I got a referral for a Data Engineer position at Shell from a friend and I received an email from HR team to schedule Zoom interviews.
Round 1: Technical Interview with Senior Data Engineer
The first round was a technical interview with a Senior Data Engineer. She focused on assessing my expertise in Informatica ETL development, data modeling, and SQL query optimization.
- How do you design an ETL methodology using Informatica?
- Describe a project where you used Informatica Intelligent Cloud Services.
- What is your strategy of data modeling and why it is better than others?
Round 2: Technical Interview on Database and Scripting
- Describe your experience with databases like Oracle, SQL, PostgreSQL, or DynamoDB.
- Have you used shell scripting or Python scripting in ETL?
- How do you approach SQL query tuning to improve query performance in large-scale data operations?
Tip: Make sure you know in and out of how have you used any technical tool if you say that you have used it.
Round 3: Technical Interview
This round was around cloud technologies and agile delivery methods.
- Which is better? Azure or AWS and why?
- Share your experience with Linux in a data engineering context.
- Describe your experience with Agile delivery methods, such as Scrum or Kanban.
Tip: If you have not used a technology, don’t say that you know about it. I did and it backfired.
The interview experience at Shell was hard and I wish I had brushed up my basics. It was a positive experience though I didn’t get the offer.