Some notes on interviews when applying for a job in Prague

The crisis slowly got to the Czech Republic. Sneaked up unnoticed and hit painfully. Especially for outsourcers, many of whom were left without contracts. I am including. But there are no hopeless situations. Who seeks will always find. Although, searches sometimes take a lot of time.

I want to share my experience in job search and interviews in Prague. Maybe someone here will need my experience, maybe someone wants to compare how it is here and there. I got a job as a Lead Developer J2EE. So all technical terms will refer specifically to Java. So let's go.

• The easiest way to look for work is on the Internet. I remember earlier, there were times when I was looking through ads in newspapers like "Work for You". Here, too, there are such, but you need to look for an IT specialty on the Internet. There are many sites specializing in this. I used only two: jobs.cz and monster.cz. There are more vacancies on the monster, but on job.cz they seemed to be of better quality.
  
  
• It is always preferable to respond to positions published by the employer himself. In this case, the chance increases, since they do not need to pay a bribe to the agency.
  
  
• If the position is published by the agency, then you will be contacted by phone. Some people prefer email, but for some reason most people still call. Sometimes they call to ask questions, the answers to which they did not find in the resume, sometimes just to schedule an interview with the agency. An interview with an agency is usually a waste of time. You will be asked to go through your resume and you just have to retell it. They will also ask about money. Here you can safely give an interval with a slightly underestimated minimum. So the chance to get to more customers increases. And the client, you can call a little different numbers. If you like, sometimes it goes away.
  
  
• In experience, no one pays special attention to the uniform. Exceptions if you get a high-level managerial position. Here a suit with a tie is needed. And if you are a programmer, team leader or tester, then you can wear a T-shirt with piercings and haer.
  
  
• The language of the conversation is best to choose on the basis of what you speak best. Even if you are not always understood. This gives an advantage over the interlocutor. For example, I speak English better than Czech. And in an interview where I had to communicate in Czech, I always failed. Due to uncertainty.
  
  
• At first, usually, the conversation is led by personnel officer (HR). Here the questions, mainly, why and why you change jobs, what you did on the previous one, social qualities, sociability and how much money you want. Everything is simple here. It is necessary to answer confidently and on business. With a question about money, one must not cheapen. They always focus on the named amount. It’s not accepted to bargain here, and if they can’t afford it, you will be sent after a technical interview, regardless of its result. If you call a range, such as at least so much, but I would like so much, then they always offer a minimum. So, here it is necessary carefully.
  
  
• The second interview (or the second part of the interview) with techies. Here they will either offer a test, or they will ask tricky questions on a specialty (I remember several questions that I was asked. They can be found below). By profession, this does not mean that you will answer these questions. Firstly, nerves do not allow you to concentrate, secondly, Java is large and versatile, you forgot something, but you never knew something. And the questions are asked precisely on encyclopedic knowledge, and not on the flexibility of the mind. Answer what you know. If you don’t know the answer, then say that you don’t know without losing control of yourself and self-esteem. It's okay to not know something. Make it clear that to know EVERYTHING is not necessary at all, and in such cases Google helps and the smart books that you have. In general, the mention of smart books and especially the design of patterns is correct. The only thing they really need to know. Knowing only the names will help little if you have to explain what it is.
  
  
• Be prepared for the fact that a technical interview can be conducted by a person whose knowledge and experience is less than yours. In this situation, do not protrude the chest. He may not like it.
  
  
• If you offer a written test, then having a phone with Internet access can be very useful. :)
  
  
• Czechs are big brakes. Sometimes they answer a few weeks or even months after you send your resume. The result of the interview also sometimes has to wait for weeks. From experience, it’s not worth reminding yourself. Exceptions only if this position is very interesting to you and you already have another offer that needs to be answered.
  
  
• Black salaries are almost never offered. And if they offer, then go from there immediately and do not come anymore. It is not solid. :)
  
  
• Well, the last. Always remember that any interview is a lottery. Never be upset in case of failure. Even if you consider yourself an ideal candidate for this position, there are always plenty of reasons to refuse you. But, as they say, that God does not, then for the better.

And finally, as promised, some questions from various interviews that I remembered. I won’t give answers (I don’t even know one question). Discuss in the comments or search for answers on the Internet yourself. :)

1. What is the difference between an abstract class and an interface? (Yes, such questions are also asked)
   
   
2. Why does the Object class have a hashCode () method and how is it related to the equals () method?
   
   
3. You are building a cache. You need to delete some objects from the cache every time you garbage collect. How to do it?
   
   
4. How to recover transient class members after deserialization?
   
   
5. Differences between Adapter and Proxy patterns. Which of them is in which case better to apply.
   
   
6. What is the Session Facade for?
   
   
7. Always ask questions on the Collection Framework and on threads and synchronization. Like which lists are synchronized and which are not, the difference between Hashtable and HashMap, which and in which case is better for performance.
   
   
8. What types of xml parsers do you know and how do they conceptually differ. Which one is better to use and when.
   
   
9. WSDL types and how they differ from each other.
   
   
10. What is the most efficient way to build a synchronized Collection out of the ordinary.
    
    
11. Oddly enough, they usually don't ask questions about EJBs. I came across only the most elementary and boring, about their types and methods of application.
    
    
12. The difference between yield () and sleep ().
    
    
13. What does volatile modifier mean and why?
    
    
14. How can I change the thread state to WAITING?
    
    
15. How to release a dynamic change of the survey date in a 24/7 system without re-deployment?