Formal Report Proposal

To:                       Dr. Erika Paterson
From:                  Geneviève Bolduc
Date:                   June 19. 2020
Subject:              Increasing Resource Availability in TIP Club

Introduction

The Technical Interview Preparation club (TIP) is a student-led group that meets weekly to build up interview readiness. Currently, the format is weekly video conferencing where students and recent alumni present and solve algorithms that might be asked in interviews by future employers. These questions are pulled from the popular website LeetCode which showcases problems asked by companies including, but not limited to FAANG (Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google). Currently, LeetCode is the only source the club is tapping into. However, problem-solving is only one aspect of getting hired. Gayle Laakman McDowell, author of Cracking the Coding Interview, outlines many aspects under review in an interview: analytical skills, coding skill, technical knowledge, experience and culture fit (Laakman, 4). Currently, the club does not have a body of resources to sharpen all of these skills, nor do the weekly mock interviews necessarily measure for these.

Problem Statement

The Technical Interview Preparation club does not effectively capitalize on its mandate. Student readiness for these challenging interviews should take into account wider skills than algorithm solving. Otherwise, it is likely that student and recent alumni jump into interviews with unbalanced skillsets and perform poorly in some aspects.

Proposed Solution

The TIP club should build an accessible and shared body of literature that develops the necessary interview skills. Different exercises and resources should be available to practice said skills. There are many examples of what might be added to this package. For instance, technical knowledge often refers to broader questions in computer science, often around design patterns and practices. Common questions like these could be compiled into a unified document. As for experience, resources could be shared on building individual and group projects on a resume. How to get started? What tutorials are useful? As for culture fit, employers could be interviewed for more detailed insight on what they search for as well as sifting through the popular website glassdoor to consolidate this information. All of these could be collected and archived in a shared folder.

Scope

To assess the feasibility of the proposed solutions, I plan to pursue five areas of inquiry:

1. What additional skills would members of the club like to practice?
2. What non-algorithm based factors are most important in interviews?
3. What are common theory questions asked in interviews?
4. Where to get started with extracurricular personal and collective technical projects?
5. What are the tenets of company culture at different tech companies, local and international?

Methods

My methods will be a mix of surveying members of the TIP and collecting written data from interviewing resources, company websites and industry professionals.

My Qualifications

I am a fourth-year computer science student, nearing graduation as well as one of the organizers for the TIP club. I have had multiple technical interviews and have some industry knowledge. I plan to use this to maximize the effectiveness of the club’s mandate.

Audience

The intended audience for this formal report is the leadership and membership of the TIP club. With their efforts, a community resource can be built to address the lacking elements of the club.

Conclusion

There are many ways to succeed in the field of computer science, and those who collectively organize to better their skills should be able to tap into a large body of helpful resources.