Mūlādhāra

Be Prepared and be confident.

How to prepare - do some research about the company and the job you have applied for. Check how your skills match their requirement. Now prepare your answers according to the job profile.

How to be confident - you have the skills, you have the knowledge. All you need to remember is that it is a meeting between a two people where one person (interviewer) wants to know more about the other (you) in terms of knowledge and how you will match the requirement that they have.

Smile, wear clean, ironed clothes, shoes, cover any tattoos, remove extra jewellery/ rings, etc. Dress like a professional (not expensive clothes, but clean, washed and ironed clothes) and walk and talk confidently.

While presenting your programming skills in an interview, it is always a good idea to demonstrate any of your previous projects which included this. Take the interviewer through the steps of the project, starting with the goals, any challenges you faced during the project and how you overcame it. What solutions did you come up with and what was the end result.

This will give the interviewer a good idea about your expertise and you will also get a chance to showcase your skills according to the interview requirement.

Programming skills is knowledge-based. It needs months or years to aquire this skill. This is your core skill that will help you work as a programmer. So, without this knowledge, you will not be able to apply for the job.

Interviewing skills is skill based and can be learnt in a couple of sessions under a Professional. Once you apply this skill, you can clear any job interview easily.

While both are important, your core skills are your programming skills are are higher in terms of importance to your job or career.