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Ask HN: How to talk with logical flow and coherence at interviews?

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Re: Ask HN: How to talk with logical flow and coherence at interviews?

#111

Post by 0xFACEFEED »

klenwell wrote: post #37
muzani wrote: post #2

Preparation. Anyone who has done public speaking knows that it's a lot of work to be a good speaker. Neil DeGrasse Tyson says you have to be 10x more prepared than you need to be. He calls it his Batman utility belt. You anticipate every question you'll get and do your research. One interviewer asked Neil whether it was worth the $3B mission to Saturn. He brought up that it's $3B over 12 years and that it's how much…

On this point, there was some good practical advice in this HN comment that I've adopted and applied successfully: What I did is I prepared 10 different stories about my career experience and then tagged them with a bunch of prompts. For example I have a story about one project that had dual PMs that experienced a lot of scope creep and eventually fizzled on release. I can now use that story to answer a broad range o…

Freestyle rappers basically do the same thing! It's very impressive when you see it done in person; very good strategy.

Re: Ask HN: How to talk with logical flow and coherence at interviews?

#112

Post by gumby »

Lots of good advice here. One important one is not to be afraid to pause* and think. Someone asks you a question and of course you want to answer right away to be responsive, enthusiastic, and all the other things people correctly tell you to be which are all swirling in your head.

So the interviewer asks you "I see you're a Java programmer: what are the most common library datastructures you use?" You could easily jump into "Yes, I have a lot of java experience, having worked on X and Y, and once I had to implement a custom hashmap because we had some unusual constraints blah blah". Just take a second to make sure you are answering the question actually asked: "Well in my Java code it sometimes feels like the only datastructure is ArrayList! Which is funny because when I write Python code I predominantly use maps".

This is good when you have some pre-planned answers (as has been suggested elsewhere) to make sure you use the right one. Also good when you have to think up the right answer: when you know what you want to say you can concentrate on saying it.

This problem affects those interviewing in their native language as well as those not in their native language, as with you. Everybody is nervous.

* I originally typed "stop and think" but really we're talking just for a second or two at most.

Re: Ask HN: How to talk with logical flow and coherence at interviews?

#113

Post by itsmemattchung »

unsupp0rted wrote: post #44
muzani wrote: post #2

Preparation. Anyone who has done public speaking knows that it's a lot of work to be a good speaker. Neil DeGrasse Tyson says you have to be 10x more prepared than you need to be. He calls it his Batman utility belt. You anticipate every question you'll get and do your research. One interviewer asked Neil whether it was worth the $3B mission to Saturn. He brought up that it's $3B over 12 years and that it's how much…

> He calls it his Batman utility belt. You anticipate every question you'll get and do your research. Part of the reason Neil DeGrasse Tyson is so painful to watch/listen to (especially on his recent appearances) is that this over-preparation or expectation of specific talking points comes off as smugness, interrupting behavior, etc... is it this which hurts the flow of conversation and even seemed to exasperate Joe…

Watched about 3 minutes of this...too cringe to finish the rest.

Re: Ask HN: How to talk with logical flow and coherence at interviews?

#114

Post by theonething »

In addition to other good suggestions here, make sure you get enough sleep. Lack of sleep reduces my speech to idiot level.

The same goes for food, exercise, keeping yourself healthy in general. I find sleep to be the one that has outsize and immediate effects.

Re: Ask HN: How to talk with logical flow and coherence at interviews?

#115

Post by klenwell »

MrWiffles wrote: post #66
klenwell wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On this point, there was some good practical advice in this HN comment that I've adopted and applied successfully: What I did is I prepared 10 different stories about my career experience and then tagged them with a bunch of prompts. For example I have a story about one project that had dual PMs that experienced a lot of scope creep and eventually fizzled on release. I can now use that story to answer a broad range o…

One thing I’m having trouble with is anticipating the questions themselves. Not the technology specific ones, but also the generic stuff and the things that are still generic (tell me about yourself) but also more relevant to our industry and software eng roles. Any resources you could suggest that have worked well for you or anyone you know?

It's the "What's your greatest weakness?" type of questions that always throw me. Some variations include:

- What's something your not good at?

- What's the biggest mistake you've ever made on the job?

- Describe a time you disagreed with a colleague. How did you resolve it?

- Tell us about a time you received some negative feedback from a manager and how you handled it.

For these types of questions, it has definitely helped me to have rehearsed a little ahead of time.

Re: Ask HN: How to talk with logical flow and coherence at interviews?

#116

Post by klenwell »

0xFACEFEED wrote: post #111
klenwell wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On this point, there was some good practical advice in this HN comment that I've adopted and applied successfully: What I did is I prepared 10 different stories about my career experience and then tagged them with a bunch of prompts. For example I have a story about one project that had dual PMs that experienced a lot of scope creep and eventually fizzled on release. I can now use that story to answer a broad range o…

Freestyle rappers basically do the same thing! It's very impressive when you see it done in person; very good strategy.

Just like Homer, haha. I guess when you think about it, it's all just another form of the prehistoric craft of oral poetry or storytelling.

Re: Ask HN: How to talk with logical flow and coherence at interviews?

#117

Post by Moto7451 »

A technique I was re-taught as an adult is the story pyramid. It’s a great way to create a linear and logical profession of ideas, their supporting details, and the conclusions you want to provide.

https://www.teachervision.com/reading-comprehension/story-py...

Re: Ask HN: How to talk with logical flow and coherence at interviews?

#118

Post by gcanyon »

SenHeng wrote: post #64
kube-system wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you answer immediately, you will "ummmm uhhh" a lot. Learn to take a breather and buy time. Some of the best advice I've ever gotten for this was: If you're pausing to think, just be silent. Practice for a while and have someone call you out on it. It's a hard habit to break, but someone who doesn't fill space with "um" will sound twice as smart.

Some good examples by Elon Musk and Steve Jobs described in this article. https://www.inc.com/justin-bariso/why-intelligent-minds-like... This was probably one of Steve Job's most impressive example. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FF-tKLISfPE

I clicked to double check, but I knew what Jobs clip you were linking to. That answer is so well done.

Re: Ask HN: How to talk with logical flow and coherence at interviews?

#119

Post by samstave »

jvanderbot wrote: post #99
jrh206 wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those clips are painful. DeGrasse Tyson interrupts Rogan right before important words - punchlines. For instance, in the first clip, Rogan begins “what’s interesting is that the town is -”, and DeGrasse Tyson takes that moment to pattern break: “wait, wait, wait, have you seen that they did Starry Night in bacon?!”. Rogan blinks, stunned. His point about the town lost forever. Regardless, it’s possible to be well pre…

DeGrasse Tyson is insufferable anyway. He takes every chance to pontificate and play the skewering science expert, even when it's not necessary. His generation / audience just wants a scientist to slam dunk on everyone all the time and "Science the shit out of it", and he's responding perfectly. And I work in space exploration! I've seen 100s of better voices for science than him fist hand.

Agreed, as is Michio Kaku. They are the Zahi Hawass of astro physics.
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