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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?

#61

Post by jrh206 »

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…

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 prepared but not interrupt the person you’re talking to right as they get to the juice. I would suggest Sean Evans and Nardwaur as examples from the other side of the fence - interviewers - who are unrivalled in preparation and give their guests a chance to speak.

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

#62

Post by alchemyromcom »

I would say record yourself speaking and then listen back to it. It will take a little bit of time to get over the discomfort of it, but you'll be happy you did once you get used to it. Not only will it improve your ability to speak, but it can also have added therapeutic benefits (not real medical advice :). The reason why this can be helpful is because you notice that, though it might feel like you are stammering while speaking, you are actually more eloquent than you realize. The small pauses are actually not that noticeable and you are already more coherent than you realize.

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

#63

Post by lkxijlewlf »

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…

> If you answer immediately, you will "ummmm uhhh" a lot. Learn to take a breather and buy time.

Not just in interviews (I don't interview that often), but just in general, I've trained myself to smile and say, "That is an interesting question!" (and subtle variants so I'm not a robot). It buys me a second or two if it's not that hard, and even more if it is a hard question because now they know I'm thinking about the answer and, well, that is okay.

Edit: And it often buys you points, so to speak, with the person asking.

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

#64

Post by SenHeng »

kube-system wrote: post #36
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…

> 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

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

#65

Post by mhitza »

Use the simplest sentence to answer, which is not a yes or no. And if you are the one that wants to lead the conversation, follow it up with a question.

But don't force the direction of the conversation, only follow-up with subject related questions.

If the interviewer is bothered because you are leading the conversation that is a job you want to avoid. At least as a person that is doing consulting work, that is what I would suggest.

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

#66

Post by MrWiffles »

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…

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?

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

#67

Post by lowercased »

lkxijlewlf wrote: post #63
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…

> If you answer immediately, you will "ummmm uhhh" a lot. Learn to take a breather and buy time. Not just in interviews (I don't interview that often), but just in general, I've trained myself to smile and say, "That is an interesting question!" (and subtle variants so I'm not a robot). It buys me a second or two if it's not that hard, and even more if it is a hard question because now they know I'm thinking about th…

> And it often buys you points, so to speak, with the person asking.

I had a tech interview with some folks... 15 years ago. Smallish agency, and I was meeting with the owner and his #2.

I got asked some question - "how would you do X?" - I think it was something like "build a house". Not a tech task, just "how would you go about X". I went to a whiteboard and picked up the marker. Just before I started to draw something, I asked some questions. "Who's going to live there? How many people? Do they have any specific needs?" Stuff like that. Just a handful of questions, and I started answering/drawing based on their feedback. I asked a few more questions, got more answers, drew some more and explained things, then sat down.

I got a job offer the next day (turned it down - couldn't afford me). But I was told (both by the owner and later someone else I met who worked there) that I was the only person they'd interviewed who'd ever asked any clarifying questions before answering.

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

#69

Post by jstanley »

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…

Waste disposal. You can always put sewage in the bin, but you can't empty your bins into the sewage.

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

#70

Post by phtrivier »

As others said, don't forget to breathe, and pause accordingly.

Also, a nice trick is, if you can, to try to outline your point before making it.

Given a tricky question, if you can at least answer the question by a general "well, there is this part of the problem, and then, there is that part", before going into any details, you've probably reinsured the interviewer that you have a clear idea in mind.

If you don't have a clear idea in mind, well, at least you know what to prepare for next time !

Also, it's a bad idea to have "memorized" answers in general - except for some specific questions, like your"personal pitch" ("what brought you here", "tell me about your job history", etc... You can't blame your interviewer for expecting you to be ready for those.)

Good luck in all cases !

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