It is made up profession. Of course they have to make it sound and look like there is any value is HR hiring. Sure younger interviewers don't know all the tricks yet to make it sound like it all makes sense. More than once I was talking to a guy (different ones) and when they proudly say they are in HR/interviewing people I feel genuinely sorry. Bragging to be a parasite and being proud about the fact. I've been nice in this post in case anybody is wondering.
Ask HN: How to deal with inexperienced interviewers?
31–40 of 76 posts
Re: Ask HN: How to deal with inexperienced interviewers?
#32Wrong audience
Re: Ask HN: How to deal with inexperienced interviewers?
#33Some five years ago, I was having a phone interview for a company that were looking for people specializing in embedded programming with solid knowledge of OS internals and assembly. It seemed a great fit for me as that was what I have been doing since the start of my professional career. As soon as the phone call started, the interviewer asked a puzzle question which had absolutely nothing to do with what I would ev…
If I was really pissed of id have written to the CEO and HR director pointing out that there procedures needed "some improvement" I almost did this after a disastrous interview at AKQA a while back.
Unless you were offered the position and declined it that would always be ascribed to sour grapes. Regardless of merit.
Re: Ask HN: How to deal with inexperienced interviewers?
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'll raise my hand. When I look back it seems I'm experienced at hearing other peoples software requirements and implementing them. From university to the workplace, I seem to be very good since those who receive the end result always benefit. Done it so many times, for others and for my own ideas. But check this out, occasionally in a dry period, when I feel I should find a job and get an interview. I get asked a pu…
Don't get me started on the framework buzzword bullshit. I'm so sick of developers that launch into 50 tool stacks just to tick the boxes. Whether it's resume driven development or just plain ignorance, it seems to be pervasive. I hate that every other interaction I have with the developer community is suggesting that a newbie back up a few steps and understand the problem they're trying to solve before introducing a…
I will try to offer some empathy on the other side. I have no CS background, just changed careers and I am now a junior web dev. I spent around 3 months only studying css, html and js. Then went on to build projects using React. Most of them even using create-react-app. Why would I do that if I lack a lot of very basic and fundamental CS knowledge? It was a pragmatic decision to acquire basic skills to get a job. Now I have a job where I use Ember. Now I have pragmatic reasons to acquire skills in Ember and other skills like improve my code to readability and maintainability, understand architectural decisions of the product, learn design patterns, proper use of git, doing code reviews of others. I still have important gaps in my CS education though.
I'm self-aware that there are gaps and that these gaps will cost me in the future. But, right now, I will deliver more value to the company by filling other gaps. Not only to help my company but myself, giving me better prospects in the future.
I am now investing more time in learning javascript more deeply. I bought a good book to learn more about algorithm designs. I do have trouble finding a good resource on fundamental CS concepts for someone in my position. I don't believe lengthy academic books and MOOCs have a good ratio of important knowledge by time invested.
I have this impression that I am not the right fit. If you wanted to screen me out there is an easy way to do that before the day: ask for a CS degree with good grades. I think it will be a mistake, but maybe is the right thing for you.
Re: Ask HN: How to deal with inexperienced interviewers?
#35There's nothing you can do. Complain to the recruiter afterwards, if they bother calling you, but make sure you tell them that the particular interviewer was not good.
> Complain to the recruiter afterwards, if they bother calling you, but make sure you tell them that the particular interviewer was not good.
That would be a bad idea. The recruiter knows nothing about the OP, and probably not much about the interviewer. But the recruiter probably will be in better terms with the interviewer than the OP (or the one who is being interviewed).
So the end result would be that the OP will be considered not a good candidate because he/she complains the interviewer because it didn't went well, or at least, that will be how the recruiter is probably going to assume.
Re: Ask HN: How to deal with inexperienced interviewers?
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
We are also interviewing at the minute and I can't believe how low the bar is for people to claim they are software developers. I'm sure these learn to be a web developer in 8 weeks courses don't help, but even people with years of experience seem to be absolutely hopeless.
Sounds like you are not offering enough or have a poor recruitment consultant
The company I worked for had an awful recruitment arrangement resulting in poor candidates. Company committed long term with a service provider, who at some point could simply afford to stop caring about quality or competence or even any number of available candidates. They were basically farting out once a week a CV of a person with embedded programming experience for a web development opening. It didn't help that we were trying to find short term subcontractors on below market rates (it's EU so the rates would be actually funny for someone from US or even London). Not fully aware of the whole process I was thinking "if this is what the candidate market has to offer, I could find a job within 3 days".
Well it happened that couple of months later I indeed ended up looking for a job... and... YIKES!
Re: Ask HN: How to deal with inexperienced interviewers?
#37Make friends. If they're inexperienced, it's your opportunity to manage the interview and establish a rapport that an experienced interviewer might not allow, or might discount. Someone who belittles like that is afraid to encounter someone who "really" knows their stuff and the right words can lead to their imitating you instead of intimidating you.
Why would a more experienced interviewer not allow or discount a good rapport? I've spent my fair share of time on both sides of the interviewing table (or screen, in most cases), and have always sought to spend the first ~20% of the interview building rapport.
I think the candidate's ability to communicate about non-technical matters is important, and if you can put someone at ease, you're likely to get a more realistic view of their abilities.
Re: Ask HN: How to deal with inexperienced interviewers?
#38My worst interview ever was the head of HR for a Fortune 500 company that transferred to the Non-Profit side of the company. The job was working with non-technical and working with children. My interview was very invasive. I had two private investigators looking into my past, an interview at home that included my wife and two children and medical examination and physical test.
I arrived at the final interview and waited 50 minutes. Then the two people doing the interview never even read anything about me and came into it cold. I was prepared for a very detailed interview and instead I got ambiguous questions and when they asked me questions they actually reflected back what they heard and it was 50% just wrong. I corrected their mistake and the person gave me attitude. Later in the interview the person read their notes and he wrote down what was factually inaccurate that I corrected before. I corrected the inaccurate statement again and he was beyond pissed. I didn't get the job. When I was called I said to the person who I was in contact with for the whole 9 months that it was the worst interview I have ever had and made me look very negative at the whole experience. He just acknowledge what i stated and stated sorry. I still get request to reapply. I still might.....
Re: Ask HN: How to deal with inexperienced interviewers?
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
> "This is not the right job for me" and end it yourself. I've done that a few times now for various reasons. I think this is the only weapon the interviewed person has. Not applying is not a solution as it will lead to even more disconnection. Apply, talk with people, disconnect when the bullshit level is too high. Looking for years of experience in your exact Angular/React stack? Cheerio.
> Looking for years of experience in your exact Angular/React stack? Cheerio. Yes, I don't understand that kind of thing either. Getting up to speed on something like React takes, what, a week or two? Frameworks are the easy bit of development.
I think a lot of it is HR departments and maybe even management themselves gold-plating the requirements in an effort to feel like they are contributing to the process, and possibly even justifying their own positions by "adding value".
Re: Ask HN: How to deal with inexperienced interviewers?
#40There's nothing you can do. Complain to the recruiter afterwards, if they bother calling you, but make sure you tell them that the particular interviewer was not good.
> Complain to the recruiter afterwards, if they bother calling you, but make sure you tell them that the particular interviewer was not good. That would be a bad idea. The recruiter knows nothing about the OP, and probably not much about the interviewer. But the recruiter probably will be in better terms with the interviewer than the OP (or the one who is being interviewed). So the end result would be that the OP wil…
That would be a bad idea. The recruiter knows nothing about the OP, and probably not much about the interviewer
A recruiter wants to place candidates and thereby earn commissions. If they get a stream of candidates they've sent to interview at company X come back and say "the interviewer was deeply unpleasant and I would never work there" then they are going to have to react - either by raising it with the company or by stopping wasting time by sending candidates there in the first place. No candidates placed == no money.