Ask HN: How to change jobs with almost no interviewing experience? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: How to change jobs with almost no interviewing experience?

#41

Post by viridisk » Wed, Mar 20, 2024, 10:56 PM UTC

The only way to both get experience and get hired is just to keep trying and just shooting for whatever you'd like to do

After series of failed interviews I got my first job by during interview clicking with my future boss on a personal level and we ended up talking more about Witcher books than job itself lol. Less than a year later I ended up leaving that corpo as despite good performance and good opportunities I was just very wrong cultural fit

So moral of the story is that stuff can be really random and the only way to get it right is to just keep trying

Re: Ask HN: How to change jobs with almost no interviewing experience?

#42

Post by king-of-turtles » Thu, Mar 21, 2024, 4:11 PM UTC

dsattt wrote: post #34

Wow the answers are bad. I can tell you for sure practice does nothing and can actually turn into confidence which can be read as arrogance. Researching the company is also a waste of time, it will maybe give you a 5% boost. The reality is that people that do the hiring are usually workaholics, so they turned interviews into dating. The only way to get a job is if all the people involved like you outside the job. So…

You're not wrong. You need to be top-top talent to get offers on skill alone (I've seen it with one individual, it's rare).

The real kicker is that "All the people liking you outside the job" is going to be radically different at each place. There is no way to calculate for that.

This is why workplace culture is stupid. We don't need to be a substitution for real friends. Just let us do our jobs. Socializing is a great skill, but it doesn't equate to being able to debug Golang or detect accounting fraud.

Re: Ask HN: How to change jobs with almost no interviewing experience?

#43

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Mar 21, 2024, 6:47 PM UTC

neonlights84 wrote: post #40

The key to interviewing well and confidently is to understand that you are not the only one being interviewed. You are interviewing them! And you want to ask probing questions that reveal the employer's mindset and working conditions. Many employers go into these discussions thinking that they are going to put you under the microscope. But if you direct hard questions in their direction, the power dynamic changes. Su…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: How to change jobs with almost no interviewing experience?

#44

Post by lostdog » Thu, Mar 21, 2024, 8:58 PM UTC

Practice for 4 weeks, then go interview. It's useful to practice a bit, but it's more important to just go do the interviews soon. Pick whatever practice makes the most sense, but don't worry too much about getting the exactly right practice. Review descriptions of what interviews will be like generally, and try to solve a handful of practice problems.

The best way to learn to interview well is to interview other people. You very quickly see what works and what doesn't. Of course, it's difficult to just make that happen in the short term.

In the end, you should just go interview places. You'll quickly learn whether you're all good (because you get offers), or if there are any problems to address. Only worry about it if there are problems.

Re: Ask HN: How to change jobs with almost no interviewing experience?

#45

Post by VoodooJuJu » Thu, Mar 21, 2024, 9:47 PM UTC

I just find it sad that all the upvoted responses are "practice interviewing", which although is true and good advice, is indicative of a spurious state of affairs, that jobs are acquired not through merit, but by rehearsing an aesthetic ritual unrelated to job's tasks at hand.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39754083 also puts it well.

Re: Ask HN: How to change jobs with almost no interviewing experience?

#46

Post by VoodooJuJu » Thu, Mar 21, 2024, 9:52 PM UTC

dsattt wrote: post #34

Wow the answers are bad. I can tell you for sure practice does nothing and can actually turn into confidence which can be read as arrogance. Researching the company is also a waste of time, it will maybe give you a 5% boost. The reality is that people that do the hiring are usually workaholics, so they turned interviews into dating. The only way to get a job is if all the people involved like you outside the job. So…

>they turned interviews into dating

lmao, it's true. You show up on time, put your best foot forward, talk about your experience, passions, skills, and then they'll consider whether you're tall enough.