diff --git a/files/en-us/learn_web_development/getting_started/soft_skills/finding_a_job/index.md b/files/en-us/learn_web_development/getting_started/soft_skills/finding_a_job/index.md
index d30eb3ac25633d9..96ca4d5b2493a11 100644
--- a/files/en-us/learn_web_development/getting_started/soft_skills/finding_a_job/index.md
+++ b/files/en-us/learn_web_development/getting_started/soft_skills/finding_a_job/index.md
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ Technical job interviews can be very demanding, and some have quite specific req
- Deciding what kind of job you want.
- - Searching for jobs
+ - Searching for jobs.
- Developing qualities for that employers look for.
- Selling yourself to would-be employers.
- Applying for jobs.
@@ -46,7 +46,7 @@ If you are reading this site, you are probably interested in some kind of web de
- Web designer: Use HTML, CSS, and graphics packages to design user interfaces.
- JS developer: Implement functionality using JavaScript and frameworks.
- Developer relations or sales engineer: Talk to customers, get them excited about technology, help them solve problems and develop solutions.
- - Technical writer: Write documentation to explain how technology works and how to use it.
+ - Technical writer: Write documentation to explain how the technology works and how to use it.
- More of an all-round developer.
- Something else?
- Kind of employer: Do you want to work for:
@@ -62,12 +62,12 @@ If you are reading this site, you are probably interested in some kind of web de
- Music industry.
- etc.
- Work location: Do you want to work
- - From home full time.
+ - From home full-time.
- In an office.
- In some kind of hybrid setup.
- In the same location all the time, or move around between different areas or countries?
-If you are not sure of the answers to these questions, that's OK. Ask your peers, friends, teachers, or mentor what they are interested in, to get some inspiration, and look around the industry to see what's available. Realistically, many of you will probably start by seeing an interesting job ad or company, then working out how it fits in to the above categories and how to "sell yourself" to that company.
+If you are not sure of the answers to these questions, that's okay. Ask your peers, friends, teachers, or mentor what they are interested in, to get some inspiration, and look around the industry to see what's available. Realistically, many of you will probably start by seeing an interesting job ad or company, then working out how it fits in to the above categories and how to "sell yourself" to that company.
## Sell yourself
@@ -75,7 +75,7 @@ To get a job, you have to learn how to **sell yourself**, which means making you
### Develop qualities for that employers look for
-As a general point, you should be aware of the attributes that hiring managers look for in a candidate and prepare accordingly. Obviously, you'll need technical skills and other abilities that help you to directly do the task at hand. However, companies also look for "soft skills" that indirectly help you do the job, and also make their employees lives easier and happier while they are at work. We already touched on some of these in our [Collaboration and teamwork](/en-US/docs/Learn_web_development/Getting_started/Soft_skills/Collaboration_and_teamwork) article.
+As a general point, you should be aware of the attributes that hiring managers look for in a candidate and prepare accordingly. Obviously, you'll need technical skills and other abilities that help you to directly do the task at hand. However, companies also look for "soft skills" that indirectly help you do the job; they also make their employees' lives easier and happier while they are at work. We already touched on some of these in our [Collaboration and teamwork](/en-US/docs/Learn_web_development/Getting_started/Soft_skills/Collaboration_and_teamwork) article.
To summarize, hiring managers will look for:
@@ -86,11 +86,11 @@ To summarize, hiring managers will look for:
- A good communicator and relationship builder.
- A tenacious, focused individual with good problem solving skills.
-Think about whether these statements describe you, or not. This could be a useful way to identify some of your weaknesses, meaning that you can take steps to improve them. For example, if you are not good at communication or problem solving, look up some guides or classes to help you improve those skills. Even something informal such as talking to your friends about your work and describing your projects will help you become better at communicating.
+Think about whether these statements describe you or not. This could be a useful way to identify some of your weaknesses, meaning that you can take steps to improve them. For example, if you are not good at communication or problem solving, look up some guides or classes to help you improve those skills. Even something informal such as talking to your friends about your work and describing your projects will help you become better at communicating.
### Create a CV/résumé
-You should create a CV/résumé, which communicates your worth to an employer. There are lots of guides on how to write one on the web, but in brief, they should generally contain the following:
+You should create a CV/résumé, which communicates your worth to an employer. There are lots of guides on the web that will teach you how to write one, but in brief, they should generally contain the following:
- Your contact details: Include your name, postal address, phone number, email, and any maybe one more contact method that is important to you and suitable for professional communication. A [LinkedIn profile](#create_a_linkedin_profile) is recommended.
- A summary/personal statement, which describes you in a single sentence. This can be really hard to write — it needs to sound confident but not arrogant, positive but realistic. A good strategy here is to keep it really short and focus on some facts, what you believe in, and what kind of level you are at. For example, a good personal statement for a junior web developer might read some something like this: "Bob Smith is a web developer with 2 years' experience and a great passion for semantics, accessibility, and inclusive design".
@@ -98,7 +98,7 @@ You should create a CV/résumé, which communicates your worth to an employer. T
- A date range specifying when you worked there — for example 06/2023–10/2024, or 06/2023–present if you still work there.
- Company and job title.
- A short paragraph or bulleted list describing what you did in that job/internship/etc. Don't describe _everything_, just what you think are useful experiences for selling yourself.
-- An education summary, which lists the different qualifications you have, the school you did them at, and the grade you achieved. Include degrees and other higher education, certificates and achievements that are directly relevant to your field (for example, a web development certification or summer school), and perhaps also regular school qualifications that employers often look for (such as English, other languages, and Math).
+- An education summary, which lists the different qualifications you have, the school you attained them at, and the grade you achieved. Include degrees and other higher education, certificates and achievements that are directly relevant to your field (for example, a web development certification or summer school), and perhaps also regular school qualifications that employers often look for (such as English, other languages, and Math).
- A section containing supporting information, such as:
- Links to your [portfolio](#create_a_portfolio).
- Descriptions of any other relevant experience that doesn't fit into the above sections.
@@ -119,10 +119,10 @@ Here are some general tips for CV/résumé writing:
### Get some experience
-When you start searching for jobs, you will find yourself in a vicious circle — _you need experience to get a job, but you also need to get a job to get experience._ Don't despair — there are other ways to get experience. Here are some ideas:
+When you start searching for jobs, you will find yourself in a vicious circle — _you need experience to get a job, but you also need to get a job to get experience._ Don't despair, though — there are other ways to get experience. Here are some ideas:
-- Contact local business, charities, churches, schools, etc., to see if they want a website, or help updating their existing website. If you are just starting out, you could offer to do it for free, just to get the experience.
-- Following on from the previous item, move on to doing some small bits of freelance work, once you feel that you are experienced enough to start charging for your work. You could ask around at local businesses, or find work through dedicated services such as [UpWork](https://www.upwork.com/).
+- Contact local business, charities, churches, schools, etc., to see if they want a website or help updating their existing website. If you are just starting out, you could offer to do it for free, just to get the experience.
+- Following on from the previous item, move on to doing some small bits of freelance work once you feel that you are experienced enough to start charging for your work. You could ask around at local businesses or find work through dedicated services such as [UpWork](https://www.upwork.com/).
- Build your own hobby projects, for example, your own website to showcase your work, some fun demos and games, or a web app related to a company that you want to work at.
- You could even identify an existing issue on a company's website, fix it, and send them a link to a deployed version of the fix.
- Hang around on forums and help others with their coding problems. (See [Help others, ask questions](/en-US/docs/Learn_web_development/Getting_started/Soft_skills/Collaboration_and_teamwork#help_others_ask_questions).)
@@ -130,27 +130,27 @@ When you start searching for jobs, you will find yourself in a vicious circle
### Create a portfolio
-Once you've got some relevant experience worth talking about, the next step is to put together a portfolio that you can include on your CV/résumé, and show to employers. The whole idea here is _don't tell me what you can do — show me what you can do_.
+Once you've got some relevant experience worth talking about, the next step is to put together a portfolio that you can include on your CV/résumé and show to employers. The whole idea here is _don't tell me what you can do — show me what you can do_.
This should include:
-- A nicely-presented landing page to summarize everything.
+- A nicely presented landing page to summarize everything.
- A list of websites, apps, and other relevant products that you've worked on. For each one, include a title, thumbnail image, and a description of the project and what you did on it. If you want to say quite a lot about the projects, create a separate page about each one! Include a list of the technologies used to build the project and a link to the source code if you are able to (not all source is open).
- Links to the source code and live demos of your own personal projects and experiments. Each project should include a description of what it does and the technologies used to build it.
- Links to blog posts, writing samples, conference talks, and any other assets you think might help show off your skills.
-- A list of contributions you've made to open source projects, stating what the contribution was, how it improved the project, and what technologies were involved. You should include links to the actual changes you made (source code, published documentation, etc.), and a link to the changelog (for example, the GitHub pull request) that proves you did the work.
+- A list of contributions you've made to open source projects, stating what the contribution was, how it improved the project, and what technologies were involved. You should include links to the actual changes you made (e.g., source code, published documentation), and a link to the changelog (for example, the GitHub pull request) that proves you did the work.
-Keep your portfolio as highlights of your best work. You want it to be easy to access and look through. Include a few significant items in each section, rather than hundreds of items, otherwise the hiring manager will get bored and move on. A nice clean design will help with the experience, but a complex design might reduce legibility.
+Your portfolio should contain highlights of your best work. You want it to be easy to access and look through. Include only a few significant items in each section; otherwise, the hiring manager will get bored and move on. A nice, clean design will help with the experience, whereas a complex design might reduce legibility.
In terms of how to actually publish your portfolio:
-- You should [publish your work](/en-US/docs/Learn_web_development/Getting_started/Soft_skills/Collaboration_and_teamwork#publish_your_work) in publicly-viewable places, such as a GitHub organization for source code, and a blogging platform such as medium (or your own website) for blog posts.
-- For source code that is demos or snippets rather than full websites, publish live versions of the code, so that people can easily check out the live result. See [Publishing your website](/en-US/docs/Learn_web_development/Getting_started/Your_first_website/Publishing_your_website) for tips on how to do this.
-- In terms of the actual portfolio landing page, you could create a GitHub repo and provide your list of links in a `README.md` file, but this doesn't look particularly great. Much better would be to create a dedicated website to contain your portfolio, with a dedicated [domain name](/en-US/docs/Learn_web_development/Howto/Web_mechanics/What_is_a_domain_name). If you are not great at design work, ask a colleague or friend for some help, perhaps in exchange for doing some coding work for them.
+- You should [publish your work](/en-US/docs/Learn_web_development/Getting_started/Soft_skills/Collaboration_and_teamwork#publish_your_work) in publicly viewable places, such as a GitHub organization for source code, and a blogging platform such as [Medium](https://medium.com/) (or your own website) for blog posts.
+- For source code that consists of just demos or snippets (rather than full websites, for example), publish live versions of the code, so that people can easily check out the live result. See [Publishing your website](/en-US/docs/Learn_web_development/Getting_started/Your_first_website/Publishing_your_website) for tips on how to do this.
+- In terms of the actual portfolio landing page, you could create a GitHub repo and provide your list of links in a `README.md` file. But this doesn't look particularly great. It would be much better to create a dedicated website to contain your portfolio, with a dedicated [domain name](/en-US/docs/Learn_web_development/Howto/Web_mechanics/What_is_a_domain_name). If you are not great at design work, ask a colleague or friend for some help, perhaps in exchange for doing some coding work for them.
### Create a LinkedIn profile
-[LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/) is one of the most popular sites in the world for people to find jobs, and for employers to find employees. It is a great place to host an online account of your work experience and skills, which is similar to your CV/résumé, but also different.
+[LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/) is one of the most popular sites in the world for people to find jobs and for employers to find employees. It is a great place to host an online account of your work experience and skills; it's similar to your CV/résumé.
LinkedIn has many useful advantages that allow your profile to work well alongside your CV/résumé. You can:
@@ -183,27 +183,27 @@ The ["Decide what kind of job you want" criteria](#decide_what_kind_of_job_you_w
Before you start applying for a job, there are some useful steps you can take to prepare:
-- Check the job description to make sure it is suitable for you to apply for. For example, you don't want to waste your time applying for a job that specifies working from an office in California full-time if you live in the UK and don't want to relocate. And you won't have the experience to do a senior web developer job if you have only been learning JavaScript for 3 months.
+- Check the job description to make sure it is suitable for you to apply for. For example, you don't want to waste your time applying for a job that entails working from an office in California full-time if you live in the UK and don't want to relocate. And you won't have the experience to do a senior web developer job if you have only been learning JavaScript for 3 months.
> [!NOTE]
> If you are not sure if you should apply for a job, or want to know if that company has any more suitable jobs available, find the recruiter's contact details and ask them. They may be a useful contact in the future, if not now.
-- Try to find some contacts that already work at the company, for example in your community network, or on LinkedIn, and start a conversation with them. Ask them what it is like working for the company, if there is anything specific you need to do the job, and if they have any other jobs coming up in the near future that might be more suitable. Avoid contacting too many people that work at the same company, but instead choose one or two people you think are the closest to the role you're applying for.
-- Do some other research on the company — read their websites/blogs, find out about their history and what their goals are. Spend some time using their products and becoming familiar with how they work — for example install their software and use it to build a demo app, or write a website that uses their APIs to do something.
+- Try to find some contacts that already work at the company, for example, in your community network, or on LinkedIn, and start a conversation with them. Ask them what it is like working for the company and if there is anything specific you need to do the job. If you are not suitable for that job, ask if they have any other more suitable jobs coming up in the near future. Avoid contacting too many people who work at the same company, but instead choose one or two people you think are the closest to the role you're applying for.
+- Do some other research on the company — read their websites/blogs, find out about their history and what their goals are. Spend some time using their products and becoming familiar with how they work — for example, install their software and use it to build a demo app, or write a website that uses their APIs to do something.
> [!NOTE]
> For bonus points, try to identify a problem they are currently trying to solve or a bug in their product, and suggest a fix for it along with a demo or code snippets.
-- Customize your CV/résumé to suit this particular job. Look at the job description and make sure to amplify your most relevant skills and work experience, while minimizing or even removing items that don't seem relevant. Also make sure the demos/examples most relevant to this job are highlighted on your portfolio in some way, for example put at the top of the list.
+- Customize your CV/résumé to suit this particular job. Look at the job description and amplify your most relevant skills and work experience, while minimizing or even removing items that seem less relevant. Also, highlight the demos/examples most relevant to this job on your portfolio in some way. You could, for example, put such code at the top of your portfolio.
### Applying for the job
-When you apply for the job, make sure you follow the process exactly as they want you to. Each job advert will have instructions on how to apply. If the job ad was more of a conversation with a network contact, ask them exactly how to apply.
+When you apply for the job, follow the process exactly as instructed. Each job advert will have instructions on how to apply. If the job ad was more of a conversation with a network contact, ask them exactly how to apply.
Above all:
-- Make sure your application is professional and well-written, and doesn't include any typos. If it is poorly-written, you are unlikely to succeed. Check it over using a tool like Grammarly.
-- Don't be late applying — make sure you submit your application by the deadline date!
+- Make sure your application is professional and well-written, and doesn't include any typos. If it is poorly written, you are unlikely to succeed. Check it over using a tool like Grammarly.
+- Don't be late applying — you must submit your application by the deadline date!
Not all job applications require the same things; you'll probably have to:
-- Fill out some details on an online form. Make sure you type out your answers locally (for example, in VSCode) or in an online document (for example, a Google doc) before entering them into the form fields, in case something (for example, a browser crash) causes you to lose your work. This can save hours of frustration, and text is also easier to review and get feedback on if you put it somewhere else first.
+- Fill out some details on an online form. Type out your answers locally (for example, in VSCode) or in an online document (for example, a Google Docs file) before entering them into the form fields, in case something (for example, a browser crash) causes you to lose your work. This can save you hours of frustration; text is also easier to review and get feedback on if you put it somewhere else first.
- Upload your CV/résumé.
- Write and upload a covering letter. There are many guides to writing effective covering letters elsewhere online, but in general, such a letter should provide a description of why you:
- Want to work for the company.
@@ -215,11 +215,11 @@ Not all job applications require the same things; you'll probably have to:
A key point is that your job search should be a constant process where you do a little bit each day, and constantly keep working towards your goal. Don't just fire off a whole load of applications and then sit around waiting for a response.
-You should follow up with any promising leads you meet, for example on community networks or LinkedIn. Also, keep an inventory of the people you meet and the companies you apply to, along with contact details and descriptions of each. Periodically follow up with companies you'd like to work for to see what jobs they have available. If you get rejected for one job, they might have something else more suitable for you, either now or in the future.
+You should follow up with any promising leads you meet, for example, on community networks or LinkedIn. Also, keep an inventory of the people you meet and the companies you apply to, along with contact details and descriptions of each. Periodically follow up with companies you'd like to work for to see what jobs they have available. If you get rejected for one job, they might have something else more suitable for you, either now or in the future.
-If you haven't had a response from a company after applying for one of their jobs, wait a little while and then followup with their recruiter to see if they have any feedback for you, or any other jobs coming up. Even if a company you want to work for doesn't have any suitable full-time jobs advertised at the moment, contact them any way and see if they are looking for someone with your skill set. It might lead to some useful experience, such as a freelance contract.
+If you haven't gotten a response from a company after applying for one of their jobs, wait a little while and then follow-up with their recruiter to see if they have any feedback for you, or if they have any other jobs coming up. Even if a company you want to work for doesn't have any suitable full-time jobs advertised at the moment, contact them anyway and see if they are looking for someone with your skill set. They may give you some useful experience, perhaps in the form of a volunteer position or freelance contract.
-Keep looking for more jobs via your chosen job sites or community networks, and chat to people about what is available. New opportunities will come up all the time.
+Keep looking for more jobs via your chosen job sites or community networks. Chat to people about what is available. New opportunities will come up all the time.
If you are struggling to find anything permanent that you really want, there might be some intermediate steps to take:
@@ -232,38 +232,38 @@ If the recruiter and hiring manager like your application, they will invite you
There are some general things you should do to prepare for _any_ interview:
-- Make sure you have a tidy, quiet place for conducting the interviews in. You want to make sure that you are not distracted by noise and commotion during the interview, and you want to make sure that your surroundings look tidy during the interview. If you are having a video call with the interviewer(s) and your space is a complete mess, it won't give them a good impression.
-- Think about what you are going to wear when you do your interviews. Most developer jobs don't require you to wear a suit (check the job ad to see if it has anything about a dress code), but you should choose something fairly neutral and smart-_ish_. Don't wear a t-shirt with an offensive slogan on it, and don't turn up in your pyjamas.
+- Find a tidy, quiet place to conduct the interview. Make sure that you are not distracted by noise and commotion, and that your surroundings are tidy during the interview. If you are having a video call with the interviewer(s) and your space is a complete mess, it won't give them a good impression.
+- Think about what you are going to wear when you attend your interview. Most developer jobs don't require you to wear a suit (check the job ad to see if it mentions a dress code), but you should choose something fairly neutral and smart-_ish_. Don't wear a T-shirt with an offensive slogan on it, and don't turn up in your pajamas.
- Do some [preparation for coding interviews](#coding_interviews).
- Build a collection of anecdotes to use for [experience-based interview questions](#experience-based_questions).
-- Think about what your strengths and weaknesses are, and be realistic with your answers. You will seem more plausible if you don't present yourself as perfect in every way, and interviewers will commonly ask you about your biggest strength and weakness.
-- Do some research into what the typical salary ranges and other benefits (such as health insurance or bonuses) are for the kind of job you are going for (level, geographical region, etc.) This will be useful when [deciding whether to accept a job offer](#accepting_the_offer).
+- Think about what your strengths and weaknesses are, and be realistic with your answers. You will seem more plausible if you don't present yourself as perfect in every way when interviewers invariably ask you about your biggest strengths and weaknesses.
+- Do some research into what the typical salary ranges and other benefits (such as health insurance or bonuses) are for the kind of job you are going for (e.g., level, geographical region). This will be useful when [deciding whether to accept a job offer](#accepting_the_offer).
-There is also some preparation to do specific to each company you apply to:
+You should also do some preparation specific to each company you apply to:
- As we mentioned earlier, you should do some research into the company's history, goals, and products.
- - Read about the company from a high level, and familiarize yourself with their recent news. One good reason to do this is to see if they have done anything that would raise red flags and make you reconsider working there.
+ - Read about the company from a high level, and familiarize yourself with its recent news. One good reason to do this is to see if they have done anything that would raise red flags and make you reconsider working there.
- Find out about the company's market position and what _their_ strengths and weaknesses are.
- Research who their main competitors are.
- - Become familiar with their products and how they work — for example, install their software and use it to build a demo app, or write a website that uses their APIs to do something. It will impress your interviewers if you can demonstrate some good insights around their situation and how you think it could be improved. Interviewers will often ask some specific questions to test your knowledge of the company and industry it exists in.
-- Related to the above point, think of some questions you would ask the interviewers about the company and their roles. Interviewers always ask if you have any questions for them at the end of the interview, and it reflects well on you and makes you sound thoughtful and inquisitive if you come out with some questions more meaningful than "what did you have for breakfast today?"
-- If you have contacts at the company (from your community networks, etc.), reach out to them and ask about the job. What do they think about it, is there anything specific you should focus on, say, or not say? It might also help, during the interview, to mention that you know "Bob from the e-commerce team" (or whatever).
+ - Become familiar with their products and how they work — for example, install their software and use it to build a demo app, or write a website that uses their APIs to do something. It will impress your interviewers if you can demonstrate some good insights around their situation and how you think it could be improved. Interviewers will often ask some specific questions to test your knowledge of the company and the industry it exists in.
+- Related to the above point, think of some questions you would ask the interviewers about the company and their roles. Interviewers always ask if you have any questions for them at the end of the interview, and it reflects well on you and makes you sound thoughtful and inquisitive if you come out with questions more meaningful than "what did you have for breakfast today?"
+- If you have contacts at the company (e.g., from your community networks), reach out to them and ask about the job. What do they think about it? Is there anything specific you should focus on? Is there anything you should say or not say? It might also help during the interview to mention that you know "Bob from the e-commerce team" (or whatever).
### Initial screening
-Once the company have looked at your application and decided you sound like a "potential", they will probably start off by inviting you to an initial phone interview, just with the recruiter or hiring manager. This is usually a short interview to assess "culture fit" (are you going to get on well with them?), make sure they don't pick up any immediate red flags that suggest you won't be a good employee, and tell you about what to expect from the rest of the interview process.
+Once the company have looked at your application and decided you sound like a "potential", they will probably start off by inviting you to an initial phone interview, just with the recruiter or hiring manager. This is usually a short interview to assess "culture fit" (i.e., if you're going to get on well with them), make sure they don't pick up on any immediate red flags that suggest you won't be a good employee, and tell you about what to expect from the rest of the interview process.
-At this stage, you should be friendly and talkative, but don't talk too much, act naturally, and see where the interviewer steers the conversation. Make sure to let them know what days and times will be suitable for you to attend further interviews. Try to be as flexible as you can, and be prepared to move your schedule around to accommodate them.
+At this stage, you should be friendly and talkative. But don't talk too much; act naturally, and see where the interviewer steers the conversation. Make sure to let them know what days and times will be suitable for you to attend further interviews. Try to be as flexible as you can, and be prepared to move your schedule around to accommodate them.
-Don't be complacent however — you don't know for definite what questions they will throw at you at this early stage, and you should treat it just as seriously as all the other stages.
+Don't be complacent, however — you don't know for definite what questions they will throw at you at this early stage. You should treat the initial screening just as seriously as all the other stages.
### The main interview
-Usually, the bulk of the interview process is one or more main interviews. These can vary greatly between different companies in function and frequency.
+Usually, the bulk of the interview process consists of one or more main interviews. These can vary greatly between different companies in both function and frequency.
- You might have one main interview, but you are more likely to have multiple interviews that test you on different aspects of the job (for example, the actual coding work, teamwork, working processes, documentation/communication, conflict resolution).
-- They may be with a single interviewer, or multiple interviewers asking you questions about different aspects (aka a panel interview).
-- Some interviews may be high level or more exploratory (for example, "describe the process you'd use to deliver x", or "what do you think the main problems are with this solution?") and some may be lower level and more intensive (for example "write a JavaScript program that solves this problem").
+- They may be with a single interviewer or multiple interviewers asking you questions about different aspects (i.e., a panel interview).
+- Some interviews may be high-level or more exploratory (for example, "describe the process you'd use to deliver x", or "what do you think the main problems are with this solution?") and some may be lower level and more intensive (for example, "write a JavaScript program that solves this problem").
#### Experience-based questions
@@ -280,9 +280,9 @@ You should build up a set of anecdotes that you can use when answering such ques
Some interviews will be coding interviews, designed to test your ability at solving coding problems. These might be something like:
- "Write a JavaScript function that takes inputs x and y, and returns z."
-- "A colleague has written the following React component, but it has some bugs. Can you identify what's wrong with it, and rewrite it to fix the problems?"
+- "A colleague has written the following React component, but it has some bugs. Can you identify what's wrong with it and rewrite it to fix the problems?"
- "Look at the following code, and describe to me what it is doing."
-- "Write an algorithm that generates the first n entries in the fibonacci sequence."
+- "Write an algorithm that generates the first `n` entries in the Fibonacci sequence, where `n` is a positive number."
Often employers are looking at how you approach the problem rather than the end result — how you commented your code, how you dealt with error handling, and what you might have done if you'd had more time.
@@ -295,23 +295,23 @@ Some companies will set homework for an interview candidate to do, as an alterna
While this is a reasonable way to test candidates if done right, many people dislike the practice of setting homework questions:
- Sometimes they can feel a little too much like "real work", almost like the employer is asking you to do work for free.
-- They can be poorly scoped, or expect an unreasonable time commitment. A specific scope that time-boxes the project to four hours and will handle follow-up questions in an separate interview is reasonable, but an expectation to spend an entire weekend on a project is not, especially for people who have families and busy lives.
+- They can be poorly scoped or expect an unreasonable time commitment. A specific scope that time-boxes the project to four hours and will handle follow-up questions in an separate interview is reasonable, but an expectation to spend an entire weekend on a project is not, especially for people who have families and busy lives.
- Their effectiveness is often disputed, as they are hard to evaluate conclusively.
-If you are asked to do a homework challenge, make sure the scope and timing of the work are clearly defined, to mitigate the risk of going in the wrong direction and wasting your time.
+If you are asked to do a homework challenge, make sure the scope and timing of the work are clearly defined to mitigate the risk of going in the wrong direction and wasting your time.
### Accepting the offer
-If you make it through the interview process and get offered the job, then well done! It is tempting to immediately accept the offer, but there are a few things to bear in mind before you do:
+If you make it through the interview process and get offered the job, then well done! Though it may be tempting to immediately accept the offer, there are a few things to bear in mind before you do:
- Make sure the salary you are being offered is reasonable compared to the typical market rate for similar jobs. If it is significantly less, you might want to negotiate.
- Check that leaving your current job (or other activity) is compatible with starting the new job. For example, check how much notice your current employer wants you to work, and make sure this works for the new job.
-- You should also let the employer know about preexisting commitments you have outside work, such as a booked vacation. Respectable employers will work around such commitments, and agree a start date that suits you.
+- You should also let the employer know about preexisting commitments you have outside work, such as a booked vacation. Respectable employers will work around such commitments and agree upon a start date that suits you.
- If you need to move house/relocate to take the new job, make sure that you've got everything in place for the move to work out. Starting a new job is stressful enough without the added stress of house moving difficulties.
## Try, try, and try again
-If you have applied for lots of jobs and not gotten anything yet, try not to become disheartened. Keep trying, stay passionate about the web, and keep talking to new people and learning new things.
+If you have applied for lots of jobs and not gotten anything yet, try not to become disheartened. Keep trying, stay passionate about the web, keep talking to new people, and keep learning new things.
If you got to the interview stage but got rejected, ask the recruiter for some feedback on why you weren't chosen, and use it to improve future applications.
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