this video is all about the six tips to get more time in a coding interview
here's why we should care about this you ideally want more time to think any time
you get one of those really tough questions you want time to think because
you can give a better answer you can be calm and let's be real like the other
day you can get your shit together that's why we're gonna care about this
and that's why we're here to talk about getting time back from the interview
today earlier in my career I went looking for jobs I failed a bunch to be
honest in the very beginning and I ended up succeeding towards the end and I
shouldn't say end because I'm still in it but the only way I found to grow is
through failure and one of the things that I picked up in this failure in
these failures was that I had to buy more time in interviews so let's talk
about the six ways I've learned to buy more time that I'm gonna show you so you
can do in your next interview first and foremost write down your
questions or thoughts this is not just buy more time but it will actually help
you is to actually when they ask you a question write it down because for some
people with learning disabilities it is easier to physically write something in
because you committed to memory a little bit easier and allows your brain to
think about it a little more clear but in general if you have or ask or just
take the time to write down your thoughts it's a little bit easier to
collect it to see it down there so that way if you write down thick three quick
points you can come back to it go on each point and knowing you can come back
and you won't have forgotten what you just thought about that's what I've been
able to use before when I get long-winded questions I can write take
the time to write it down now obviously if you get a quick question like what is
Ajax we kind of expect that one on the spot so that's a little bit harder but
you can buy anywhere from 15 seconds to about a minute minute minute half so
very still effective method the second is to ask clarifying questions what do I
mean by that well what are the pros and cons of note and you can potentially
then respond back with Oh what parts of know would you like me to focus on would
you like me to focus on the core modules with
focus on some of the open source modules and by doing that you're gonna make the
interviewer take the time to think we're just gonna tail buy you a couple seconds
and then they respond you get anywhere by about five to ten seconds by just
asking a clarifying question and there's a ton of thinking you can do in five to
ten seconds now the other thing you can do is a natural pause now normally when
I teach a natural pause I physically pause a bunch and because I don't want
to make this video really awkward nothing to talk about at all but I also
don't want to just draw it out just cuz I'm doing pauses in the middle you can
give natural pauses of anywhere from one to two seconds without anyone thinking
twice because it's pretty common for people to take pauses but in interview
sometimes people just don't take pauses they start talking really fast manage it
becomes really hard to listen to them and it goes down a path that you just
don't want to go on pauses are extremely important because you can buy the one to
two seconds back and think quickly through things so don't be afraid to use
them because they're not socially awkward until you feel they're socially
awkward which I've learned is anywhere from two to four seconds as that range
where you're gonna start feeling it for seconds and on your you're definitely at
that point of you should stop pausing the fourth way is to pseudocode people
forget this one all the time and i encourage you to do this one you can buy
more time back in thinking if you start pseudo coding down your thoughts it will
allow you to buy time to show you you have a thought process which really
you're also coming up with answer on the spot and pseudo coding will allow you to
put some notes down and really let you think there you can buy anywhere from
fifteen to thirty seconds between what you're typing but talk your thoughts out
loud if there's a whiteboard there write them down you compare the talking aloud
with your thoughts with clarifying questions really well I see it done all
the time very effectively and that is what I'm gonna encourage you to talk
your thoughts out ask clarifying questions as you go it'll buy you more
time last but not least small talk if you are on a larger scale question where
you are trying to think through your thoughts I found that it's actually been
effective for something this one doesn't work as well for me I don't like to do
small talk personally do they listen to the interviewer not always but
I found that some people can multitask and can get this done which will buy
them more time just depends on how much small talk they keep up but it can at
least buy you anywhere from 5 to 15 seconds pretty easily no matter what you
do time matters figure out which one of these you want to try to implement and
then practice it practice this by either doing a mock interview with someone like
me or some someone in your peer group don't care but practice it by that and
do them mock interviews whether you're in a boot camp where they're your job
find a way to do an actual mock interview is someone that can help you
to test out these skills because the hard part about this is they're great
but they're it's it's easy to read this hard to implement because it takes
practice to be like oh how do I ask a good clarifying question oh I should
pseudocode here but am i pseudo coding the right thing or the wrong thing - I
do pauses do I write down questions do I smell it like it takes practice if
you're interested in help with this I've created a service called coding career
Fastlane will help you with the job hunt and interviews and yes I do mock
interviews to help you make sure you've practiced and you're prepared for the
interview so that you can buy back more time because that time is extremely
crucial for you to get the right answers to be more calm and to set yourself up
with new opportunities in life by getting the job that's it for this video
if you have any questions feel free to reach out leave a comment below and
until next time