Hi there, it’s Arisa, a programmer.
I live in Germany, but I came from Japan working full remote with my cool colleagues live in Berlin and Cebu.
For those of you Googling sample job interview questions for your job interview, this entry is something for you.
Although I work 100% everything with freelance, yup, I used to search around job opportunities to work in a company in Germany.
In my case, I live outside of Berlin, which means …
EVERYTHING IN GERMAN.
ALLES IN DEUTSCH.
… Literally, everything around you in German and you MUST follow as well.
No choice.
If you ever had a choice to choose wherever you want before coming over in Germany to move, better go to Berlin straight away.
Believe me, it’ll save your life much much much easier as long as you speak English.
If you got a reason to live in outside from Berlin like me, welcome to real Germany.
Even some famous cities in Germany expect you to speak German.
I speak up this from my experience after I applied to 30 companies everywhere in Germany and it was really like that.
Yet, I don’t mean taking all your hope away.
God is not that always harsh on you.
There are SOME companies accepting English speaking employees, although outside of Berlin.
My place is not famous as Munich, Frankfurt or Hamburg.
Still, I got some in my place.
(Although the closest one ended up / I declined in a weird way, even twice.)
Of course, I’m not going to list up all the companies’ names, but at least, I wanted to leave you something for your job interview to answer and prepare.
I do not need these sample questions so far.
So, go for it and take all of them for nailing it your job interview to take a Frontend Developer position!
These are the one I got in real.
Of course, they love to hear from you whether you really are a professional about what you do or not.
Also, here is the most fun part.
Just enjoy programming talk with developers or chief developers interviewing you.
It could be very various questions depends on your position and junior or senior.
I’ll just leave you only the questions I got in real.
Technical Questions:
- Could you introduce about yourself with your career?
- Do you know Magento?
- Do you know any other frameworks?
- What’s cons and pros of React as a framework?
- What do you consider to use to create a modern website?
- Do you start to design & code from desktop or mobile device?
- What do you think it’s a key to gain access from Asia to current our website?
- What do you use to show image contents fast in a website?
Not yet over, there will be most likely, HR person sitting with a chief developer.
She or he will ask you HR questions whether you can work legally in Germany or not.
Nothing related to technical questions, but you still should prepare well because sometime they ask you unexpected questions.
The best example of unexpected question is the second one,
“Why you want to work in a company with a permanent position instead of your current freelance occupation?”
Make sense, but if you didn’t prepare for HR questions and just focused on technical questions, you’ll be knocked out in a second.
So, just Google them quickly something like regular job interview questions for any kind of job.
But don’t forget they’ll 100% ask you about your visa and work permissions.
If you’re not confident of what your visa status is, don’t be a liar.
There’s nothing good if you make lies in job interviews.
There could be a possibility that after they found out your visa status is difficult for them to handle, then they’ll kick you out.
But you better include that something you’re working on to have a stable visa status.
Otherwise, just being honest and nothing backup is not the most clever way to get through and compete other candidates.
HR Questions:
- Which visa do you have? Does your visa allow to work?
- Why you want to work in a company with a permanent position instead of your current freelance occupation?
- What is your salary expectations?
- Can you work from [specific dates] if we hire you?
And most likely, they ask you that whether you have a question for them or not in the end.
You feel you nailed it or made it to answer all.
But do not relax yet, they love to discuss a bit more before they wrap up.
Make a conversation, just any official questions in a manner to show your interest to these companies or teams you might be working with make your impression better.
Questions from candidates:
- i.e.) Why you use Gulp instead of webpack?
I do not list a lot like the other sample questions because it could be again, way to various depends on where you apply.
Also, note that meaningful questions are welcomes, but not just random tons of questions.
They asked you for wrapping up your job interview.
Not always many questions are better than less questions.
Just make one or two simple questions and ask only efficient one.
They need to conclude your job interview with a good impression of you, nice and natural as well.
That’s it!
You’re off to go out from an interview room.
Don’t expect too much
What does it mean?
I thought I was perfect and chief developer even said to me that I have the highest potential to join his team from what I shared my answers based on my knowledge…
We had a really nice “developer to developer” discussions…
BUT THEY DECLINED MY JOB APPLICATION…!
Oooh yes, this happens a lot.
Eventually, you’ll get used to but I tell you already now.
“Why they do that although I had a really nice feeling from what we talked through the job interview…?”
There are some reasons which you don’t have a fault.
I also experienced that a lot and actually, it was too many of them.
That’s what I ended up go back to freelance programmer because I earn more with less waste of time and stress.
Here are some reasons calm you down.
- HR manager has changed: HR system changed and your application is lost
- Simply, they already forgot about your interview and application: They even offer you again because you’re not in their system anymore.
- Your visa was a tricky one for them
- The dates you told them you can start to work was not reasonable for them
- You don’t speak business level German, although they wrote in job requirement “You can work all in English.”
Believe me, I had the first, second and the last the most.
Also, I could prove them 100% because I had a company just declined my applications after I had many great feedbacks from a chief developer during an interview.
We even discussed already solutions or ideas to improve their project with me.
And the way they declined me was just an automatic email.
I asked a person who organized our interview, but no answers. (I knew, but I wanted to know to do better for next one.)
Almost a half a year passed.
Then, I got a LinkedIn message from a different HR person, but same company, same job position to apply.
It ended up I declined because they changed a job description and the responsibility which didn’t sound like for me a Frontend job compared from the first time I applied.
They really were putting me in a process to employ but not looking at my skills for only filling the number of this position.
I understand they need people in that position, but I explained them I am not qualified their new job requirements because it was not Frontend.
So, sometimes you have a bit weird experience that you need to ending up telling company you’re not the best fit to the position they want you to work.
Yet, that’s also a something experience.
I can now write and tell you my story to help you a bit from my experience.
But in the end, you’re the one decide where to work and you’re the one can choose.
Hope my entry was something meaningful for what you were looking for.
I’m glad if it help you a bit.
Tschüß.
