What is your experience?

Most probably, after the formal introduction, you'll be asked about your experience. If you don't have an answer prepared for this question, then you are in trouble. Let's highlight several important aspects meant to help you to prepare an appropriate answer:

• Don't detail your experience as a boring list of chronological facts: Choose the most representative projects and achievements and talk about them with enthusiasm. Talk about your work with enthusiasm (but don't look desperate and don't exaggerate), and place your achievements in the context of the team/project. For example, avoid saying,... and I did this and that on my own! It is better to say,... and I helped my team by doing this and that. Don't say,...I was the only one capable of doing that. Prefer saying...I was nominated by the team to accomplish this delicate task. If you are in your first job, then talk about your school projects (think of your colleagues as your team) and about your independent projects. If you have participated in programming contests, then talk about your results and experience.
• Don't highlight only the positive things: Experiences can be positive and negative. Talk about what went right, but also about what went wrong. Most of the time, the truly valuable lessons come from negative experiences. These kinds of experiences force us to go beyond our limits to find solutions. Moreover, such experiences are proof of resistance to stress, tenacity, and power of concentration. Of course, balance positive and negative experiences and highlight what you've learned from both sides.
• Don't provide too short or too long an answer: Calibrate your answer to fit in 1-2 minutes.