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Ask HN: How to deal with inexperienced interviewers?

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Ask HN: How to deal with inexperienced interviewers?

#1

Post by aecs99 »

Some interviewers are great - they are patient, let you talk, are genuinely curious about your previous work, and ask questions such that the interview is meaningful for both parties.

On the other hand, I frequently come across some inexperienced interviewers (often young, or early in their career). They interrupt you before you finish, ask obscure questions, and try to assert that your professional experience and knowledge is somehow inferior to theirs (or at least make you feel that way).

I feel excited about challenging questions/interviews but sessions with such folks (over the phone, or in person) are always disappointing, and negatively impact the interview outcome. I was wondering if there are any tips on how to handle such interviewers.

Re: Ask HN: How to deal with inexperienced interviewers?

#2

Post by muzani »

Normally, I also reject companies that have bad interviewers - it means that the rest of the people they actually hire are likely below average as well. Which also means poor growth, poor salary growth for you, and likelihood that you'll have to lift some of your colleagues' weight as well.

Sometimes it's just the recruiting dept that's bad. I've interviewed with one company, where the recruiters were quite incompetent and insecure. Forms were extremely long, including personal things like t-shirt size and education level of siblings.

But the company was quite good. It was just a side effect of a rapidly growing company not hiring the right people for those slots. People who filled in those forms just treated it as another hurdle and the tech team still remains awesome.

Re: Ask HN: How to deal with inexperienced interviewers?

#3

Post by 1123581321 »

Make 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.

Re: Ask HN: How to deal with inexperienced interviewers?

#4

Post by kaikai »

Interviews aren't only for the company to get a feel for you- it's also your chance to get a feel for the company. Would you want to work with someone who talked over you? How about someone more interested in boosting their own ego than doing their job (interviewing you)?

If the company thinks this is the person best qualified to judge applicants, you're dodging a bullet.

Re: Ask HN: How to deal with inexperienced interviewers?

#6

Post by git-pull »

I am at my wits end. I am getting exhausted and drained in these interviews.

There are times where I just botch interviews. Here and there, I look back and realize I came off the wrong way, like wow, I did that. But I reflect, and strive to get better. Sometimes it's just not a fit. Or someone comes along that's a better option than me.

But there is a growing pocket of places I interview at where they blatantly lie, bait and switch, ignore my portfolio and go right into brainteasers, code golf, and refactors that have absolutely nothing to do with the role being filled. Then radio silence.

I'm coming to the conclusion I'd rather earn less and work more hours on my own than enable this system. Because I have an indictment far more damning the OP: Some of the people interviewing me can barely code and are trying to survive another day. Not to mention, there are some who are afraid of letting in a stronger candidate that could replace them. Heh, what do you think they do?

Last interview I had, I discussed multiple times it being in Django and Python. Come the time of our call, interviewer flipped the script, it's in JavaScript, Underscore, and the data being passed around is so ambiguous it meshed together in my mind through the remainder of our call. I don't know if it's a clueless interviewer - or a really shrewd one who knew how to lay one over me.

Or is it me? The problem I face is getting beat down by all these tests makes me feel I'm not a good coder. Due to the fog of Dunning-Kruger, I know I can never be sure if the deficit is really on my end or not.

Does anyone else out there feel this?

I have published code all over. I code 10+ hours a day, even on the weekends. I get hammered in technical interviews.

Re: Ask HN: How to deal with inexperienced interviewers?

#7

Post by chipperyman573 »

kaikai wrote: post #4

Interviews aren't only for the company to get a feel for you- it's also your chance to get a feel for the company. Would you want to work with someone who talked over you? How about someone more interested in boosting their own ego than doing their job (interviewing you)? If the company thinks this is the person best qualified to judge applicants, you're dodging a bullet.

If the company thinks this is the person best qualified to judge applicants, you're dodging a bullet.

There are so many reasons this is a bad way of thinking.

- A sample size of one is never enough. This alone is enough of a reason.

- The interviewer could have normally been a great person but been having a rough day (maybe some personal stuff or a huge deadline coming up - every company has those every once in a while, you might have just got them at a bad time)

- The original interviewer had to cancel last-minute (call from the hospital/school, car crash, etc) and the company decided that it would be more professional to put you with someone with less experience than cancel thirty minutes before your interview (which could be good or bad depending on how you see it)

I'm not saying that you're completly wrong - it's definitely an indicator that the company may not be one you want to work for. But you shouldn't rule out a company because of one bad interview.

Re: Ask HN: How to deal with inexperienced interviewers?

#8

Post by logicuce »

chipperyman573 wrote: post #7
kaikai wrote: post #4

Interviews aren't only for the company to get a feel for you- it's also your chance to get a feel for the company. Would you want to work with someone who talked over you? How about someone more interested in boosting their own ego than doing their job (interviewing you)? If the company thinks this is the person best qualified to judge applicants, you're dodging a bullet.

If the company thinks this is the person best qualified to judge applicants, you're dodging a bullet. There are so many reasons this is a bad way of thinking. - A sample size of one is never enough. This alone is enough of a reason. - The interviewer could have normally been a great person but been having a rough day (maybe some personal stuff or a huge deadline coming up - every company has those every once in a whi…

I guess the onus is on the company to fix these things rather than on interviewer.

Let's say the candidate behaved in this way, should the company ignore it?

Re: Ask HN: How to deal with inexperienced interviewers?

#9

Post by goodoldboys »

git-pull wrote: post #6

I am at my wits end. I am getting exhausted and drained in these interviews. There are times where I just botch interviews. Here and there, I look back and realize I came off the wrong way, like wow, I did that. But I reflect, and strive to get better. Sometimes it's just not a fit. Or someone comes along that's a better option than me. But there is a growing pocket of places I interview at where they blatantly lie,…

You're not alone - I feel the same way, and from what I can gather there are lots more that identify with this sentiment.

From what I've read, the common advice is just to keep slogging away and not let the terrible interviewers get you down. Which doesn't seem particularly helpful.

I personally avoid any interviews like this and simply end any interview that starts going down that path. Fortunately, I work for myself and currently have no problem getting work through networking and take-home projects to showcase my skills. But I am fearful of if (when) I have to interview again for full time positions because I know how awful it is.

Anyways, I feel your pain. Know that you're not alone, and I'm reasonably confident that you're a solid programmer!

Re: Ask HN: How to deal with inexperienced interviewers?

#10

Post by chipperyman573 »

logicuce wrote: post #8
chipperyman573 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the company thinks this is the person best qualified to judge applicants, you're dodging a bullet. There are so many reasons this is a bad way of thinking. - A sample size of one is never enough. This alone is enough of a reason. - The interviewer could have normally been a great person but been having a rough day (maybe some personal stuff or a huge deadline coming up - every company has those every once in a whi…

I guess the onus is on the company to fix these things rather than on interviewer. Let's say the candidate behaved in this way, should the company ignore it?

The company probably won't ignore it, but they also might have missed out on hiring the best candidate for the position. Just like how you may miss out on the best career move.
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