TD Securities Software Developer Interview

Interview Details – After posting my resume in monster.ca, a recruiter contacted me informing me of an opportunity to be a part of a young software developer team. He asked me some questions about my skills and see if they match what TD was looking for. He believes so, so he arranged the technical interview with TD manager.

The technical interview was suppose to be in front of at least 2 people (1 line manager, 1 project manager). It consists of 30-45 mins interview (past experience, and some technical interview) and then 1.5 hours of written test. The face to face interview was only between the line manager and I, since the project manager was sick (I got lucky).

Once manager thought I was good enough in first round, I got second "technical interview". I didn't know then but I saw the big boss(or the project manager), and the interview was not technical at all. It is all about past experiences, etc. It lasted for about 30 mins, when the interview was suppose to be an hour. He basically talked about the position and perks of being part of TD.

They then contacted me back, asking if I am willing to join them.

Pointers to remember:
1) Know your skills - I am a fresh graduate, with internship experience programming in Java. I applied for a job that requires core Java, and hence I should know Java by heart.
2) Be poised when thrown questions you are not comfortable with. You don't have to agree with the question or point the interviewer is trying to make, but you don't have to react too much about it that shows you are upset. Just be composed.
3) I applied for software job so know the basics, such as data structure. I don't think they expect you to code usual CS algorithms (merge sort, quick sort, etc), but it doesn't hurt to review them.
4) Just know how to analyze. Some of the questions that he asked me were things I never thought of studying prior to interview - they are more real world scenarios but still relate to things I have learned in school. I showed to him that I didn't prepare for questions like those, but I thought about the question and started telling him what made sense to me, and suddenly, theory I learned started coming back. Point is, I found it easier to answer questions by thinking of problems from a practical mind set, then see if you can enforce the knowledge with theoretical backing.

As for the impression I get, I think they are work driven (only expected). Don't expect to work for TD (at least for this team), if you care about work life balance. They claim they pay over time, so that is good. I work extra beyond my hours anyway when I was an intern and not get paid. I cannot comment on office as I didn't get a formal tour of the work place yet. But from the offices that I have passed by, they seem like a typical corporate office - cubicles, less open space.