Web / Software developer interviews - how to answer difficult questions

[andy91]

Hi

I have three job interviews coming up in the next week, all of them for PHP developer roles. I am an intermediate level php developer with just under two years experiance. However, I have mainly worked for web development agencies where getting the job done as fast as possible is their only real concern because that’s how they make profit e.g. charge by the hour. This has meant that they didn’t really follow best practices, testing was pretty much non-existent, they didn’t even use a version control system as the designers hated it and makings things look nice was more of a priority.

I am trying to move away from this and get into a more professional software development focused role and as such the interview process is a lot more stringent. I am technically capable of doing this kind of role but often convincing HR managers of this is a different story so how should I answer the following type of questions in a way that is going to aid me in getting a job. Obviously I have my own answers but Id like to know how you would answer them as either a software developer or developer manager.

1. How do you organise yourself when working on a project?

2. How do you keep track of where you are?

3. How do you comminicate with your team?

4. What is youe experience of communicating with clients?

[deceptikon]

How do you organise yourself when working on a project?

It really depends on the project. Some are small enough that strict organization is unproductive or even counterproductive. Others are large/complex enough to warrant full bug and feature tracking system and a formal development life cycle. For inbetween projects a couple of spreadsheets and regular update meetings have proven sufficient.

How do you keep track of where you are?

As noted above, I usually use a spreadsheet of features and bugs. In my experience, too much structure slows down the entire process without providing enough benefit to justify it.

How do you comminicate with your team?

Telephone, email, impromptu meetings, leaning over and saying "Hey you!", and the occasional formal meeting. This question is vague. Do you mean the actual methods of communication or when/why I might communicate with coworkers on a project that we're both involved in?

What is youe experience of communicating with clients?

I'm always in close contact with clients. Actually, I probably communicate more with clients than coworkers on most projects. It's very important to avoid getting too far out of scope.

[andy91]

Hi thanks for taking time to answer. Perhaps a better way of asking this is how should the above questions be done in an ideal world during an enterprise level development project?