December 17th, 2016 by lewis
Our friends at Ziggeo put together an amazing YouTube video on how to make a great video interview, using your webcam or phone. Here are my favorite tips from the video:
Crush those video interviews!
December 17th, 2016 by lewis
By Lewis Lin
Recorded video interviews are becoming more popular, primarily because video interviews are:
The big challenge with recorded video interviews is that it’s a one-way broadcast. In other words, unlike a face-to-face interview, you can’t ask clarifying questions.
Given this difference, it’s important to ask the right questions that can reveal who the candidate is and what the candidate can offer, without the need for clarifying questions.
We’ve compiled a list of the 10 most effective video interview questions. Try these with your favorite video interview platform, and you’ll be glad that you didn’t settle for just a resume in your applicant process.
This is one of the best video interview questions because it asks the interviewee to describe what sets them apart from all the others. This question also gives the organization a clear picture of what the candidate feels their strongest qualities are in relation to this position.
Whether you choose to ask this question up front or save it for later, we recommend using it in every interview. It can be a great question to start with when you are sharing recorded candidate responses within your team.
This is a great question because it immediately lets your team know three things:
The best candidates will shine in all three aspects of this question, giving you a good idea of who to focus on for the job.
Prompting the candidate to describe some of their good or bad past decisions can be a great way to gauge their thought process when it comes to career decisions. Does this person have the commitment and/or experience necessary to thrive in this position? How has his or her attitude changed with experience?
Getting to know your candidate’s strengths and weaknesses is an important part of the evaluation process. This is an effective method for getting to know your candidate’s strengths by having them explain their previous experience from the point of view of a coworker or boss.
Double checking with the candidate’s references is always a great idea for those that make it to the next round.
Similar to the last question, this is an excellent question because it will provide an honest assessment of the candidate’s weaknesses. As with the last question, you can always check the candidate’s references for more detail.
Simple and straightforward, this is one of our top ten questions to ask because it gets to what is beyond the resume and lets the candidate share that with you directly.
If you are looking for someone can work well with your team, ask them what they have learned from others in their career. This question not only gives you an idea of their teamwork abilities, but also can also lead to illuminating insights into their personality.
Most positions will involve negotiation whether it’s with customers, co-workers, and yes, the boss. This question is important to see how the candidate weighed a particular decision, how the candidate assessed the outcomes of that decision, and whether or not the candidate was successful in negotiating an agreement.
Asking this question is important to see how candidates deal with conflict-resolution in the workplace. Not only is the fit to team culture important, but also how all your candidates deal with problems when they arise.
Finally, what long term goals is your candidate focused on? Does the candidate have a plan for the next few years? This is important because it can tell your team whether your candidate’s goals are aligned with what he or she will be asked to do in the new position.
Photo credit: Dion Hinchcliffe
December 13th, 2016 by lewis
“When it comes to hiring, I’ll take a GitHub commit log over a resume any day.” — John Resig, creator of jQuery library
How do software companies and startups use GitHub to hire developers? According to a study at Carnegie Mellon University, employers looked for ‘activity signals’ that inferred passion for coding and a certain level of technical competency. Recruiters also evaluated soft skills, like project management and team collaboration, from user interactions with the open-source (OS) community. So how do you navigate through all those projects, requests, and commits? Start by looking for these five categories when reviewing (or creating) a GitHub profile:
“If they’ve devoted time to this OS project, that’s a good indicator that they’re in [computer science] for the right reasons…They’re doing something because they want to give back to their community.”
GitHub is the largest social coding website in the world, with more than 12 million users and 31 million repositories. The site allows developers to share their own OS projects and contribute to the code of other projects. Each developer profile also has a log of user activity that includes project contributions, original (“sourced) and copied (“forked”) repositories, and number of followers.
A majority of employers valued users who had committed to an OS project since “active involvement in the open source community was a signal of the candidate’s selflessness and honesty.” Recent and frequent contributions to public projects were favored, while hosting forked repositories were not. Employers reported this signal as one of the most reliable indicators when assessing collaboration skills and potential fit in the company.
“Seeing that he had commits to jQuery, was filing tickets with jQuery, and I know that’s a prestigious project to work on…Just by looking at his code, if nothing else seeing that it was being merged downstream into jQuery, I recognized that has demonstrated some level of proficiency”
GitHub profiles were also reviewed to determine the technical skills of candidates. Accepted contributions to reputable projects were highly regarded since they inferred a ‘seal of approval’ or referral from experienced developers in the community. It is important to note that ‘high status’ projects were based on each employer’s knowledge of the GitHub community and not on the number of project followers (“watchers”).
Employers favored this indicator since “pull requests” and “commits” to third-party projects validated a candidate’s skills and reduced the need for additional assessments. Committing to a particular project also highlighted a developer’s coding expertise and indicated proficiency in a programming language.
“I don’t think you can use it as a sole way to judge someone…But if something is up there, it’s definitely a huge plus and probably one of the first things we look for — are they sharing their source code?”
The ability to start a project and manage the project’s community was also a evaluated by employers. Project ownership required “setting design direction, managing incoming code contributions and patches, and interacting with potential collaborators.”
Employers determined that a GitHub profile with successful projects inferred skills in project management. In addition to technical skills, project ownership also highlighted long-term design capabilities and collaboration styles.
“A lot of us spend our weekends working on [project name] so we want to work with people who are motivated to not just work on the code they’ve been assigned but to work on projects outside their job. It just shows a general excitement for the space and that’s what we want to find — people that are really engaged”
Employers also categorized projects into work-related repositories and non-work related side projects. Side projects inferred a genuine passion for software development and potential for success in the company.
Employers viewed a candidate’s willingness to code during their free time as a commitment to learning and career development, as well as an indicator of company culture fit. Developers who exhibited enthusiasm for coding through side projects were also deemed more likely to “show initiative and entrepreneurship in their work.”
“You can see if a lot of people have watched and forked and that’s a good thing, but it kind of depends on how good a marketer that person was as well on GitHub.”
Some employers assessed the popularity of a candidate’s repository by noting the total number of watchers and forks. However, a majority of employers deemed the signal as too unreliable since self-promotion could be used to ‘game’ the system.
Instead of relying on the number of watchers or forks, employers evaluated the code of a project that had the most commits. From this code, the employer could infer the developer’s technical proficiency and design approach.
The study concluded that employers valued easily verifiable and reliable measures on a GitHub profile, such as frequency of user activity and project ownership. Reliable signals that were harder to interpret, like quality of code and side projects, were not always preferred due to time and assessment constraints.
Sourcing a candidate always requires significant investment from a hiring manager, and finding a great developer is no different. We hope that this intro guide will help you find the best candidate when looking to fill that important developer role.
Source
Marlow, J., & Dabbish, L. Activity traces and signals in software developer recruitment and hiring. In Proc. CSCW, (2013), 145–156. http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2441776.2441794.
December 12th, 2016 by lewis
If you are looking for a job in this market, you must check out What Color Is Your Parachute? 2017: A Practical Manual for Job-Hunters and Career-Changers. The world’s most popular guidebook on job-hunting has been in print since 1970 and gets updated every year with great information. We have provided a summary consisting of direct quotes and citations from the book.
On average, employers want to only interview 5.4 candidates. Getting that stack of 118 to 250 down to 5.4 is the employer’s first preoccupation.
In today’s world, he or she who gets hired is not necessarily the one who can do that job best; but, the one who knows the most about how to get hired.
Go after any organization that interests you, whether or not they are known to have a vacancy.
Go after small companies (with 25, 50, or 100 employees at most). These are the best ones for a job-hunter or career-changer to approach, especially job-hunters with handicaps, or older job-hunters, or returning vets.
Cheer up! Yes, it is a brand new job-hunting world out there. But you are not powerless, up against vast forces you cannot control. You control this one thing above all else: how you search.
Almost all (91%) of U.S. employers have visited a job hunter’s profile on social networks, and more than 69% of employers have rejected some applicants on the basis of what they found.
Sometimes — 68% of the time, as it turns out — an employer will offer someone a job because they liked what Google turned up about them.
Most importantly, be sure to keep each profile up-to-date…Week by week, or at the least, month by month.
I mentioned LinkedIn; be sure to get on it, if you’re not already. It’s the site of first resort when some employer is curious about you. Expand your presence on the Internet. How to do this? Several ways: Forums, Blogs, Twitter, and Video.
A Starter Kit for Writing Your Resume: Volunteer, Community, and Unpaid Work; Educational; Sales or Account Management; Administration, Customer Service, and Accounts; Responsibility; Events or Conference Planning or Logistical Management; Computers; Mechanical; Building, Construction, Electrical, and Plumbing; General; Positive Feedback; Memberships; Published or Presented Work; Looking Ahead.
Now, many employers prefer a cover letter instead of your resume. That brief cover letter can summarize all that a longer resume might have covered. Another alternative to a classic resume is a Job or Career Portfolio.
If you’re blanketing the Internet with that resume, be cautious about including any stuff on the resume that would help someone find out where you live or work.
Job-hunting is all about human nature, and in its essence is most like another human activity that we call dating. Both shake down to: “Do you like me?” and “Do I like you?”
You are not powerless during the job-hunt. Maybe the employer has an overwhelming amount of power in the whole job-hunt. But the employer does not hold all the cards.
Job-hunting is, or should be, a full-time job. If your job-hunt isn’t working, you must increase the amount of time you’re devoting to your job-hunt.
Keep in mind that the interview may not be face to face: 63% of companies now report that they sometimes do video interviews.
Find out everything you can about them. Google them. Go to their website if they have one, and read everything there that is hidden under the heading “About Us.”
If it was you who asked for the interview, not them, remove their dread of this visit by specifying how much time you are asking of them.
You don’t begin an interview by — as experts would have it — “marketing yourself.” Only when you are weighing the question “Do I want to work here?” and have concluded “Yes,” or “I think so,” do you then turn your energy toward marketing yourself.
It’s the small things that are the killers, in a job interview: Your appearance and personal habits, nervous mannerisms, lack of self-confidence, the consideration you show to other people, your values.
Try to think of some way to bring evidence of your skills, to the hiring-interview. For example, if you are an artist, a craftsperson, or anyone who produces a product, try to bring a sample of what you have made or produced.
Do not bad-mouth your previous employer(s) during the interview, even if they were terrible people.
In an interview for hire, talk half the time, let the employer talk half the time… Let the length of your answer to an employer’s questions be between 20 seconds and 2 minutes at most.
Always, always, always ask for the job at the end of an interview, assuming you decided you want to work there.
If you want to stand out from the others applying for the same job, send thank-you letters — to everyone you met there, that day.
For now, let me hammer home this first Secret: it is in your best interest to not discuss salary… Not until you’ve decided, “I really would like to work here.”… Not until they’ve conveyed the feeling, “We’ve got to have you.”
A range between the lowest they’re hoping to pay, vs. the highest they can afford to pay. And that range is what the negotiation is all about.
Where salary negotiation has been successfully kept offstage for much of the interview process, when it finally does come up, you want the employer to be the first one to mention a figure, if you possibly can.
How do you tell whether the figure the employer first offers you is only their starting bid, or is their final offer? The answer is: by doing some research on the field and that organization, before you ever go in for an interview.
It will help a lot during this discussion, if you are prepared to show in what ways you will make money or in what ways you will save money for that organization, such as would justify precisely this higher salary you are asking for.
So, before you walk into an interview you should decide what benefits are particularly important to you. And then, after the basic salary discussion is settled, you can go on to ask them what benefits they offer there.
Get it all in writing. And signed. It’s called a letter of agreement — or employment contract.
With the second way to hunt for work — let’s call it The Parachute Way (everybody does, except me) — you begin with yourself instead of the job-market.
Looking for employers’ job-postings on the Internet…works on average just 4% of the time.
If you’re a union member, particularly in the trades or construction, and you have access to a union hiring hall, this method will find you work, up to 22% of the time.
Asking for job-leads. This method works 33% of the time.
Knocking on the door of any employer, office, or manufacturing plant…works 47% of the time.
Using the Yellow Pages. This method works 65% of the time… You call them, set up an appointment, go visit them, and explore whether or not they are hiring for the kind of work you do, or the position you are looking for.
The Parachute Approach. This method, faithfully followed, step by step, works 86% of the time… It begins by your doing an inventory of what you love to do. Next chapter.
GATHER. Put everything you know about yourself on one piece of paper. ORGANIZE. Put some kind of graphic on that piece of paper, in order to organize the information about yourself. PRIORITIZE. Prioritize all this information, when you have finished organizing it.
This flower has seven petals (including the center). That’s because there are seven sides to You, or seven ways of thinking about yourself, or seven ways of describing who you are: My Favorite Knowledges or Fields of Interest; My Preferred Kinds of People to Work with; What I Can Do and Love to Do (My Favorite Transferable Skills); My Favorite Working Conditions; My Preferred Salary and Level of Responsibility; My Preferred Place to Live; My Goal, Purpose, or Mission in Life.
Maintaining clarity, learning agility, and identifying development plans have become elevated to new and critical importance, if we are to maintain choice. As a result I’ve added the following four emphases to “Rich’s Flower”: Have, do, learn, and give.
First, You Need to Find Out What Careers or Jobs Your Flower Points To: If possible, you or they must combine two or three of your knowledges (fields) into one specialty: that’s what can make you unique, with very little competition from others.
Second, You Need to Try on Careers Before You Decide Which Ones to Pursue: So you need to go talk to people who are already doing the kind of job or career that you’re thinking about.
Third, You Need to Find Out What Kinds of Organizations Have Such Jobs: Before you think of individual places where you might like to work, it is helpful to stop and think of all the kinds of places where one might get hired.
Fourth, You Need to Find Names of Particular Places That Interest You: For a successful job-hunt you should choose places based on your interest in them, and not wait for them to open up a vacancy.
Fifth, You Need to Learn as Much as You Can About a Place Before Formally Approaching Them: What kind of work they do there. Their style of working. Their so-called corporate culture. And what kinds of goals they are trying to achieve, what obstacles or challenges they are running into, and how your skills and knowledges can help them… Secondly, you want to find out if you would enjoy working there.
A Final Word, Contacts: I call such a contact a “Bridge-Person.” What I mean by that title, is that they know you; and they know them (your target), and thus bridge the gap between you and a job there.
You can only have a handicap will keep some employers from hiring you. No matter what handicap you have, or think you have, it cannot possibly keep you from getting hired anywhere in the world.
An alternative way of dealing with a dream killer is to search for jobs similar to the one you hunger to do, but can’t.
On the other hand, a prejudice is a phantom handicap. It may raise its ugly head in one particular interview or more, but if you keep on going, find the right employer, then poof! the so called prejudice vanishes.
During the whole job hunt, what’s going to torpedo you most? What handicap is king? Well, shyness is near the top of the list.
“The PIE Method,”…has helped thousands of job-hunters and career-changers all around the world with their shyness and with their job-hunt.
Internet: Naturally, there is lots of advice there, but more specifically there is O*Net Online…It is a digital online treasure house of information, and up-to-date information at that, about careers.
Tests: In taking a test, you should just be looking for clues, hunches,or suggestions, rather than for a definitive answer that says “this is what you must choose to do with your life.”
Using the Flower Exercise: Look at your past, break that experience down into its most basic “atoms” (namely, skills), then build a new career for the future from your favorite “atoms,” retracing your steps from the bottom up, in the exact opposite direction.
Changing a Career in Two Steps: By doing career-change in two steps, each time you make a move you are able to legitimately claim that you’ve had prior experience.
Write: Ultimately, what you decide to do should flow from who you are. When done, look at your whole Flower Diagram and see if any or all of the petals gives you an idea for your own business.
Read: Now, what you want to do next is read up on all the virtues and perils of running your own business. Look before you leap!
Explore: You must find out what skills, knowledge, or experience it takes to make this kind of business idea work, by interviewing several business owners. Back home you sit down and inventory your own skills, knowledge, and experience… And you must then go out and hire or co-opt a friend or mate or volunteer who has those skills you are lacking.
Get Feedback: There is a self-examination type questionnaire that you can fill out, at Working Solo. It encourages you to ask yourself the hard questions. If you have a spouse or partner, tell them what you’re up to, find out what their opinion is, explore whether this is going to require sacrifices from them (not just you), and how they feel about that… Love demands it!
Have a plan B, laid out, before you start, as to what you will do if it doesn’t work out; i.e., know where you are going to go, next…Write it out, now: This is what I’m going to do, if this doesn’t work out.
We hope you enjoyed this book summary of: What Color Is Your Parachute? 2017: A Practical Manual for Job-Hunters and Career-Changers. This brief overview will start you on your job searching journey, but be sure to buy the guide to get all their great exercises, diagrams, and case studies!
December 10th, 2016 by lewis
You had an interview and didn’t get the job, again. What could you have possibly done wrong? What were they actually looking for? A study by the Georgia Institute of Technology aimed to find the qualifications you need to get that next developer job. Researchers surveyed 32 hiring managers in the gaming industry to rank the most important skills they look for in their entry-level developer candidates. Job qualifications were categorized as ‘Not Useful’, ‘Sometimes Useful’, ‘Important’, ‘Very Important’, and ‘Essential’.
As a standard in video game development, proficiency with C++ was ranked ‘Important’ to ‘Essential’ by all surveyed hiring managers. Knowledge about data structures, ability to solve algorithmic problems, and familiarity with debugging tools were also ‘Very Important’ skills. There is some good news for junior developers, 12.5% of recruiters replied that professional programming experience was not required or evaluated in their interviews. 28.1% of survey respondents also considered a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science to be ‘Not Useful’ or ‘Sometimes Useful’ in their hiring process.
Senior developers frequently mentioned “that students did not understand how the compiler might produce poorly optimized code.” 53.1% of recruiters considered familiarity with optimization to be a ‘Very Important’ qualification. Ability to coordinate multiple processor distribution and memory optimization were increasingly relevant skills to have as well. Big O algorithm analysis was also deemed ‘Important’ by 40.6% of hiring managers.
Writing clean code was ‘Very Important’ to ‘Essential’ for 84.4% of hiring managers. Overengineering and not being able to settle for “good enough” solutions were also major concerns. Object oriented design was an important skill for senior developers; however, students or entry-level candidates were only expected to know basic design concepts and write understandable code.
If interviewing for a specialized team, deep knowledge expertise (AI, Audio, etc.) was an ‘Important’ skill for 53.1% of hiring managers. However, “the flexibility to work on any part of a game project” was ‘Important’ to ‘Very Important’ for 78.1% of recruiters. Graphics rendering, linear algebra, and compiler knowledge were somewhat ‘Important’ skills to have. Multi-threaded programming, Newtonian physics, assembly language programming, and network programming were deemed ‘Sometimes Useful’, but not required by a majority of developer teams.
Out of all the qualification categories, the “need for culture fit was what they considered the primary goal of interviews, with technical qualifications being secondary.” 75% of hiring managers considered the ability to work on a team without excessive ego as an ‘Essential’ qualification for all their hires. Being able to work with coworkers in other departments and communicate to technical and non-technical audiences were also ‘Important’ or more for almost all surveyed developers.
Knowledge about the gaming industry or having any contacts in the field was ‘Not Useful’ or ‘Sometimes Useful’ for more than half of all recruiters. Though enthusiasm for building video games was highly favored, 75% of survey respondents did not consider extracurricular game projects to be an accurate indicator of this trait. In fact, the most important qualification in video game industry was the “willingness to work extra hours when necessary”. Working to finish features on time was ‘Very Important’ for 43.8% of developer teams and accurately reflected an International Game Developers Association (IGDA) survey that reported long hours was a widespread practice in the industry.
Though the software development industry may follow hard set technical requirements during their hiring process, this study proves that personal traits (enthusiastic, hardworking, sociable) may be just as important. Surveyed developers even mentioned that “technical skills could even be learned on the job”, but cultural fit could not be taught. When filling out your next application, be sure to highlight your programming potential, your willingness to learn, and your innate enthusiasm to make an impact in the industry.
We hope the findings of this study will help you find your next great developer position.
Source
Michael Hewner and Mark Guzdial. 2010. What game developers look for in a new graduate: interviews and surveys at one game company. Proceedings of the ACM technical symposium on Computer Science education, ACM, 275–279. http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.1145/1734263.1734359
December 9th, 2016 by lewis
Check out our email and phone templates to perfect your interview request response.
December 9th, 2016 by lewis
Writing a good thank-you letter is almost as important as the interview itself. Impress your interviewer by following the templates of these 3 sample thank-you letters.
Sending a thank-you letter by email is more than enough for 90% of employers. Email may be the only option since you need to contact your interviewer within the next 24 hours.
However, taking the time to print and send a letter by mail can create a lasting impression with your interviewer. If you’re planning to send an envelope, have a draft ready before your interview.
Note: Professional organizations (law firms, consulting firms, medical schools, etc.) may be expecting a formal letter. Prepare your letters beforehand and always use priority or express mail.
Subject Line: Thank you for the [Job Title] interview on [Date]
Dear Mr./Ms. [Interviewer],
Thank you for taking the time to interview me [today, yesterday] for the [Job Title] position at [Company]. I enjoyed meeting you and other members of the team, as well as learning more about the opportunities of the position.
I appreciate that we got to discuss [most important skills/experiences or relevant topic discussed in interview]. As I mentioned, my time as an [intern, previous position] at [Previous Company] has also prepared me for the responsibilities of the position. [Add any additional qualifications or related experiences that you didn’t mention at the interview].
Thank you for considering me for the [Job Title] position. If you have any questions or requests, please email or call me at [Phone Number]. I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Sincerely,
[Your Name]
Subject Line: Follow-up to the interview for the [Job Title] position
Dear Mr./Ms. [Interviewer],
Thank you for the opportunity to interview for the position of [Job Title] [today, yesterday]. I appreciate speaking with you, and other members of the staff, about the details of the position.
I am confident that I can contribute to [Company] as a member of your team. My background in [relevant skill sets] and experience as a [Previous Position] at [Previous Company] has prepared me for the requirements of the position. [Mention any specific job scenarios/requirements discussed at interview, and conclude with the reasons why you are qualified to fill the role].
[Optional: Reference any positive off-topic discussions and/or commonalities you may have had with your interviewer].
Thank you for your time and consideration for the [Job Title] position. Please email or call me if you have any further questions. I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Sincerely,
[Your Name]
[Your Title]
[Personal Phone Number]
[Your Name]
[Your Address]
[Your City, State, Zip Code]
[Date]
[Interviewer Name]
[Interviewer Title]
[Company]
[Company Address]
[Company City, State, Zip Code]
Dear Mr./Ms. [Interviewer]:
I am writing to thank you for the opportunity to interview for the [Job Title] at [Company]. I appreciate the time you took out of your schedule to meet with me and discuss the details of the position. After learning more about the job requirements, I am confident that I contribute to [Company]’s mission and goals as a member of your team.
As we discussed, [present specific topics of company needs/job roles during the interview]. I believe my skills in [relevant skill set] will help me [accomplish specific goals of the job position].[Highlight relevant degree or previous experience that have helped you prepare for the position].
[Include company highlights/strengths/events that are relevant to the interviewer. Add how you personally can contribute to positive work culture.]
Thank you again for considering me for this position. I look forward to the possibility of working with you soon.
Sincerely,
[Your Signature]
[Your Name]
We hope these templates for the perfect thank-you letter will help you impress your interviewer and land you your dream job.
October 30th, 2016 by lewis
Congratulations! You received an interview invitation! Let’s get started on a professional response that will have recruiters and hiring managers wanting more. For inspiration, take a look at our email and phone call/voicemail templates below.
The response to an interview request should always be done on the same or next day. The sooner the better, so check your email and voicemail frequently!
Respond to email invitation requests through email. Phone calls should be answered personally (if possible), and given a call back if they go to voicemail.
The structure of your interview response should include:
If needed: Answer any questions from the employer, or ask any questions about the interview process.
The following template can be used for email interview invitations:
Dear Mr./Ms. [Recruiter or Hiring Manager],
Thank you for inviting me to the interview for the [Job Title] position at [Company]. I appreciate you considering me for the position and I look forward to meeting you soon.
As per your availability, I would like to schedule the interview on [Day of the Week], [Date] at [Time, AM/PM, Timezone] in the [Company Office] at [Address]. Please let me know if the time and interview location works for you.
I am excited to learn more about the opportunities at [Company]. Thank you for your time and consideration.
Sincerely,
[Your Name]
[Your Phone Number]
The following template can be used for phone calls or voicemail:
Mr./Ms. [Recruiter or Hiring Manager],
Thank you for calling me to schedule an interview. I’m sorry that I couldn’t take your call earlier. I am available to interview with you on [Day of the Week], [Date] at [Time, AM/PM, Timezone]. I understand the interview will be held in [Company Office] at [Address].
Please let me know if the time and interview location works for you. I look forward to meeting you soon. To contact me, please call me at this number or email me at [Email Address].
Thank you,
[Your Name]
October 5th, 2016 by lewis
Source: Interview Math Book, Market Sizing Example
Estimation questions test your ability to approximate a value. Here are some examples one might encounter in an interview:
Some candidates refer to estimation questions by its catchier portmanteau, guesstimates.
There are different types of estimation questions; market sizing and revenue estimations are two of the most common.
In the phrase “market sizing questions,” “market size” refers to a total addressable market. That is, what would be a company’s revenue if it had 100% market share of a category? For example, an interviewer may ask you the following market sizing estimation question: “What is the market size of disposable diapers in China?”
Market size is usually stated in terms of revenue, but some interviewers may define it in terms of units sold. To minimize miscommunication, clarify with the interviewer.
Examples of market sizing questions include:
For revenue estimations, a candidate is expected to calculate company, product, or service revenues.
Examples of revenue estimation questions include:
Why do interviewers ask these questions?
Interviewers use estimation questions to evaluate a candidate’s:
Some may deride estimation interview questions as not having real-world applicability. However, estimation is a skill that helps professionals do their jobs. For example, if you are store keeper, your responsibilities include figuring out how much inventory to order. If you are an equity analyst, you may estimate a firm’s future enterprise value.
Estimation can also help with decision-making. Here is an example: let us say we are evaluating a business decision; we want to open a new McDonald’s in our city. To breakeven, we need to generate $500,000 in sales. There are several McDonalds’ stores already, which means we are not going to get many customers.
Given this constraint, let us say for the sake of argument, we deduced that each visitor needs to spend $150 to breakeven. Yikes! We just identified a flaw in the investment thesis. A typical McDonald’s customer spends $8; getting customers to spend $150 per visit is a big stretch. To summarize, the estimation example showed how our calculations identified a faulty sales per visitor assumption.
Here is what interviewers would consider as a top notch answer to an estimation question:
We’ve included two examples of market sizing questions and their solutions:
You’ll find sample answers for each question at the top and bottom of the article, respectively.
You can find more market sizing examples from Lewis C. Lin‘s book, Interview Math.
Source: Interview Math Book, Market Sizing Example
September 7th, 2016 by lewis
The PM interview practice partner community provides free mock interview practice by matching PM candidates with one another.
We’ve found that the best PM candidates are consistently doing more than 20 mock interview cases before interviewing. We highly recommend that you do so, in conjunction with expert coaching, to increase your chances of landing your dream PM job, whether it’s Google, Facebook, Amazon, or Uber.
To learn how to sign-up, visit this detailed article about the PM interview practice partner community.
Screenshot: PM Interview Practice Community