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When I was in high school I was a physics and math chauvinist. I saw psychology and the biological sciences as "soft". In retrospect that was out of ignorance. As a kid, this book--as goofy as it may be--changed my life:I've always been inclined toward the sciences, but that book really sparked my love for them. It got my imagination going about what could be possible if enough smart people got together to work on a Big Idea. This creative aspect of science really drew me in and, I realize only now, as I write this, shaped my career.Whenever anyone asked 10-year-old me what he wanted to be when he grew up, I'd answer "an astrophysicist". Yeah, I wasn't the coolest kid. But that creative spark stayed with me and I found some fun outlets. I spent a lot of time in high school playing video games, role playing games with friends, etc. All of the nerd-flavored creative outlets.As for school, it was was easy and I coasted through.Home life was… non-standard… so when I was given the opportunity to skip my senior year of high school to attend the University of Southern California I seized it.One August night at about 2am I called up my buddy and he drove me to Los Angeles to drop me off at college.I immediately declared as a physics major and kept going with all the "advanced" versions of the courses. Around the same time I discovered I enjoyed socializing and I made a lot of friends. One avenue was rewarding, the other was not. I stopped going to classes, I failed a few, but I had a lot of fun doing it. My love for physics started waning due to the monotony of the work and the lack of wonder exhibited by the professionals I saw working in academic physics.The only reason I didn't drop physics sooner was the fear that my physics friends would make fun of me for "going soft". And because I didn't know what else to do. Physics was all I'd ever wanted to do.During my sophomore year I lived in a crazy place. One of my friends wanted to take a psych class and, because I had a free slot in my schedule and I had no idea what to do, I took psych with him. The classes I did attend were pretty cool. Dammit if it didn't turn out that people are fascinating.Fast forward one semester: I go to register for classes my Junior year and find out that my grades had been too low for too long and I was basically kicked out of school.Long story short: I plead and begged, got a one-semester reprieve, got my shit together, and became a psychology major. I finished all the required courses in a semester.I devoured the stuff.But at the time USC only had a cell/molecular biology major. No cognitive neuroscience. So I basically made my own major (though my final degree was in Psychology). I took C++ and Java classes, AI, Philosophy of Mind, Communication, etc.I volunteered in a research lab as an RA and discovered that my ability to write code was a semi-magical skill because I could automate a lot of laborious manual jobs.I learned that I had a "knack" for approaching problems that way.After I graduated I spent three months living in a room with a few friends playing Counter-Strike. Like a lot.But I got lucky and landed a full-time, paid job as a researcher at UCLA. Initially I was to help the MD who ran the PET scanner, but he quit a few months into my job and suddenly I was the only person around who knew how to calibrate and run the thing, so I was given a ton of new responsibilities.That was awesome! But wow were there some items that were not in the job description... good and bad.Good: yeah, that's me "scanning" Bill Nye the Science Guy for the "adult" version of his kid's TV show, The Eyes of Nye. He was doing an episode on drugs and drug abuse. Since that's what my boss Edythe London (and by extension, I) was studying at the time, he came and did part of his show in our lab.Los Angeles man.Anyway, here's how PET works: a radioactive substance is put into the body—either through ingestion, inhalation, or injection—where the specific radioligand determines the pattern of uptake. To study brain function the radiotracer we used was F18 fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG). This is effectively a radioactive version of glucose, which is a very important "fuel" for the brain. Regions of the brain that are "working harder" require more "fuel", and thus greater radioactive glucose is more concentrated in them depending on the demands of the behavior of interest. The PET scanner detects the relative density of the radioactive glucose in the brain which can be used to build a 3D statistical representation of neural activity distributions.Now those of you paying attention may think, "but gee, you're injecting radioactive substances into the body, isn't that dangerous?!" "Noooooo, not at the doses used in our experiments", I would say! 75% of the radioactivity decays within 2 hours of production (giving us a very narrow time-window for our research study!) I would pick up the FDG at the cyclotron, walk it back over to the PET scanner (shielded in a very heavy lead container), and start the experiments as quickly as possible.FDG is cleared through the body largely via the bladder.This means that one of the best ways of reducing the effective radioactive dose received by the subjets us by having them pee immediately after our study. Even though the doses are low, getting them lower is always better.Now, did you catch that?We can lower the radioactive dose by having subjects pee.Radioactive. Pee.Here's the part that wasn't in the job description: I would grab my Geiger counter, put on my gloves, get the cleaner, and head into the bathroom after our subjects urinated. Then I would use the Geiger counter to sweep the entire bathroom and scrub up any "hot spots".By "hot spots" I mean little tinkles of radioactive pee.Guys suck at peeing, by the way. Apparently we splash everywhere. I know this as a verifiable scientific fact now.Somehow despite this odd janitorial work I still loved the job and the openness of the field. There was/is so much we don't know about the brain and how it works.When I applied to graduate school every single one turned me down without even an interview. Except the University of California, Berkeley. Berkeley was weird enough and open enough to my crazy background that they accepted me.Quoth one of the faculty years later: "we thought you were a fuck-up, but a fuck-up with potential".Thanks Berkeley, I owe you big time.Really my interests as a doe-eyed wannabe cosmologist kid aren't that different from my doe-eyed adult neuroscientist self. My weird childhood, party-fueled and tumultuous college years, and crazy friends made me odd but kept me optimistic and protected me from being jaded.Ironically I use a ton of math and physics now in my neuroscience work. Take that chauvinistic past-me.And now, instead of asking "how are we all here, these tiny specs in the vast universe, pondering our origins?" I spend my days asking "how are we all here pondering our origins, we tiny specs in this vast universe?"Damn I love my job.

I'm a 2013 graduate (Computer Science). At the time of placement, my CGPA was 7.70, which was one of the lowest of people sitting for placements.I was not allowed to sit for most of the placements, since the minimum GPA requirement was 9, 8.5 and 8.So, there is a company called 'Deloitte', where the minimum requirement was 6, and the streams who were eligible to sit were CSE, IT, ECE and EEE. A total of around 1200 students sat for the written, which basically comprised of English and Logical Reasoning.So, the company came after a week and I was one of the 270 odd students to be shortlisted. Next round -> GD. It was a case study, and again nothing really technical. So, all the GD's got over by around 8 PM. And then they announced the results at around 10:00 PM, and I got through again.Now, my interview was scheduled for that night itself. Nervousness, excitement, tension , I felt all these emotions that night.Finally, I had my name called out at around 1:15 AM. It started off with the basic questions1) Tell me about yourself2)What are your interests3) What all projects have you doneAnd, then the real "INTERVIEW" started.Interviewer : I see your CGPA is really low, compared to the other students.Me : Well Sir, I really work hard towards things I am interested in and some other crap I spoke.Interviewer : Oh is it, tell me your favorite subject then?Me : Sir, Maths.Interviewer : So, here in your marksheet, I see you have 2 backlogs in Maths. (Actually there were 3 :P )Me : *Speechless*Interviewer : Tell me little about the job description. We had sent you a PDF right. Tell me, any 3-4 points from there.Me : Sir, actually I did not read the PDF.Interviewer : Any specific reason for that ?Me : No SirInterviewer : So basically you've come here for a job you know nothing about.Me : Sir, if you want to put it in one way, then YesInterviewer : So, you said you really work hard towards things you are really interested in. What if I teach you at Deloitte dosen't interest you. Bhaag jayega?Me : No Sir. It is my first job. It really means a lot to me. And I will put my heart and soul into it. And some other crap.By this time, I knew I had almost lost all hope. And then comes the climax.I needed my revenge.Interviewer : Do you want to ask me anything?Me : No SirInterviewer : Kmon, ask me something.Me : Sir, which is your favorite sport?Interviewer : All sportsMe : Sir, any specific sportInterviewer : BasketballMe : Sir, who won the NBA this time?Interviewer : (A bit hesitant) I don't know. You tell me.Me : Sir, I guess Miami Heat won it.Interviewer : Yes, I knew that.Me : Sir, but the question was meant for you. It wasn't meant for me.The interviewer has a good laugh, I have a good laugh. And tells me to leave now.I narrate this incident to all my friends and all of them have a good laugh.Next day, when the list of the selected students is being announced, I hear my name. Half shocked, half happy, I go forward .I meet my interviewer and while shaking my hand, he tells me : " It was a 50/50 call, but we selected you. You better behave at the company ".Me : " Sir, ofcourse Sir. Thank you, thank you so much ".

For developers, in no particular order..More talented/skilled candidates than the interviewer are also almost always nervous during the interview.“All the Skill sets & Glory from the previous job will not be valued equally in the new job.” - Most candidates don’t get this despite being an obvious truth. May be the inertia of their previous job is too strong.There are no perfect interview questions.Experience is a poor substitute for raw intelligence but experience is often disguised as raw intelligence during interview.Corollary to the above point is, “Experience is overrated”; Discipline & commitment triumphs sheer experience, always!.Having the knowledge/skill is different from applying it to work(could be plain lazy/distracted). - Deciding on the first seemingly awesome candidate often gives this problem. Avoid Impulsive hiring!.You will always pick the 3rd or 5th best candidate for the job. “The best or top few” candidates will often be filtered out at the earliest(See the next point). With best candidates, either the answers are too smart or questions are too dumb or right questions weren’t just asked(Could be a dumb interviewer or in bad mood).Job descriptions are often poorly written to a fixed template and distributed/marketed poorly. Thus not all awesome candidates will appear or be interested for the job. It is also one of the reason why some of the best candidates are filtered out, though unintentionally; their job description/skill set keywords might not have checked all the boxes in the job advertisement. Interviewer should drop the idea of absolute right candidate and settle with the “available” right candidate.Interviewers are just as much un-prepared as Candidates. Especially we’re not prepared in diverse subjects but ask such questions for the sheer pleasure of it.Interviewers will also brag about how she/he grilled/cooked some candidates in interview. It is just that, they rarely confess those incidents in social media!.Processes are overrated. Beware of candidates who glorify them.Disciplined candidates are almost always more productive. Look for signs of doing boring stuffs well.Software terms have different meaning for different candidates. Acronyms & locally coined words will wreck havocs. Both interviewer & candidates should be beware of them during interview. For example “Coding done” could only mean literal completion of code writing & may not even include a successful compilation(forget about testing, communicating the status).Reading & Writing of email is a skill by itself.Scheduling/managing meeting is a skill by itself.Reading & writing documents is a real skill.Keyboard shortcut knowledge of various tools is a symptom of real skill.Having answered at least 10 questions(regardless of quality) in Stack Overflow is a positive sign. It depicts the level of care/gratitude for fellow developers. Likely such recruit would be a good team player & won’t be the worst ever.First filter question to check if the candidate has real developer experience, “Tell me about some infrastructure specific issues/errors(database down, slow network, inadequate memory) you have faced” ?. - Bit difficult to bluff this question if the candidate has only done few online courses and appearing as a legit professional.Some interviewers(just like some candidates) are dumb, arrogant, distracted, have attention deficit… you name it!.Writing requirement & technical specification is super important skill. Probably more than sheer coding skills.How the software developer perceives/understands her/his manager tells about her/him. “Tell me the best & worst things your manager/boss ever did” - Answer to this question would be an eye opener.(Pro tip: Don’t expect a well articulated answer).What is the best thing & worst mistake you did in your previous job?. - This question must be asked.(Pro tip: Don’t expect a well articulated answer).What was your first & latest programming language/tool & explain/compare the merit/demerits of them; What are you learning right now or have learnt in the last 6–12 months (related to work) ?. - This question helps to spot the most resourceful candidates. This question also helps to decide among the equally capable candidates otherwise.For both Interviewer & Candidate, Googling the “Top ‘Java/C#/Python/XXX’ interview questions” should be a must before interview. It is unfortunate to see some candidates still appear for Technical interview without doing this simple homework.The urge to ask(interviewer) every question and replying with(candidate) every remotely close answer should be moderated. It is unpleasant & not productive.Sometimes interviewers of initial rounds are not empowered enough to influence the decision. Initial rounds are often useless in this case. Candidates from those interviews will be appearing with false hopes(could be either way) in the next round. I feel sorry for them.Exposure to challenging projects in the previous job makes the candidate appear strong in the interview. An average candidate who worked in more challenging project appears smarter than an awesome candidate who worked in less challenging projects. It is easy to ignore the brilliance/craft involved in less challenging projects. This is the reason why a candidate with mediocre resume performs awesome and awesome resume performs mediocre in the new job. The challenge is, such performance differences would take considerable time to measure. [Moral: Do not fall for awesome resume, anybody would look impressive in a challenging project & everybody would look dumb in a less challenging project.].For senior hirings, the responsible team will often decide the interview processes (regardless of organization’s rigid hiring policies). Uniform Company policy will mostly prevail only for freshers & other large/mass hirings of mostly junior positions. This means, Some of the Senior Candidates will not subject to the same interview processes as others; This may look like a biased hiring but it is not!.Corollary to the above point is, “Don’t be surprised if former employees are recruited back without screening/interviews”. They may directly negotiate job offer with little or no skill evaluation!.Phone interviews are not good enough to make an offer. We don’t know who attended the interview and who is actually coming for the job. To avoid this, at least have a video call for every round and make sure at least one future colleague/team member is part of every such call.Discussing the salary/benefits negotiation in a technical round, often poorly reflects on both interviewer & candidate.Most valued/talented members of the team should be sitting in the interview panel, not any available team member on the interview day. It is impossible for a below average senior member/interviewer to recognise how good a candidate really is.Corollary to the above point is, average smartness of the team goes down, if the “least smart” team member does the interview.Edited: This answer will continue to be updated..!.