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

blog.interviewing.io

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

#71

Post by jki275 »

corodra wrote: post #68
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?

Saw a similar title, back in Seattle 2013 timeframe. Top 1% of ninja dev guru superstar something or other. The days when ninja was titled on EVERYTHING. So cringey. Had to have a masters in CS. I think it was 5 years of experience or something in a big tech firm only. Lots of conflicting programming languages and tech as well. Pay: $35,000 a year. It's not hard to find relevant examples these days though. Thankfully…

Sounds like a way to do H1B fraud.

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

#72

Post by JustSomeNobody »

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.

> Work on your network.

That's not easy. I work remote, and live in a place where there just isn't a network available. That would leave online and I usually just hang out on HN.

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

#73

Post by corodra »

Frondo wrote: post #60
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.

Better yet, the interviewer should have experience in said job, as to better evaluate a potential candidate.

I'm pretty sure, most of us have come across folks who pretend to know something, you ask them easy, little, but esoteric questions, that prove whether or not they even have knowledge in something.

At least for big firms, this isn't out of the realm of possibility. Small companies... I get it. They have to then base it off experience, references and gut feelings.

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

#74

Post by beat »

aplummer wrote: post #39
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…

> 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? Hey, I ask a lot of these questions in consulting. What I’m looking for is to tell if a) you can communicate a point clearly b) if you can talk generally about your career and are growth oriented. If you said that field evolves rapidly bit above that would be a good answer. If you span it…

I often ask interviewees about a project they worked on that was very successful, and why it was successful - what did they like about it? That's a good way to find those passion points. It's also a good way to find weak candidates without independence or leadership skills, because they can't really talk about their role in a big success - they didn't have much of a role, usually.

A flip-side question is to ask about projects they worked on that failed. Failures rarely appear on resumes, and it can be an uncomfortable topic. But if you can get them going, you can learn a ton about how they handle adversity. Do they make excuses, or find scapegoats? Do they take responsibility? Do they give credit where credit is due for colleagues? Do they recognize the big-picture conditions that affected the situation?

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

#75

Post by corodra »

jki275 wrote: post #71
corodra wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Saw a similar title, back in Seattle 2013 timeframe. Top 1% of ninja dev guru superstar something or other. The days when ninja was titled on EVERYTHING. So cringey. Had to have a masters in CS. I think it was 5 years of experience or something in a big tech firm only. Lots of conflicting programming languages and tech as well. Pay: $35,000 a year. It's not hard to find relevant examples these days though. Thankfully…

Sounds like a way to do H1B fraud.

That was it!

I think that's what I heard back in the day.

It just sucks that kids these days are judging themselves off these bullshit advertisements. Now they're getting mental issues where they don't have a good self-image in their skill sets.

Jesus...it's like the fashion industry for young girls...

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

#76

Post by ashelmire »

commandlinefan wrote: post #65
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've always been interviewed by multiple people - I think 12 was the high, and 4 was the low. When I do end up getting the job, I always wonder... which of them said yes and which said no?

12 people! What were they interviewing you for, a role as the code messiah?

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

#77

Post by commandlinefan »

JustSomeNobody wrote: post #58
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.

I worked at one. I didn't apply - I was recruited by the owner (he knew me from a past job), so I didn't go through the interview process, he just asked me if I'd come work for him, quoted a number, and I said, "yeah, sure". It was a struggling startup, but it was making (some) money, and had (some) potential. But man, when I started interviewing people - he'd tell me, "we only take the best of the best", it was a struggle for me not to point out that the best of the best - or even the worst of the best - or even the best of the worst - had much, much better options than a struggling, no-name startup with no outside capital that was renting office space from an office hotel (and cramming people five to a room). I would go through rounds and rounds of interviewing people, determining that they were perfectly acceptable and would fit in well in the environment we had and could get the job done and help us move forward, and he'd reject them because they were "average". I was like, "so are you, you self-important idiot!"

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

#78

Post by ilikehurdles »

askar_yu wrote: post #63
wuunderbar wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "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.

What makes you imply that those who grind on Leetcode then forget ?

I can confidently say that none of my technical interview practice has ever transferred to a useful skill in the job role, but I can confidently say it has helped me land jobs. Not using it definitely makes me forget it.

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

#79

Post by quickthrower2 »

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

I don't suffer from Dunning–Kruger because i assume if I am new to something I probably suck. Then I assume I'm new at everything. This is only possible after many years experience. Of life.

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

#80

Post by driverdan »

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…

Obviously I can't speak for every company but those types of questions are typically used as a filter.

- Anyone who skips those questions are rejected outright. If you're not willing to put in a little time you're not interested enough to be considered. You'd be surprised how many people skip these questions.

- If you've done something crazy cool or interesting it's a plus but if not it isn't a negative.

- Can you communicate something that's a bit abstract?

- Relevant jokes are usually seen as a plus.

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