I have noticed that at interviews, I struggle to build a proper narrative and talk coherently. I live in UK and English is not my first language which doesn't help. Most of the times the flow of my conversation is not fluent and it feels like I am putting up sentences one after the another and there is a ot of "mmmaa", "mmmaa" in my talking. Are there any practical resources to improve my conversation skills?
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?
#2Preparation. 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 Americans spend on lip balm. He researched the reporters, anticipated 10 different questions, and prepared to answer a question on cost.
For example, a very common question to rehearse is "tell me about yourself" or "tell me about your biggest or latest major project." A big company might ask your experience with processes - CI/CD, how you work with a team, when you've let the team down. A smaller company might ask about what you think about their product.
Don't memorize a speech or answer though.
A more advanced trick I learned from public speaking class is to get a topic, draft bullet points in my head within 5 minutes, then speak from those points. An example I love is "Do you think a sewer system or waste disposal system is more essential to a city?"
If you answer immediately, you will "ummmm uhhh" a lot. Learn to take a breather and buy time.
Re: Ask HN: How to talk with logical flow and coherence at interviews?
#3Don't take a job where saying "mmmaa" is considered more of a concern than real issues.
Not down brief notes (keywords) for each of the main ideas you want to cover.
After a sentence, stop and count to 3 before changing topic or repeating yourself. Then if your partner doesn't speak, ask "should I go deeper into that?"
Re: Ask HN: How to talk with logical flow and coherence at interviews?
#4Preparation. 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…
But some people seems so at ease with spontaneity, dealing with dynamic, emergent conversations, and even the ability to direct it to particular directions or narratives. I doubt all of it is preparation.
Re: Ask HN: How to talk with logical flow and coherence at interviews?
#5No reasonable interviewer is going to hire you or not hire you simply due to your fluency during the interview alone.
With that in mind - relax! Imagine you are explaining things to a friend rather than being examined.
Build you answers up, step by step, starting with the basic. Explain how you are reasoning around a problem as you go.
Do not just describe how things are or what you would do: clarify why one solution is better than another, and what problems you want to avoid.
If your fluency in English is low, practice speaking in general, so that during interviews you don't have to spend time thinking about grammar and phrasing.
Short, simple sentences are much better than mumbling, making sounds, etc.
Re: Ask HN: How to talk with logical flow and coherence at interviews?
#6Preparation. 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…
But some people seems so at ease with spontaneity, dealing with dynamic, emergent conversations, and even the ability to direct it to particular directions or narratives. I doubt all of it is preparation.
I spend a lot of time thinking about important conversations beforehand, and the directions they could take. I'll pace around the house for half an hour talking to myself, practicing speaking. This has proven helpful in my job, which involves a lot of meetings and conversations.
To the original commenter's point, you don't want to memorize your answers, you just want to explore these conversational avenues and test-drive what you might say, seeing how it sounds, what positions are more defensible, what topics to avoid. This is the skeleton of the conversation you'd like to achieve, the "plan".
Of course no plan survives contact with the enemy. When conversation gets spontaneous / goes off the rails, I try to detach and control my emotions. Sit for a few seconds, consider what you're about to say before speaking, and be straightforward and honest.
Re: Ask HN: How to talk with logical flow and coherence at interviews?
#7Interviewing is a learned skill. I went through a period where I interviewed with every recruiter that reached out, to improve interviewing skills. You should do that. You will get the practice of nailing conversations through that.
Re: Ask HN: How to talk with logical flow and coherence at interviews?
#8Interviewing is a learned skill. I went through a period where I interviewed with every recruiter that reached out, to improve interviewing skills. You should do that. You will get the practice of nailing conversations through that.
You also need to be sitting down and practicing before/after though. Just exposing oneself to recruiters will not be sufficient. You need to practice and reflect - and then practice with real people.
I think it’s similar to playing a sport. Yes, just playing will get you better eventually but if you practice certain drills - you will get better much faster and it can stop oneself from developing bad habits. I think it’s like doing LC interviews - would you just do them all live or would you study subjects and practice problems instead? Practicing problems and studying subjects is way more effective than getting slotted a random problem and doing it live every time where you’re unlikely to learn what you’re doing wrong/right in the moment.
Re: Ask HN: How to talk with logical flow and coherence at interviews?
#9Preparation. 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…
But some people seems so at ease with spontaneity, dealing with dynamic, emergent conversations, and even the ability to direct it to particular directions or narratives. I doubt all of it is preparation.
It is all practice. For a 30 minute presentation I might spend 6 hours in practice. Over my lifetime I've spend months of time practicing public speaking.
That said, the motivation to practice comes from success. If someone tells you you're good at something you'll do it more and be willing to spend more time doing it. Success comes from practice, so the hardest part is getting that first positive feedback if you're starting from a deficit (language barriers, previous criticism). I recommend getting a tutor for just about anything like this. Pay a stranger, whose opinion you don't care about, to get you past the awkward bits and into a range that's better than average.
Also, while some of us come off as comfortable, that doesn't mean we are.
Re: Ask HN: How to talk with logical flow and coherence at interviews?
#10Preparation. 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…
But some people seems so at ease with spontaneity, dealing with dynamic, emergent conversations, and even the ability to direct it to particular directions or narratives. I doubt all of it is preparation.
4 things help for me:
1. i like myself regardless of if this other person likes me 2. i will be fine, even if i fuck this up 3. every time im asked is an opportunity to practice, tweak something 4. write what you've been up to down
it's like rapping tbh. you learn snippets and lines that work and then you mix and match them for the context.
you don't want to be deciding word by word but phrase by phrase.