Interview with the CTO ?!

  • So I've had three successful interviews (including one technical) with a company and has been scheduled for the last round with the CTO. Starting to freak out.. :w00t:

    What sort of questions should I expect?

  • I wouldn't expect technical questions from the CTO. I believe that it should be more on:

    Why would they hire you?

    Personal experiences on problems and how were they solved.

    What kind of person/professional are you?

    I might be wrong, but he should have some feedback from previous interviews and should trust them.

    The important thing is to relax and be yourself.

    Luis C.
    General Disclaimer:
    Are you seriously taking the advice and code from someone from the internet without testing it? Do you at least understand it? Or can it easily kill your server?

    How to post data/code on a forum to get the best help: Option 1 / Option 2
  • Luis Cazares (1/31/2014)


    I wouldn't expect technical questions from the CTO. I believe that it should be more on:

    Why would they hire you?

    Personal experiences on problems and how were they solved.

    What kind of person/professional are you?

    I might be wrong, but he should have some feedback from previous interviews and should trust them.

    The important thing is to relax and be yourself.

    Cheers Luis. These kind of questions have already been covered previously. He might ask these again though, not sure. Just trying to prepare and think about possible questions but frankly speaking I never had to deal with CTOs..and I don't want to screw this up.

  • Frankly it's a good sign you're interviewing with the CTO. Most places wouldn't waste the CTO's time unless a. you're a valued candidate and b. they might need to rely on you fairly heavily. It's been my experience that the most senior person is usually trying to ascertain your ability to "stretch", and to get a "read" on you: what would you see investing to take us to the next level, how do you handle mentoring more junior folks, can you comport yourself with business folks/ non-techs, etc...

    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Your lack of planning does not constitute an emergency on my part...unless you're my manager...or a director and above...or a really loud-spoken end-user..All right - what was my emergency again?

  • I had a similar experience with my current employer during the interview stages.

    1. 30 min technical telephone interview with direct line manager

    2. 30 min face to face with direct line manager and division director

    3. 1 hour technical phone interview with the VP, I was not expecting yet another technical interview and the questions were exceptionally tough and looking for real indepth sql server knowlege, he was a very intelligent guy that has since moved on.

    4. 30 min general interview with the CTO, general discussion about my past, experience, what I could bring to the company etc etc. Quite repetitive from the previous stages. This seemed much more like an assesment of whether my personality would fit within the team and the wider organsiation, once I started I found out that the last interview was pretty much a formailty as the decision had been 99% made.

    MCITP SQL 2005, MCSA SQL 2012

  • So I was asked to answer a bunch of nasty Xpath syntax questions, needless to say I didn't get the job (not that I mind).

  • clayman (4/12/2014)


    So I was asked to answer a bunch of nasty Xpath syntax questions, needless to say I didn't get the job (not that I mind).

    What type of job was it for? DBA, DB Dev, App Dev, or ???

    --Jeff Moden


    RBAR is pronounced "ree-bar" and is a "Modenism" for Row-By-Agonizing-Row.
    First step towards the paradigm shift of writing Set Based code:
    ________Stop thinking about what you want to do to a ROW... think, instead, of what you want to do to a COLUMN.

    Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.


    Helpful Links:
    How to post code problems
    How to Post Performance Problems
    Create a Tally Function (fnTally)

  • Jeff Moden (4/12/2014)


    clayman (4/12/2014)


    So I was asked to answer a bunch of nasty Xpath syntax questions, needless to say I didn't get the job (not that I mind).

    What type of job was it for? DBA, DB Dev, App Dev, or ???

    DBA/Dev

  • clayman (4/17/2014)


    Jeff Moden (4/12/2014)


    clayman (4/12/2014)


    So I was asked to answer a bunch of nasty Xpath syntax questions, needless to say I didn't get the job (not that I mind).

    What type of job was it for? DBA, DB Dev, App Dev, or ???

    DBA/Dev

    Unfortunately, the Dev side of that is going to require some pretty good knowledge of XML and all of the things that support it.

    If it were me, I'd try to remember most of the questions asked in this area and get busy studying and using XML. Then, call the company back and ask them if they hired anyone or if they're still interested in you even if they did.

    If nothing else comes of it, at least you'll be ready for your next interview with a different company.

    --Jeff Moden


    RBAR is pronounced "ree-bar" and is a "Modenism" for Row-By-Agonizing-Row.
    First step towards the paradigm shift of writing Set Based code:
    ________Stop thinking about what you want to do to a ROW... think, instead, of what you want to do to a COLUMN.

    Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.


    Helpful Links:
    How to post code problems
    How to Post Performance Problems
    Create a Tally Function (fnTally)

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