Impostor syndrome strikes men just as hard as women in technical interviews • Hacker News Board

Re: Impostor syndrome strikes men just as hard as women in technical interviews

#51

Post by taeric » Tue, Nov 06, 2018, 6:36 PM UTC

rconti wrote: post #32

taeric wrote: post #12

The practice interview point strikes me as odd. In large, because I have never done one. Do folks really typically do that many practice interviews? I don't even know how to study. I sometimes consider it, but have never spent more than an hour prepping for an interview. :( It worries me, because I know that interviewing is a skill. But are we not setting folks up to over index on that skill such that they have diffi…

I've been successfully employed the valley for over a decade (and other tech work before that). I've never done a practice interview, I don't worry about my GitHub. I agree with the cargo culting comment. Work on your network. Apply for jobs that interest you. Interview. Get job.

I'd love to see numbers to show how many this is a good guideline for.

That is, I think this somewhat describes me too. However, I don't know as that I can give the advice of "ignore practicing interviews."

Re: Impostor syndrome strikes men just as hard as women in technical interviews

#52

Post by taeric » Tue, Nov 06, 2018, 6:37 PM UTC

sambroner wrote: post #31

taeric wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curious, with much of the interview process focused in the "soft skills", how many experienced engineers are actually wrong on their actual performance? That is, they may be more accurate in how they did on the tasks, but do they understand how they impressed on the interviewers? Of course, some of this is a bit of a curve ball. Many people would love to think that the soft skills are not important. My personal t…

OT, but I always thought Feynman was exceptional because he was relatable, i.e. not terrible at the social.

Hmm... Possibly poor example, then. My understanding was he was relatable, but was also a bit tough to first deal with.

That said, I've probably got a bit of hero worship for him. So... there is that.

Re: Impostor syndrome strikes men just as hard as women in technical interviews

#53

Post by user68858788 » Tue, Nov 06, 2018, 6:42 PM UTC

When I was younger I was able to go into interviews with the mindset of, "it's their decision and it's okay if they don't think I'm a good fit."

It made interviewing easy, and in a lot of cases even enjoyable. Unfortunately for reasons still unknown to me, I'm not able to get into that mindset anymore. Interviews are extremely stressful now. No amount of rationalizing will help.

Re: Impostor syndrome strikes men just as hard as women in technical interviews

#54

Post by Bucephalus355 » Tue, Nov 06, 2018, 6:42 PM UTC

Worth noting that Scott Kaufman, psychologist at Columbia, has correlated narcissism with Impostor Syndrome for quite some time.

Here is a pretty easy to read overview from last month’s Scientific American: https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/beautiful-minds/are-nar...

Re: Impostor syndrome strikes men just as hard as women in technical interviews

#55

Post by marcosdumay » Tue, Nov 06, 2018, 6:45 PM UTC

aportnoy wrote: post #29

thomasedwards wrote: post #5

“More experienced engineers are more accurate about their interview performance...” Dunning–Kruger effect returns again! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect

Please stop with Dunning-Kruger already.

It's almost the literal phrasing of the Dunning-Kruger article, why do you expect people not to notice the similarity?

Re: Impostor syndrome strikes men just as hard as women in technical interviews

#56

Post by rhizome » Tue, Nov 06, 2018, 6:48 PM UTC

ravenstine wrote: post #35

twoquestions wrote: post #11

It doesn't help that job ads are wanting "Top 3% only!" or "Only top 1% Ninja Rockstars need apply!". Kind of reminds me of the market for singers or concert pianists, you absolutely need to be the best, even imperceptibly worse makes you unemployable. Should those of us who aren't top 5%/didn't go to a top school just find another industry, one where sub-perfect work doesn't actively make other people's jobs harder?

There's another similar problem that I'm seeing that I don't think has been pointed out before. Recently, I've been applying for web developer positions and am coming across applications with these sorts of questions: - What's the coolest thing you've done both in life and at work? - What are your dreams? - Where do you see yourself in 10 years? I certainly do have answers for these questions, but I can't tell if the…

I think those questions come from both naïvete and a desire to increase information asymmetry in the hiring process.

Re: Impostor syndrome strikes men just as hard as women in technical interviews

#57

Post by wuunderbar » Tue, Nov 06, 2018, 6:49 PM UTC

jarjoura wrote: post #44

Of course it does, it's not a gender problem, who said it was? How many of you have heard your friends and colleagues tell you, "wow I'm so lucky I got through that interview, there's no way I would pass it if I did it again today." You shouldn't walk away from a good interview feeling like you nailed it. An interviewer should push you to your limits and the more you know, the more they should push. It doesn't mean y…

> "wow I'm so lucky I got through that interview, there's no way I would pass it if I did it again today."

That's because most people wouldn't pass their interviews if you gave it to them again.

Unfortunately a lot of interviews these days are passed by grinding on LeetCode (that's not to say your experience doesn't get displayed in other forms) and then forgetting about these patterns & problems after.

Re: Impostor syndrome strikes men just as hard as women in technical interviews

#58

Post by JustSomeNobody » Tue, Nov 06, 2018, 6:50 PM UTC

twoquestions wrote: post #11

It doesn't help that job ads are wanting "Top 3% only!" or "Only top 1% Ninja Rockstars need apply!". Kind of reminds me of the market for singers or concert pianists, you absolutely need to be the best, even imperceptibly worse makes you unemployable. Should those of us who aren't top 5%/didn't go to a top school just find another industry, one where sub-perfect work doesn't actively make other people's jobs harder?

> "Top 3% only!" or "Only top 1% Ninja Rockstars need apply!"

Do people apply to these places? I don't. Ever. Not that I feel bad about myself, but I don't ever ever want to work for a manager who approves this type of job ad.

Re: Impostor syndrome strikes men just as hard as women in technical interviews

#59

Post by rhizome » Tue, Nov 06, 2018, 6:52 PM UTC

lysium wrote: post #40

ravenstine wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's another similar problem that I'm seeing that I don't think has been pointed out before. Recently, I've been applying for web developer positions and am coming across applications with these sorts of questions: - What's the coolest thing you've done both in life and at work? - What are your dreams? - Where do you see yourself in 10 years? I certainly do have answers for these questions, but I can't tell if the…

I used to have the same thoughts until I did interviews myself. I don’t use these questions but I understand how other interviewers use them to get to know people. They won’t find your stuff cool (or maybe they do) or judge your cool stuff. And if they do you are at the wrong place anyways.

Is that the old "person bad at small talk judges your small talk skills" interview strategy?

Re: Impostor syndrome strikes men just as hard as women in technical interviews

#60

Post by Frondo » Tue, Nov 06, 2018, 6:53 PM UTC

jarjoura wrote: post #44

Of course it does, it's not a gender problem, who said it was? How many of you have heard your friends and colleagues tell you, "wow I'm so lucky I got through that interview, there's no way I would pass it if I did it again today." You shouldn't walk away from a good interview feeling like you nailed it. An interviewer should push you to your limits and the more you know, the more they should push. It doesn't mean y…

I wonder if I'm the only person who thinks an interviewer should assess whether the person can do the job, and that an interviewer pushing someone to their limits seems like an inappropriate activity for the employer-employee assessment process.