My Experience Interviewing at a New York Recruiting Event

Last week I attended the NYC Campus Recruiting Event in downtown Manhattan. Held from December 9 to 11, it was an opportunity for Flatiron School graduates, such as myself, to be interviewed by a variety of different companies in the technology field for potential employment. Attendees were assigned a company or group of companies to interview for based on their own preferences. I became eligible to attend this event by meeting several criteria just in time for it, such as updating my own resume and engaging in online mock cultural and technical interviews. It was also right around this point that I officially declared my job search, a bit over a month after my graduation from Flatiron.

I attended the event on December 10 and was assigned two companies. Each day of the event, recruiting took place from 9 in the morning up to 7 at night. Both of my interviews were scheduled to take place as early as 10 and as late as 2:30–2:40 (assuming I would be done by 3), yet we were encouraged to be at the building an hour before our first interviews that day. As a commuter who lives in central Jersey, I had to catch the bus as early as 6 in the morning, but I wasn’t too concerned about being late or being unable to find the place, because the recruiting building was very close to Flatiron itself, to and from which I’d already spent 15 weeks commuting.

Once we arrived, we checked in to sit in this waiting room where we could prepare, converse amongst one another, and just relax while the companies interviewing were just an open door and another room away. Just then, I felt right at home, even though it wasn’t necessarily an environment I was too familiar with. Up until that point, my interviews were all done either online, over the phone, or in some small conference room to which my recruiter would walk me down this narrow and often long corridor from some waiting room. I hadn’t the chance to interview anywhere in New York, so it was a new opportunity for me and one that I’m ultimately glad to have taken.

I was up for my first interview at 10 on the dot, so it was good that I came in early. As I recall, I was the first person my first company interviewed. I remembered bringing my computer to both interviews (spoiler alert: I ended up not using it for either of them) but not a printed copy of my resume to the first one. At least, not until the end when I asked the recruiter if I could fetch it, which I’m still unsure whether or not that was a good save for me. But I digress. Anyway, my first interview was more of a cultural interview for junior developer. I had my 30-second elevator pitch down as well as the questions I wanted to ask each company, but I felt increasingly nervous when the recruiter asked questions I didn’t expect, such as what my favorite application(s) was/were. I think I was asked about the projects on my resume, too, but I wasn’t sure if that was a cue to begin showcasing one on my laptop or not. I had a project up and running for it, but for some reason I didn’t think I needed to use it.

My second one, meanwhile, was more of a tech interview for the position of frontend engineer, and there were two people interviewing me: an HR person and the senior dev. I had it at around 11:20. The way they did the tech interview was interesting — the snippet of code they gave me and asked me to explain was on a sheet of paper rather than on a laptop, which I assume was out of an assumption that some interviewees won’t bring their own computers to the interview. It was right then and there that I began to notice a pattern in the tech interviews I’ve done: many of them center around basic JavaScript concepts (== vs. ===, closures, var vs. const and let, etc.) — so, you know, it was something I thought (and still think) I had to keep an eye out for. At the end they gave me a goody bag, which was nice of them. I ended up being done before noon, so I had near-ample time to craft my “thank you” letters to them, even if it meant I wouldn’t have enough time tomorrow to get them out (you’re supposed to send them out within 24 hours of the interviews themselves).

Altogether, even if there’s zero chance for me to land a job at either of these companies, it was good practice for me as far as in-person interviews were concerned. And, again, I’m glad that I attended it, especially since the next one isn’t until sometime like April. It was literally a one-time opportunity that was a great help for me in kickstarting my job search.