Reflection on a Senior Frontend Engineer Interview
Of course, everything failed, even because the recruiter froze hiring or the salary didn't match, or there were problems with the technical interview.
In the past few weeks, I have been doing interviews for the position of Senior Frontend Engineer at some companies. It's to match my skills, my lack of knowledge about technical aspects, and what I need to learn.
So, here I share my journey and what I can learn from it.
- Learn Outside of Jobs. This was my initial problem. Too much work and forgetting to catch up with current trends or tech not used in the current company. For example, I couldn't answer really well regarding Microfrontends, Integration Tests, Advanced React Patterns like the ref API and useRef in React. This made me understand that I must spend more time creating products that implement more Web APIs.
- Algorithms and Data Structures. An old problem, but it is what it is because when we work on Products, especially in the Frontend, it's really rare that we use our knowledge regarding ADS in projects, thus making me forget a lot of things, especially about Linked Lists, Binary Search, Stacks, etc. Then, what should I do? Of course, more grinding in competitive programming such as Codewars, HackerRank, and LeetCode.
- Explaining Technical Concepts in English. Even though I am a mentor, my mentoring capabilities are in Bahasa Indonesia. That's my problem; I rarely talk or have conversations in English, especially explaining something technical to users, especially about Frontend stuff. This made me understand that I must learn more about building sentences, pronunciation, and technical writing or technical talks.
That's at least what I can learn for today. So, in this quarter, I will:
- Build more Products, especially products related to Web APIs such as Real-Time Chat, Ticketing, AI Products, etc. I will try to find resources about what products I should build that will implement Public APIs/Web APIs.
- Grind on HackerRank, Codewars, or LeetCode.
- Write and Speak more in English for better understanding in English and technical things.
I hope this will improve my capability as a Frontend Engineer and my goal to become a Senior Frontend Engineer and improve my skill as a Software Engineer.
