the idea I can find a company that
I can grow up and add experience with.
- How you can demonstrate skills in working as part of a team?
In my current position, one of our projects is building an online conferencing system. The responsibility of one member of our team is to code using C library to communicate with
the telephone. I used Corba API to call his code in my java code, and make online conferencing possible.
- Are you a self-starter?
Yes, I am an active thinker and learner, always make afford to program better quality of code in my previous job, even sometimes it is fine as long as codes work.
- Do you work well unsupervised?
Yes, when I am working, job always is the only thing in my mind. I like programming and working.
I appreciate very job opportunity I can get. I have a strong desire to be an IT expert.
I know the more I work, the more I can learn, and the more I am professional. That is the reason I work well unsupervised.

- Are you committed to learning? Are you a fast learner?
Yes, I am extremely eager to learn. I spend a lot of my spare time on learning new technologies.
I am going to take IBM's Enterprise Connectivity Test (with J2EE) this Saturday,
My target is Jcert Enterprise Developer. The next exam I will write is "IBM WebSphere Application Server, WebSphere based Exam 000-158", or "BEA Weblogic Application Server Exam"
I took about three or three weeks for my certificate from scratch. I reckon I am a quick learner.
- What can you bring to our company to benefit our team?
My master degree, java certificates and solid Object Oriented programming experience, plus my enthusiastic and commitment to the job will make me an asset of a company.
- Your expected salary?
I am very open about my salary, any amount in 40-50k.
- Your ambitions. What do you want to do in 1 yr, 2yrs, and 5yrs?
In one year, I hope I can familiar with and excel at every prospects of the job. In two years, I like to take more and more mission critical and large scale's projects and complish
fabulous and wonderful projects. In five year's time, I expected to be an expert, and take more
responsible job, like design.
[ February 12, 2003: Message edited by: Michelle Lee ]
[ February 12, 2003: Message edited by: Michelle Lee ]
 
Mark Herschberg
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Originally posted by Michelle Lee:
- Why you want to work at our company,
After visited your web site, I admire about the broad ranges of services and products your company provides. I am also excited about the colleagues and opportunities shown. Especially I like the idea I can find a company that I can grow up and add experience with.


Good answer. obviously for any particular company, you want to get into specifics and name certain products, services, etc.

Originally posted by Michelle Lee:
- How you can demonstrate skills in working as part of a team?
In my current position, one of our projects is building an online conferencing system. The responsibility of one member of our team is to code using C library to communicate with
the telephone. I used Corba API to call his code in my java code, and make online conferencing possible.


I think that answer is a little off the mark. You started getting into technical issues, like Corba. Talk about a team and how different people ahve different roles *and* how you communicate between team members. Talk about weekly meetings, emails, project charts, bug tracking software, etc. Things to help the group work together, not to help their code work together.

Originally posted by Michelle Lee:
- Are you a self-starter?
Yes, I am an active thinker and learner, always make afford to program better quality of code in my previous job, even sometimes it is fine as long as codes work.


Everyone says s/he is a self-starter, give an example. Talk about a situation where you had little guidance, but set out on your own. (The latter part of your answer was not relevant to the question.)

Originally posted by Michelle Lee:
- Do you work well unsupervised?
Yes, when I am working, job always is the only thing in my mind. I like programming and working.
I appreciate very job opportunity I can get. I have a strong desire to be an IT expert.
I know the more I work, the more I can learn, and the more I am professional. That is the reason I work well unsupervised.


The interviewer is not asking about your dedication. he is asking how you fare when you project manager needs to be on the road for two weeks. What do you do when you run into problems? Again, give an example of a project with little or no supervision (for at least part of the time), and talk about how you handled problems which came up, the normally your manager would handle.

Originally posted by Michelle Lee:
- Are you committed to learning? Are you a fast learner?
Yes, I am extremely eager to learn. I spend a lot of my spare time on learning new technologies.
I am going to take IBM's Enterprise Connectivity Test (with J2EE) this Saturday,
My target is Jcert Enterprise Developer. The next exam I will write is "IBM WebSphere Application Server, WebSphere based Exam 000-158", or "BEA Weblogic Application Server Exam"
I took about three or three weeks for my certificate from scratch. I reckon I am a quick learner.


Good answer.

Originally posted by Michelle Lee:
- What can you bring to our company to benefit our team?
My master degree, java certificates and solid Object Oriented programming experience, plus my enthusiastic and commitment to the job will make me an asset of a company.


This is an ok answer. Anyone and everyone says that ("my education, experience, and committment"). You need to distinguish yourself. Talk about what particular skills/knowledge/experience you have which are directly applicable to their needs.

Originally posted by Michelle Lee:
- Your expected salary?


See my comments here.

Originally posted by Michelle Lee:
- Your ambitions. What do you want to do in 1 yr, 2yrs, and 5yrs?
In one year, I hope I can familiar with and excel at every prospects of the job. In two years, I like to take more and more mission critical and large scale's projects and complish
fabulous and wonderful projects. In five year's time, I expected to be an expert, and take more
responsible job, like design.


Again, everyone says this, so you don't distinguish yourself from the other candidates. Talk about specifics. What skills do you want? Why? We all want to be a better programmer. Are there specific technologies you want? Do you want exposure to different project roles?
In general, your answers, while not bad, aren't outstanding, and thus, won't make you stand out. They tend to be too vague, and no specific to you or the company. Get into more details, as I noted in my comments.
--Mark
 
Don't get me started about those stupid light bulbs.
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