Interviews in general can be nerve-racking meetings regardless of where your current skill level is at. You can be a junior developer and ace all of your questions, or you can be a senior full-stack developer and have no clue about what you were just asked. But while spontaneous at times, there are a few things that you can do to increase your odds of landing that next job. Or rather, here are few things that you should perhaps avoid.

The year is off to a fresh start, and as such, it is time for many people to make those new year's resolutions and to maybe get a new job. And if you're a young up and coming programmer nowadays, you're going to need more than your fancy laptop and geeky stickers. Those help, but only so much. What's worked for me for the past 10 years is my Portfolio. And I speak of it in a physical manner. It sounds weird for a programmer to bring in their portfolio to a job interview, much like a graphic designer or artist would, but it's doable and it gets a reaction. And that's due to the fact that most other programmers applying for your position, won't bring in a portfolio. They w . . .

After years of programming, I'm still not quite sure yet myself. Many times you'll see those keywords in job descriptions and then stop for a second and maybe decide that you won't apply, because while you're good, you're not quite up to a "senior" level good just yet. Maybe a few more years. I've done that many times, and not because I don't think that I can't handle the work, but mainly because I don't want to work for a company that has that type of structure in place anymore. A company where knowing one more technology, or having one more year of experience, puts you above somebody else. It's awkward at times and usually involves in pay imb . . .

Everyone that knows me, knows that I enjoy a good interview. I even enjoy the bad ones sometimes because if anything, they at least make for a good story later on. And this last interview didn't disappoint me one bit. It went exactly the way that I knew it was going to go. It was like a second year in college programming midterm, except that instead of writing, you had to answer each question out loud, within seconds. And every second that went by with silence was the most awkward second of your life. Yeap, that's how it went.

I never do well in these types of interview. And it's for a good reason. I've been programming for the greater part of the past decade now, and I think a . . .

I have an interview coming up really soon because I can't be self-employed and living by our own terms forever unfortunately. At least not yet, I'm working on it. And after many many interviews in my life, I know what to expect from it. And I'm not looking forward to it, not one bit. This is when I need to reach back 10 years into my college computer science classes and start to remember those keywords that I was told were so important. Except that they aren't and because of that I've forgotten most of them. I don't think I've ever turned to a co-worker and said "that's going to require some inheritance right there". Or "wait wait, we're adding a new menu, what's the Big O of that?" But . . .

It's job hunting season for those fresh out of college, so here is, what I would hope is, helpful info for anyone that's too eager to start working. When you're looking for a job and you hear those two magic words, "you're hired!" you drop everything and sign on the dotted line, usually. A part of looking for the right job is also knowing when to turn down a job as well. I've turned down jobs in the past for various reasons and it's awkward, I'll say that. But sometimes it's necessary. Especially if you're going to be working there 5 days a week for the next couple of years. That's a big chunk of your life on the line there. Everyone has their own reasons for turning down a job, and the following are a few of my own. Important note though, if you need a job, then take it, and take it fast.

Going to interviews is tough. And interviewing people is tough too. You have maybe 20 minutes to decides if that person is the right fit, and if they can handle the workload that's been left behind by someone else, probably. I've conducted a fair number of interviews at past jobs, and out of all of them not a single person brought with them a sample of their work. All I had was a piece of paper that pretty much resembled everyone else's that walked through those doors. A list of programming languages and RDBMS's repeated at different jobs. Which it's why its so important that you create and maintain a portfolio of your work.

Particularly for jobs where it's a bit more difficult . . .

I write alot about interviews and about interviewing people because it's a very important part of work. You can't hire someone without both of those things happening. And there is no standard to the way they run their course. Every company and every individual will conduct it differently. And because of that you're going to end up with a few train wrecks along the way. The following stories are true and they happened to me while I was out looking for that first job.

"Who Are You?"

This actually happened. I got a phone call on a Monday for an interview . . .

A while back the twitter hashtag #talkpay went for a viral spin and people were encouraged to post their job titles and salary in an attempt to showcase pay inequality. And more than enough people were more than happy to post theirs up and it got people talking. Companies like Buffer joined the cause and posted all of their employees salaries and they even shared the formula that they use to determine those salaries. And to be honest, it all seemed incredibly fair. You had people with the exact same titles who had tens of thousands of dollars separating them, but then you looked at the formula, and it just made sense.

Another interview and another set of questions to answer. Personally, I enjoy most interviews. You get to test yourself out and work on your communication skills a bit. And on the other hand, I hate interviews. Alot. They're sometimes awkward and within the first 5 minutes, you'll realize that you're wasting your time there. This latest interview I had, was the former. Here's a few questions I was asked, plus my answers, plus the correct answers where applicable.