Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

blog.interviewing.io

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 336 posts

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

#111

Post by fhbdukfrh »

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?

Once you have your first job, the top 80% are rarely ever again actively looking unless they have some sort of extenuating circumstances, so the reality is they're only going to hire the to 1% of the bottom 20%

The top 5, 10, 20 out even 50% rarely hit the open market, inbound recruitment process. They get poached or go where former coworkers are

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

#112

Post by xenihn »

joeax wrote: post #98
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…

Many of these people interviewing wouldn't pass their own interviews if the roles were reversed. The bar should be high, but not so high that you leave feeling demoralized.

As an interviewer, I've been in this situation. I hate interviewing other people and felt really guilty about it, but I didn't have control over what I asked. I've also been in situations where I wouldn't be able to answer the questions I'm asking if I hadn't just learned or reviewed them for the sake of interviewing itself. It's so stupid.

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

#113

Post by pmiller2 »

commandlinefan wrote: post #86
ashelmire wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

This was spread out over three days: one phone screen and two separate days of in-person interviews. It wasn't even for a really amazing job (we're not talking FAANG here). You know - because we're in such high demand?

That does seem unusual. Who does 2 days of onsite interviews for an engineering job?

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

#115

Post by sean2 »

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…

As far as practice interviews:

Companies always take the full time they scheduled for your interview no matter when they've decided you failed. Then a week later they may drop you an email informing you that they've chosen to pass on your candidacy. They then ignore or deny any request for feedback (something about liability).

So, interviewing with most companies may never inform you about why you're getting rejected. Last time I searched for a new position, I did about a dozen interviews, failed each one, still no idea why. That is why I'll consider a practice interview before my next job search.

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

#116

Post by curlcntr »

joeax wrote: post #98
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…

Many of these people interviewing wouldn't pass their own interviews if the roles were reversed. The bar should be high, but not so high that you leave feeling demoralized.

And given the possibility some interviewers experiencing their own imposter syndrome, around being qualified to assess qualifications, perhaps that could explain some of the questions too.

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

#117

Post by Spooky23 »

saulrh wrote: post #30
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?

Notice that, when they say they only hire the top 1%, there's a vicious sampling bias at work: even in a worst case where they're being literal they're actually hiring the top 1% of their applicants , not the top 1% of engineers . Think about how many jobs you usually apply for before getting one. Now imagine someone that's less successful than you at getting hired and think about how many times they're interviewing.…

I've observed that in pursuing the 1% unicorn candidate, many people step in unicorn shit and hire smart people who are bad employees.

My goal is to not hire the bottom 50% of the workforce in a given discipline. IMO, you're better off building teams that make the average+ person more productive.

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

#118

Post by rabidrat »

quickthrower2 wrote: post #79
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.

Sounds like you are experienced enough at life to fall prey to the "experienced people underestimate their ability" side of Dunning-Kruger.

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

#119

Post by jacobush »

joeax wrote: post #98
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…

Many of these people interviewing wouldn't pass their own interviews if the roles were reversed. The bar should be high, but not so high that you leave feeling demoralized.

But the interviewee is just a cog in the machine. Maybe it's unreasonable to require these people too are top notch at their game.

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

#120

Post by fullshark »

rothron wrote: post #103
JustSomeNobody wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "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.

Wouldn't an ad like that attract the biggest egos, not necessarily the best coders, nor people you would ever want to be on a team with?

It would attract young coders who you can convince to work long hours for less pay.
Post reply on HN