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The worst job interview I ever had

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Re: The worst job interview I ever had

#71

Post by roadside_picnic »

robocat wrote: post #18
talkingtab wrote: post #11

There is, and should be, a red flag for these situations. No make that RED flag. If you go into an interview that leaves you feeling the least bit helpless or at someone's mercy then run screaming. Not politely, not quietly. Just say to calmly to the person that you find the situation abusive. It is. As you go out, if you see anyone or have a chance to talk to anyone, just tell them you found that your interviewer to…

Are you being glib or unrealistic? You're going to find many red flags for any job, perhaps severe flags. But you need a job. Or you have to roll the dice because you have deep knowledge of the red flags for your current job. Who finds 10/10 perfect jobs via an application process? Note: I probably shouldn't be commenting since I don't need to apply for jobs and conditions here are likely different from yours.

There's a difference between "red flags" and "imperfections". Every team has faults, which if you're experienced at interviewing/working many places, are usually pretty easy to figure out. These are distinct from "red flags".

Early in your career it can be hard to distinguish the two, but once you've joined a company where there really were "red flags" you quickly learn to differentiate.

Many people are reading the author's interview uncharitably as simply misunderstanding how to answer non-technical question, but I have absolutely been through loops (thankfully rare ones) that did have a "let's press on sensitive issues and see how tough this candidate is" round (one place brought in a consultant who bragged about his experience working with hardened criminals and terrorists to build out a true psych profile on candidates, I declined after learning he had had some "trouble" at a previous high profile job)

Sounds like you've never worked for a truly toxic org, which is great. But, especially if you're interviewing with smaller startups (as the author mentioned), there is a lot more variance and some truly messed up teams (and some truly remarkable ones as well) out there. I've noticed that HN increasingly doesn't have people that work at startups any more, so many people are probably less familiar with what's out there.

Re: The worst job interview I ever had

#73

Post by huflungdung »

rigonkulous wrote: post #40

I was excited, it was a game company, and I'd wanted to get back into games - or more specifically, game engines - for a few years. The tech of this particular company was interesting, an in-house engine developed by wunderkind, of course, and they'd invited me for an interview because I had done a fair bit of low-level work, which would be handy for their rough edges. Apparently. Half way through the interview, I ha…

[dead]

Re: The worst job interview I ever had

#74

Post by mawadev »

I think the author was reading too much into these questions. I bet these people came up with random questions they thought were deep, especially coming from a mental health lens, but struck a nerve in the author. They essentially weren't prepared for the raw human experience that was shared here.

I think regardless of whatever you face during an interview, true mastery is to let your humanity at the door and pull up a facade. If you cannot do it in that context, you dodged a bullet imho.. you wouldn't be able to recognize yourself a few years down the line working there with them daily.

Re: The worst job interview I ever had

#75

Post by elzbardico »

eximius wrote: post #59

Earlier this year I was told I failed an interview because when asked why I wanted to join a company, my answer "could apply to other companies in the same stage of life." They apparently required me to be _uniquely_ interested in their company. There were other oddities about their interview process. Some interviewers just want to feel special.

Assume that every singlemotherfucking breathing human you find in your life wants or at least likes to feel special, and that any company that asks you that question wants you to massage their ego a little bit.

Don't think much about it, just believe what I am telling you. It is going to save you a lot of grief.

Re: The worst job interview I ever had

#76

Post by awesomeusername »

mawadev wrote: post #74

I think the author was reading too much into these questions. I bet these people came up with random questions they thought were deep, especially coming from a mental health lens, but struck a nerve in the author. They essentially weren't prepared for the raw human experience that was shared here. I think regardless of whatever you face during an interview, true mastery is to let your humanity at the door and pull up…

I know many people like you. Don't project your mentality onto someone else.

People who can "pull up a facade" are a subset of the population

Re: The worst job interview I ever had

#77

Post by lz400 »

Truth is, most people who interview people have no idea how to do it. I know because I've done hundreds and nobody ever trained me or explained to me how to do it properly. Over the years I've seen so many people on both sides of the table that I developed a method and I got semi-functional at it but so many people doing interviews shouldn't that bad experiences should be almost expected by now.

Re: The worst job interview I ever had

#78

Post by esperent »

mawadev wrote: post #74

I think the author was reading too much into these questions. I bet these people came up with random questions they thought were deep, especially coming from a mental health lens, but struck a nerve in the author. They essentially weren't prepared for the raw human experience that was shared here. I think regardless of whatever you face during an interview, true mastery is to let your humanity at the door and pull up…

> true mastery is to let your humanity at the door and pull up a facade

Or say "screw that" and go find work that lets you be a human, not a repressed shell. I'm in my 40s now and have followed that my whole life to great benefit. Barring about two months in a open-plan hell hole in my mid twenties which I still look back on and shudder, mostly out of empathy for people who spend their whole working lives that way.

Re: The worst job interview I ever had

#79

Post by freehorse »

booleandilemma wrote: post #16

I was asked what my hobbies are during an interview once and it made me believe they were just looking for a personality hire or a pretty face.

The mirror side of this is when almost all the intern applications/cover letters we used to receive contained a paragraph about the hobbies of the applicant (all domain-irrelevant). I find that weird but I guess it is sort of common nowadays?

Re: The worst job interview I ever had

#80

Post by Ogre »

badc0ffee wrote: post #8

> Even if you hire a cracked engineer, it’s probably not gonna be a good experience all-around if you can’t make a human connection. "Cracked engineer" is throwing me, but maybe I've just never seen the word cracked used this way before. Should it be "crack", like "crack team"?

I'm with you, came here to ask this too. This is how I would have read it:

"Crack engineer" someone who is an excellent engineer, I feel like this goes back to at least the early 20th century, certainly long before gaming culture.

"Cracked engineer" a damaged person who is an engineer

Shrug. Language changes all the time!

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