本文发表在 rolia.net 枫下论坛Arrived in Toronto on April 18th early in the morning and started job-hunting on May 3rd. Got offer on June 2nd (just found it out from my agency).
Background: 2 years of software development experience, 1 year of Java.
Interview experience:
I had 4 interviews with three different companies.
(1) For the first one I didn't perform pretty well. Two HR personnel and one techinical cheif interviewed me together which last precisely half an hour. No answer from them thereafter.
(2) For the second one, the company found my resume at www.workopolis.com and called me in the morning. After talking on the phone for a few minutes, he arranged me an interview in the afternoon. When I get there, he put me on a Java test. I did it okay (missed 4 or 5 out of over thirty questions). He's very satisfied with me and promised me he would recommend me to his boss and said he will call me the next afternoon. Then I got his call the next morning and was informed to have an interview with the boss at 2:00 am in the afternoon. Met the boss, and the boss asked me lots, lots of technical Java questions which I could answer only half of them (well, I just have on year of experience with Java). Then he gave me an assignment. I finished it, but it took me some time. Still waiting for their response. I might have already lost this opportunity.
(3) Then I met another agency which was referenced by Yaojian (Yaojian is a great guy! Believe me!). This agency is very sharp. Talked with him for over an hour and left his office after 12:00. Then at 2:00, he called me and said he had arranged me an interview with company ABC the next morning. Cool efficiency! Arrived ABC company at 11:00, they put me on an other online Java test. Finished it in about 40 minutes. This test is very tough, lots of new stuffs for Java 2 which I were not familiar with. I thought I've ruined the interview already by the test. But to my surprise, they are quite satisfied with my scores. Hereafter 5 people interviewed me individually. 2 HR personnel (one is the manager), one architect, one PM, one SDM. Asked me all kinds of questions: technical, personality, interests, etc. I performed pretty well in those interviews. And finally they give me an employment form to fill out. At that moment, I knew I've made it. It's 2:40 in the afternoon already (the longer the interview lasts, the better chance you get the offer).
A couple of suggestions to those fellow job-seekers:
1, Be confident, both inside and outside the interviews. If you DO have the skills, you'll get the job. (Even "iron" can shine, let alone "gold" like you are).
2, Be well prepared for the interview. What kind of questions they might ask you, what kind of questions you should ask them. www.thebans.com has some pages about interview.
3, English! English! and English! One agency told me: do not speak Chinese for 30 days, only English! Read ALOUD business sections on newspaper (Toronto Star) everyday for 30 minutes.
4, Get yourself familiar with the bleeding edge technologies. For example to those Java guys: Java2, EJB, Servlets, JSP, XML, UML, Design Patterns, ...
5, God bless you!
Hope my experience might help some of you out there!
Some helpful job sites:
www.monster.ca
www.workopolis.com
Once again, many, many thanks to those friends who helped me though, especially to YAOJIAN.更多精彩文章及讨论，请光临枫下论坛 rolia.net
Background: 2 years of software development experience, 1 year of Java.
Interview experience:
I had 4 interviews with three different companies.
(1) For the first one I didn't perform pretty well. Two HR personnel and one techinical cheif interviewed me together which last precisely half an hour. No answer from them thereafter.
(2) For the second one, the company found my resume at www.workopolis.com and called me in the morning. After talking on the phone for a few minutes, he arranged me an interview in the afternoon. When I get there, he put me on a Java test. I did it okay (missed 4 or 5 out of over thirty questions). He's very satisfied with me and promised me he would recommend me to his boss and said he will call me the next afternoon. Then I got his call the next morning and was informed to have an interview with the boss at 2:00 am in the afternoon. Met the boss, and the boss asked me lots, lots of technical Java questions which I could answer only half of them (well, I just have on year of experience with Java). Then he gave me an assignment. I finished it, but it took me some time. Still waiting for their response. I might have already lost this opportunity.
(3) Then I met another agency which was referenced by Yaojian (Yaojian is a great guy! Believe me!). This agency is very sharp. Talked with him for over an hour and left his office after 12:00. Then at 2:00, he called me and said he had arranged me an interview with company ABC the next morning. Cool efficiency! Arrived ABC company at 11:00, they put me on an other online Java test. Finished it in about 40 minutes. This test is very tough, lots of new stuffs for Java 2 which I were not familiar with. I thought I've ruined the interview already by the test. But to my surprise, they are quite satisfied with my scores. Hereafter 5 people interviewed me individually. 2 HR personnel (one is the manager), one architect, one PM, one SDM. Asked me all kinds of questions: technical, personality, interests, etc. I performed pretty well in those interviews. And finally they give me an employment form to fill out. At that moment, I knew I've made it. It's 2:40 in the afternoon already (the longer the interview lasts, the better chance you get the offer).
A couple of suggestions to those fellow job-seekers:
1, Be confident, both inside and outside the interviews. If you DO have the skills, you'll get the job. (Even "iron" can shine, let alone "gold" like you are).
2, Be well prepared for the interview. What kind of questions they might ask you, what kind of questions you should ask them. www.thebans.com has some pages about interview.
3, English! English! and English! One agency told me: do not speak Chinese for 30 days, only English! Read ALOUD business sections on newspaper (Toronto Star) everyday for 30 minutes.
4, Get yourself familiar with the bleeding edge technologies. For example to those Java guys: Java2, EJB, Servlets, JSP, XML, UML, Design Patterns, ...
5, God bless you!
Hope my experience might help some of you out there!
Some helpful job sites:
www.monster.ca
www.workopolis.com
Once again, many, many thanks to those friends who helped me though, especially to YAOJIAN.更多精彩文章及讨论，请光临枫下论坛 rolia.net