What Kind of Work Are You Interested in Doing?

I often encounter candidates whose experience spans front end development, business logic or middleware, and databases. If you interview with a number of people in the organization, and especially if you do so in a group interview, you might be asked which of these areas you want to focus on.

Is this a trick question? A trap? Well, yes and no. Ideally your interviewers will first explain what their own responsibilities are, so that you can tailor your response appropriately if you wish. Or you will be told up front what specific position you are interviewing for. But if you do not have this information, you will have to take a guess.

For some companies the wrong answer is to say that you are interested in all the areas. Unfortunately, that might be the right answer for other companies. You see, some companies (typically larger ones) segment their teams in front end / biz logic / data access teams, and people only work in one of those areas. However, at smaller companies it’s not unusual for people’s responsibilities to span multiple architectural tiers.

So how do you present a response to this question that does not rule you out for a specific position? Well, you’re going to have to finesse it. Something like, “My most recent experience has been in front end development, but I would be equally comfortable in the business and data layers.”