Summary
- Skills: Mainly in C# ,Web API, SQL
- Challenged Faced in clearing the interviews: Worked on project with limited exposure to latest framework and cloud native architecture. Though I learned about latest C# concepts and microservices architecture it was difficult to clear all the technical rounds.
- Interviews attended: Around 10 in last 3 months.
- Offers Received: 3 offers ( 2 from product based and 1 service based)
- Current CTC: 11.5 Lakhs
- Offered CTC: 21-24 Lakhs range
What was not working:
Skimming through interview questions. Just updating my profile on job sites and applying from there.
Things that worked:
Learnt daily. Created sample C# codes to understand all the concepts. Planned at least 3-5 referrals / week.
Some Interview Questions that were asked or that stands out
- Have you used record types in C#
- Explain how memory management works in .Net
- How do you handle versioning in a Web API?
- Explain what was the most complex scenario you handled in your project.
- Questions on Microservices pattern (I told in the interview that I worked on the Microservices pattern). Similary questions on Azure Functions (though I didn’t work on Azure functions I learnt about it)
- Have you worked on any Gof design patterns? Why did you decide to go with mediator pattern
- Have you worked on Micro frontend architecture?
- Some questions related to Cloud native architecture.. mainly on the patterns.
Can you let us know more about yourself and your interview preparation Journey:
I have always been a good student and have done well in my job. I have total of 6+ years of experience working in an service based company. Since last 4 years, I have been working for same project. I started looking for job change from last 1 and 1.5 years but got serious only in last 6-7 months when I decided that’s it . I can’t let someone else decide my fate.
I struggled initially to even get interview calls. And when I did, I often walked away feeling like it was a 50-50 — sometimes I’d do well, and other times I’d completely mess up.
With my .NET background and solid experience in backend services and SQL, I assumed it would be easy to land a job. But to my surprise, most companies were looking for either full-stack developers or engineers with deep expertise in microservices architecture, cloud technologies, and modern frameworks.
Honestly, terms like Micro-frontend and Cloud-Native Development were completely new to me. In one interview, I felt I performed really well, but I was rejected simply because I didn’t have hands-on experience with unit testing.
It was frustrating, but it pushed me to rethink my approach.After this I decided to take a pause and learn these technologies first. I started with writing code on each of the topics I struggled earlier.
Then I learnt basic of Angular and created one end to end application using Angular, .Net8, Web Api , Entity framework. In interview I mentioned that I have less than 1 year of experience in Angular and was able to answer the basic Angular questions which helped me. This was like turning point. I started clearing more rounds and interviews. Though I have got job , and have chosen the company which I am going to join, I am still not done with learning. I have started to write more and more code during my notice period so that when I join the company I am well prepared to work as per their expectation.
Another point that I missed above was going via referrals. Lately I was getting very few calls here and there which was not turning into interview call. I chose to focus more on referrals by pinging senior person (Leads, Manager + role ) requesting for referrals in their companies, (as I was not comfortable asking friends for the referrals) which resulted in 3 to 4 interview calls.
Thank You Eazy Reads for reaching out to me for sharing my journey. I hope at least few people will find it helpful in their job finding pursuit.
-MS