Ask HN: How do I improve my answer to “Tell me about a project you worked on”

#1

Post by wufufufu » Wed, Oct 04, 2023, 9:15 PM UTC

I'm not the best engineer, but if my engineering skill is p50, my memory and ability to talk about technical things is probably p10. I strongly favor asynchronous communication like email because it requires less active comprehension demand.

Is there anyone else suffering from this? What do you do to get better at this in general? Or within the context of engineering interviews?

I will say that I think I have memory issues and auditory processing issues that aren't debilitating or that noticeable until they're exposed by a conversation like this. Is my only choice to yeet Adderall and "memorize my lines"?

Re: Ask HN: How do I improve my answer to “Tell me about a project you worked on”

#2

Post by chiefalchemist » Wed, Oct 04, 2023, 9:24 PM UTC

I field that question but I don't like it. In a word, it's lazy. The interviewers has my CV, why not say, "Tell me about Proj X you mentioned..."

I've had two interviews in the last week and I'm not sure why they bothered. Both came off as disengaged. Both probably didn't prep for the conversion. Both asked that question.

Yawn.

Re: Ask HN: How do I improve my answer to “Tell me about a project you worked on”

#3

Post by Someone1234 » Wed, Oct 04, 2023, 9:31 PM UTC

Here is what I did (I have no idea if this is helpful):

- Pulled all my changeset comments within the range I care about.

- Put them into Excel and strip dupes, shorts, and general cleanup (e.g. remove anything with "fix" + "bug"/"exception"/"crash" in it).

- Put the remainder into ChatGPT and ask it to make me a bullet list of my projects.

- Expand and clean up the resulting bullet list by hand.

Then take that to interviews with me, and when someone asks me I unapologetically change to that page and skim it as I talk. I don't pretend I don't come prepared or even over prepared, I want them to know I am ready for their questions.

I don't understand where people got the impression you need to memorize this stuff; it is a professional business meeting, and you wouldn't turn up to any other meeting without notes or references to what you're going to talk about.

Re: Ask HN: How do I improve my answer to “Tell me about a project you worked on”

#4

Post by PaulHoule » Wed, Oct 04, 2023, 9:32 PM UTC

Practice. Look for opportunities to give talks and make a talk complete w/ slides about something you did. Give the same talk or almost the same talk at a few different places. Write a blog post about it.

Re: Ask HN: How do I improve my answer to “Tell me about a project you worked on”

#5

Post by alex_lav » Wed, Oct 04, 2023, 9:51 PM UTC

> Is my only choice to yeet Adderall and "memorize my lines"?

I really cannot fathom why you jumped to this. Is "practice and get better" that unreasonable? You really only need a handful of things to talk about if the question is as open ended as "Tell us about a project you worked on". The question is akin to having a normal conversation with another dev about something you built.

Ultimately the point of the question is A.) To tell if you're lying about your experience, B.) To tell if you were conscious of things like edge cases, alternative strategies, failure conditions and scale, C.) If you can communicate effectively. I wouldn't overthink it. It doesn't have to be Google 2.0 to be the project you talk about, just something that you had a significant hand in making and were aware of any tradeoffs available.

Re: Ask HN: How do I improve my answer to “Tell me about a project you worked on”

#6

Post by b20000 » Wed, Oct 04, 2023, 10:34 PM UTC

alex_lav wrote: post #5

> Is my only choice to yeet Adderall and "memorize my lines"? I really cannot fathom why you jumped to this. Is "practice and get better" that unreasonable? You really only need a handful of things to talk about if the question is as open ended as "Tell us about a project you worked on". The question is akin to having a normal conversation with another dev about something you built. Ultimately the point of the questi…

i’m always surprised the first thing people think is that other people are lying, and than if they cannot answer a question right on the spot they must be lying.

there must be some name for this in the domain of human behaviour or psychology.

people are not aware of the fact that if they go into an interview with that assumption there is a probability that they will think somebody is lying when they are not. this is a real problem when hiring people.

Re: Ask HN: How do I improve my answer to “Tell me about a project you worked on”

#7

Post by alex_lav » Wed, Oct 04, 2023, 11:20 PM UTC

b20000 wrote: post #6

alex_lav wrote: post #5

> Is my only choice to yeet Adderall and "memorize my lines"? I really cannot fathom why you jumped to this. Is "practice and get better" that unreasonable? You really only need a handful of things to talk about if the question is as open ended as "Tell us about a project you worked on". The question is akin to having a normal conversation with another dev about something you built. Ultimately the point of the questi…

i’m always surprised the first thing people think is that other people are lying, and than if they cannot answer a question right on the spot they must be lying. there must be some name for this in the domain of human behaviour or psychology. people are not aware of the fact that if they go into an interview with that assumption there is a probability that they will think somebody is lying when they are not. this is…

> i’m always surprised the first thing people think is that other people are lying, and than if they cannot answer a question right on the spot they must be lying

Where did anyone suggest this is what was happening?

Re: Ask HN: How do I improve my answer to “Tell me about a project you worked on”

#8

Post by thegrim33 » Wed, Oct 04, 2023, 11:28 PM UTC

b20000 wrote: post #6

alex_lav wrote: post #5

> Is my only choice to yeet Adderall and "memorize my lines"? I really cannot fathom why you jumped to this. Is "practice and get better" that unreasonable? You really only need a handful of things to talk about if the question is as open ended as "Tell us about a project you worked on". The question is akin to having a normal conversation with another dev about something you built. Ultimately the point of the questi…

i’m always surprised the first thing people think is that other people are lying, and than if they cannot answer a question right on the spot they must be lying. there must be some name for this in the domain of human behaviour or psychology. people are not aware of the fact that if they go into an interview with that assumption there is a probability that they will think somebody is lying when they are not. this is…

People think that other people are lying, because .. they extremely often do. Do you know how many people apply for engineering jobs and can't solve fizzbuzz? What's the alternative? Just trust anything people say and blindly give people any job they apply for because they say they have the qualifications?

The specific question helps settle the lying issue. If somebody claims to have experience, they should be able to produce an example of said experience. It's both an immediate test of their experience as well as at the same time providing lots of additional data, through their story, about how good of an engineer they might be.

Even if it's a person who has horrible communication skills, a decent interviewer can ask follow up questions to probe into the story's details that the poor communications skills left out.

Re: Ask HN: How do I improve my answer to “Tell me about a project you worked on”

#9

Post by Sajarin » Wed, Oct 04, 2023, 11:31 PM UTC

alex_lav wrote: post #7

b20000 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i’m always surprised the first thing people think is that other people are lying, and than if they cannot answer a question right on the spot they must be lying. there must be some name for this in the domain of human behaviour or psychology. people are not aware of the fact that if they go into an interview with that assumption there is a probability that they will think somebody is lying when they are not. this is…

> i’m always surprised the first thing people think is that other people are lying, and than if they cannot answer a question right on the spot they must be lying Where did anyone suggest this is what was happening?

> Ultimately the point of the question is A.) To tell if you're lying about your experience

You’re the one who suggested the idea, that the question is a way to tell if a candidate is lying about their experience.

Re: Ask HN: How do I improve my answer to “Tell me about a project you worked on”

#10

Post by alex_lav » Wed, Oct 04, 2023, 11:59 PM UTC

Sajarin wrote: post #9

alex_lav wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> i’m always surprised the first thing people think is that other people are lying, and than if they cannot answer a question right on the spot they must be lying Where did anyone suggest this is what was happening?

> Ultimately the point of the question is A.) To tell if you're lying about your experience You’re the one who suggested the idea, that the question is a way to tell if a candidate is lying about their experience.

Right, among other things and not “on the spot”. And I would argue that being unable to communicate about your experience is, to an interviewer, pretty similar to lying as they’re just a candidate making unverifiable claims.

Many people lie about their experience. Usually it’s glaringly obvious.