It's been almost a month into completing Flatiron School's full stack software engineering bootcamp.
The theme that I can pull away is that as of April 2023, it is tough market out there; however, there are opportunities and you just need to keep looking, networking, and applying, but most importantly keep up with your coding skills (this will payoff in the long run)!
Once you finally get a response for that coveted software/web development job, there is usually an added layer before the interviews in regards to coding exercises, coding tests, etc.
This definitely makes sense because companies don't want to hire the right person and sometimes there is no way around it.
Today let's go ahead and take a look at various formats of coding assessments that I have taken a part in and what it really means!
Coding Assessment #1 - Deliverable
By far my favorite type of assessment, where the company will provide a problem statement to solve in addition to a completion date. They leave it up to you to set up your environment and the technology stack that you are comfortable with.
For lack of better phrasing, the deliverable coding assessment allows for the job seeker to thrive and show off their ability to code and the tools that they use. However, employers will not get a gauge for how job seekers would perform under pressure.
Coding Assessment #2 - Timed Tests
This is where nerves can definitely kick in because I was never a great test taker. The SATs... did not do that amazing... CAT-9 standardize test... better luck next time... Accelerated Reader... yeah...
Growing up I was just a bad test taker; however, I can see how this could be used to filter people that are qualified. Tests in general will show if a person understands the material. But add in a layer of the test being timed, nerves can actually get in the way.
Whether it is having a new environment to navigate like Test Dome or Hacker Rank, etc... you are limited to the technology the employer chooses.
All this to say, you need to choose one main language like C-languages, Java, Python, JavaScript etc. My advice would be to choose one and dive deep because some testing sites won't let you reference documents.
Closing Thoughts
Don't be like me and decide to do all assessments in one day, especially the timed assessments, no matter how easy the sample questions are... Everything gets blended and you don't know if you could use references or not.
You heard this advice one too many times, but take a deep breath and tackle one assessment at a time. Failure is okay because it will prepare you for your next assessment. You just need to get out all the bugs and jitters.
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