The First Phone Screen -- Alibaba (I)

On Tuesday, I received the first phone screen of mine. It was a referral from a company insider who is an alumnus of Beihang University and works in Alibaba after graduation. The position I applied for was algorithms engineer. It can be summed up in such one sentence:

I screwed up my first phone screen from Alibaba!

That's all for my story here. Thanks for reading.

Hahaha. Okay. Get to the point and the "true story" has just begun. It is the truth that I screwed it up but I really learnt a lot from it. Keep reading and I promise you will find the points at last. It's a real eye-opener to me.

After I got the referral, I was asked to fill up a form online, providing some basic information of mine and then waiting for the interview arrangement. Here I have to praise Alibaba for its high efficiency of the interview arrangement. I submitted the application form online in the afternoon on that Tuesday and my phone rang in the evening on the same day. “Is it Boyu? Here is the Department of Big Data Application of Alibaba. Are you free to talk?” Wow! The amazing efficiency impressed me. I had expected the phone call would come in a few days, maybe in a week, but it was in a few HOURS.

It was not the first phone screen but a resume evaluation in front. The interviewer didn't ask me any real questions that need to be thought about but a few warm-up questions to know more about me.

1. Please introduce yourself first.

2. What 's your research field? Do you have any achievement on your research? Talk more about your research, please.

I didn't put my research experience on my resume. I thought it's not very important for the job hunting because what I want to apply for is a job in company, not a position in university or research institute. Project experience is much more significant I thought. That was the first mistake I made. After listening to my talk about the research of mine during the post-graduate study, the interviewer wondered and asked me why I hadn't put all these on my resume. From then on, I realize that the research experience is also a part of the project experience. As a graduate student, the research is an essential part of my study, accounting for up to half of my study. This is the first point I learnt from the phone screen. The interviewer was so nice that he suggested me some advice of how to write my project experience on the resume. According to different positions you apply for, you can customize various resumes respectively. For software engineer, you can put more software project development experience on. For algorithms engineer, you can write more research experience, if there is some correlation between your research and the position. Anyway, both your research experience and the project experience should be put on the resume.

3. He then asked me some questions about the project experience as I wrote on the resume. Could you talk about what you did in the project? What did you do during the development of the project?

Remember, the more detailed, the better. I'm in charge of the development of the underlying service. NO! Try to elaborate the job you did like what tools you used during the whole process, what language you used, what the entire process is, what problem you encountered, what you did to solve it...... The interviewer wants to learn the details about the job your did in the project, the real technical details you used and master.

4. Do you know some algorithms in machine learning?

I can talk about some basic concepts in machine learning. However, when it comes to the details, I know nothing. There are two branches that you must know a little about if you want to apply for the position of algorithms engineer: Machine Learning and Data Mining.

5. Do you know something about "Recommender System"? What algorithms are mainly used in the recommender recently?

I know the recommender system is very hot in these companies nowadays. I only know a little about a simple mechanism called collaborative filtering. The interviewer told me the recommender is the major job his department being in charge of. If you want to apply for a position in that department as a software engineer or an algorithms engineer, you should learn something on it.

6. The only question he asked about the technique was one about multithreading in java, which was the only one I didn't answer up. "What is the difference between Thread and Runnable?"

I have used both Runnable and Thread during the development of the project before. This question is very basic in the field of multithreading in java and I believe I searched it on the internet long time ago. But I totally forgot what the difference there is. 

7. At last, the interviewer asked me whether I had some questions.

So here is the entire process of the resume evaluation. From the above, I learn the basic procedure in the resume evaluation, begun with self-introduction and ended up with "Do you have some questions to ask me?". During the evaluation, the interviewer often asks some questions about the resume, about what you write on it. The interviewer wants to know more about you through the talking, to learn what you really did in the previous projects and what you truly master.

It's a coincidence that I had such a referral from Alibaba. I happened to see a notice in a group chatting in the morning on that Tuesday. I filled up the form without any expectation of success. I haven't made any preparation for it yet. But I cherish this opportunity. No matter whether it is the company I really want to go into, I will apply for a position in it as long as I get the chance. Every phone screen or on-site interview I receive is a chance to learn the real world of the job interview. No matter how many questions I can answer up, I can write down all the questions and make it up afterward. It is an invaluable opportunity that I should seize to learn more. Cherish every chance to go to the front.

Till now it's just the part of my resume evaluation, not the first phone screen I screwed up. I'm sorry there are so many words I want to say before it. But they are very helpful to you, right? :) The REAL fist phone screen will come in the next post and here is some preview about it. Leave your comment and remember to come back soon.

PREVIEW:

The first phone screen came just on the next morning, at 10:05 am.

I only answered up one question completely during the entire interview.

It lasted for almost 40 mins.

I SCREWED it up totally.