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📓 Journal #15

You were asked to keep a journal while going through the program. Each weekend you'll receive a brief journaling assignment in addition to your coding homework. (Review the Journaling at Epicodus lesson for a refresher.)

Journal #15 Prompt​

Think critically about the following questions, and record brief yet honest responses. Include a date or timestamp and quick summary of the prompt to refer to later.

As you advance through your final course, these last few journal prompts will focus on the job and internship interview/search process to prepare for your (quickly approaching!) career after graduation. One common piece of interview advice is to enter the interview with a game plan. Specifically, a mental list of things you want to bring up in the interview.

  • What are three things about you that you wouldn't want to leave an interview without the interviewer knowing? These can be anything, but we recommend not selecting only technical skills. Teams are looking for great culture fits, too!

  • If you're having trouble deciding, think about it this way: What traits, qualities, skills, hobbies, experiences, education, etc. do you have that may both set you apart from other candidates, and prove interesting and/or beneficial to the interviewer and team?

  • How do these relate to your personal narrative. Or, if they don't, do you think they should be included in that narrative?

  • What can you do to ensure these traits and qualities aren't missed? Come up with a (very flexible!) plan for how you might include this information in the natural flow of the interview. Do you mention them in your answer to that ubiquitous "So, tell me about yourself?" question? Do you anticipate being able to mention your history of volunteer work when discussing previous work experience? Obviously there's no surefire way to anticipate exactly what each interview will be like, but it's helpful to brainstorm how you'll fit these things in.

Discussion​

We'll discuss our responses at our next class session. Make sure your responses are recorded before then!