In this guide, we're going to walk through one of the most important aspects of the job approach and that is interview prep.

Jordan: We're going to talk about what you do in order to prepare someone who is transitioning from finishing up code school, they want to go into the job workforce, and talking about what they need to do in order to prepare for those interviews.

Stephanie: Absolutely. So interview prep, in my opinion, is just as important as the actual interview. Again, you know we go back to companies hire for two reasons. Either they are losing money and they're hiring you to save money, or to make money.

So how do you solve their problem? That's why the prep is so important. You have to figure out what the problem is and how to solve it.

Jordan: Do you treat interviews, because I think a lot of people think that any interview for a job that they don't get, as a failed interview, but I always have told students and other developers that "No, it's not a failure."

They may not have been a fit for some reason or another, but every interview is a chance for them to practice their interviewing skills.

Stephanie Yes, absolutely. There are some really terrible interviews. I've had my own really terrible interviews. We won't go into that right now, but it's a learning experience. You can dissect that interview later, pinpoint possibly where it went wrong, and what you need to do better next time.

So things that should be included in the interview prep is actual research on the company. So "Yay" a recruiter has contacted you, you have an interview scheduled, and it's scheduled for Thursday at 2:00 PM. OK. So what do you do there?

You, first of all, look up the company name. Google it. Google is your best friend. I mean I have no idea what I would do without Google, and I can't remember what it was like without it before.

Jordan: Same here. There wouldn't be developers without one.

Stephanie: So Google the company and go on the company's website. Look at their About us, the Home page, and from there move onto LinkedIn. There's usually a culture portion on LinkedIn if the company is larger. You can see what the company's values are.

It's very important to make sure that the company's values align with your personal values. Another good tool to research companies is Glassdoor. The reason I like Glassdoor is that you can't remove the information, even if it's blatantly incorrect.

The truth is usually somewhere in the middle. What you can learn from Glassdoor is you can learn approximately what their turnover is. You can see the complaints of the employees that are there. You get an outside view of what the company could be like.

Jordan: That makes sense. In addition to that, you have things that you want to research on the cultural side, and then you also have things on the technical side that you want to look into.

So being able to find out, and you can get a lot of this simply based on the job application, what type of technology stack they're on. What type of JavaScript frameworks do they use? What do they use for their back-end languages? Find out what they do for DevOps.

I have had a number of individuals that are hiring partners where I ask them what some of the important things that they want to hear are? A lot of them revolve around simply understanding and having knowledge of their systems, and being able to research that.

It's going to give that individual more of a leg up than someone who comes at it blindly.

Stephanie: Understand their tech stack and understand their product. It's really easy to find the information. If you're not motivated enough to go look for the information, chances are you won't be motivated enough to go to the second round in the interview.

Jordan: That makes sense. How much time do you usually recommend, from a ratio perspective, how much time should they spend on preparing from a technical perspective versus just kind of everything else?

Stephanie: The technical portion is one of the most important portions for developers, as well as the culture. Definitely spend a few hours going through the company's developers. You can find developers on LinkedIn. Look at their Github.

You can see, possibly, what type of projects they're working on and get a good idea of it. Culturally, you can research on Facebook. You can research the other members of the team from a distance, and see if you would fit into that culture. A lot of times you can tell ahead of time.

Jordan: That makes sense.