I have been with my current project since December 23, 2013. So that’s almost 5 years ago. This project is the reason why I was sent to work onshore by the company.
I have been promoted in this project in 2016 from Team Lead to Associate Manager. I have been recognized for being a consistent performer and even got Recognition points (around 200 + 100 + 50 + 20 + 10).
I did not worry about being rolled off because my roll off date in the job site was 2022. So I was caught by surprise when I was told a month ago that I am rolling off from the project by the end of October. Well, I take it back. When I heard that there will be a ‘massive’ roll off because of budget constraints, I already had a hint that if there will be a second batch, I will be one of them. I had that feeling because I am performing the same responsibilities with my boss. And he knows more than I do so it doesn’t make sense for both of us to stay in the project while other people are getting rolled off.
So here I am now looking for the next project. It’s been the 2nd week since my ‘active hunt’. And I have been invited for interviews both within and outside the company.
My very first technical interview was a shocker. I wasn’t prepared at all. They required for me to have a webcam so I bought one from Walmart the night before. I did dial in almost an hour before the interview and setup the camera and made sure it was working. But it didn’t work with the meeting room they gave so we had a bit of a delay until they just agreed and continued on with the interview (with me showing my video using Skype settings).
Anyway, they asked me about BASIC JAVA stuff. Stuff you would need to know to pass a Java certification exam (which, by the way, I did pass in 2012). Immutable? Serialization? ArrayList vs LinkedList, HashTable vs HashMap, HashSet vs TreeSet? Hmm… so I know these concepts but at that moment I couldn’t answer! Ugh. Stupid me. I never thought I would be asked these kind of questions. I needed a refresher! I needed to review! 😦
Okay so I failed miserably in that part. And then came the coding interview. I was also not aware that this was part of the interview. The recruiter never gave me a heads up. Oh well.. so I didn’t have an IDE installed in my computer but I didn’t really need one because they gave me a link to a collaboration site.
Test 1: Implement hashCode and equals for the given class.
Test 2: Given an array of numbers and a target x, find the numbers in the array that sum up to the target.
Whew. I did not fail completely in these coding tests. I was able to show them that I could code but my code had errors! Ugh! This was done without an IDE so I realized I had to train myself in coding without an IDE from now on. I can’t rely on Eclipse to do the imports for me, highlight the syntax errors, etc! Wow. So this is what it’s like doing technical interviews…
It’s a good start and I am now reviewing and trying to re-learn some concepts that I haven’t used for so long. I realized that being in the IT industry means you never should stop learning! And always try to keep up with the new technology otherwise, you could end up being jobless… and that is not a very good place to be.
My Lane 