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I developed a e-commerce site for a major company. I did not create some kind of a document to show how the data flows between pages.

I used: PHP, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, ExpressionEngine, plugins Modules and some other web technologies

When I go to an interview I want to show my site and explain how it works and how I developed the site.

Usually I go page by page and explain how the site works.

Is there a nice creative way to explain how the site works?

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How about you give a broad overview so they can see what the site is about, and see if they have any questions? – tdammers Feb 16 at 20:09
Thank you very much for the answer. I tried it once. It is a good method. But, I prefer to show a some kind of a diagram. Or some kind of a creative way to show my work – user2005857 Feb 16 at 20:14
I would ask during a phone interview if you should bring it to the personal interview. Personally, I'd ask you to diagram and talk about a few parts of the app on a whiteboard. If you bring in a premade diagram, I'm going to question whether or not this is really your work just like other parts of your CV (How much do you know about CSS?). – JeffO Feb 17 at 15:16

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1 Answer

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As a general rule, in a job interview, the candidate should let the interviewer choose the length of explanations and answers. Bringing a diagram is fine. Insisting on showing it is not. You should have a 4-5 sentence answer, like:

I developed a web site to let people buy X. I used [technologies] and it took about [total time] to develop. I was in a team of [however many.] I did the architecture and design, coded the [language] parts, and developed the custom controls we built the pages from. [or whatever you actually did.] I really like the architecture I put together for this system: would you like to see a diagram of it?

Then you can take a cue from the interviewer who may have heard more than enough after you just said what the site did, what you did, and what tech you used.

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Thank you very much. "Bringing a diagram is fine. Insisting on showing it is not" <-- This is very true. Once I tried and interviewer does not have time to check the diagram. You are correct. Sometimes the answer goes about 15 minutes. Do you think I should prepare an answer before the interview and if the interviewer ask I should give my prepared answer? – user2005857 Feb 16 at 20:30
OK. I selected your answer. Thank you very much – user2005857 Feb 16 at 21:01
There is nothing wrong with rehearsing several different answers to this question. One can be about a minute long, one about 5, and the other about 15. After the one minute answer, if the interviewer still looks interested or if they ask for more details, you can use one of your longer answers. But they would probably prefer to have a back-and-forth conversation where they say "how did you handle security?" and you tell them that part, then they say "did you integrate with social media?" and you tell them that part, etc, rather than a 15 minute speech. – Kate Gregory Feb 16 at 22:40

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