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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

#291

Post by rorykoehler »

beat wrote: post #74
aplummer wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

>they can't really talk about their role in a big success - they didn't have much of a role, usually.

I would wager that at least half of candidates are just good humble team players. Your approach optimises for egotistical braggarts at the expense of normal people.

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

#292

Post by mattkrause »

scarejunba wrote: post #270
camdenlock wrote: post #269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "We expected a different experience from our whiteboard coding sessions." Damn, that made my skin crawl. If I heard that, I'd be thanking my lucky stars that I didn't get hired by such a company.

Oh ouch. That was not the intention but I can be socially awkward at times. Perhaps you can help me understand what I said that was wrong? Happy to adjust the way I communicate so long as I can express that it was writing out code that didn't work as opposed to architecture and/or technical communication.

For me, it has two problems. The tone has this anodyne corporate PR flavor: whiteboarding isn’t really collaborative (“our”), nor is it an “experience” in the way that, say, hang-gliding is.

It’s also not particularly actionable. Obviously, it implies that you need to brush up on either a) algorithms, b) coding, or c) investigating a problem. However, you could just come out and say that. Some specific feedback on the problems that the applicant “failed” would be incredibly nice but is probably too much work. However, some general suggestions for how to improve would also make this feel more constructive, along with some instructions (if any) on how to reapply. Possibly something like “We felt that your knowledge of data structures was a weakness. Many of our engineers swear by Skiena’s Algorithm Design Manual, or.... If you are still interested in ABC Corp, we would be happy to consider a new application in six months.”

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

#293

Post by langitbiru »

mr_custard wrote: post #148
JustSomeNobody wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Same here. I've found nearly all of my jobs through my network, but now that I work remotely from a place where it's hard to have a network... I really don't know how I'm going to address the issue in future. Thoughts welcome!

What about mingling in technical mailing list, such as Python development mailing list, or Solidity gitter chat room, or other tech Slack group?

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

#295

Post by milansm »

rorykoehler wrote: post #286
alxlaz wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've made a point for myself to never ask questions like "what are your dreams" or "where do you see yourself in 10 years" in an interview, ever. For a long time, I've used these as a filter, too. Getting this kind of question in an interview is a big red flag for me and a huge disappointment. Let me elaborate a little. My dreams are none of an interviewer's bloody business. I'm here to work not share the things that…

I ask a variation of this question. It is along the lines of "how would you like your career to progress over the next 3-5 years?". I am it because I don't want to hire someone for whom the organisation doesn't have a career path for. Any answer is fine. I'm not looking for a particular answer just an honest one.

> I don't want to hire someone for whom the organisation doesn't have a career path for

and

> I'm not looking for a particular answer just an honest one.

are contradictory one to another.

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

#296

Post by mattkrause »

pmiller2 wrote: post #154
qubax wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 only did practice interviews for my college internships and my first job because my resume was so light and my experience in the industry was nonexistent. When you have so little to talk about, it's smart to come prepared with a handful of questions. Once you have 5…

Just out of curiosity, what kind of places have you been interviewing? I'm at about 5 years, and I'm still getting mostly the same old "write down the solution to these leetcode problems" type interviews. I would say 75% is leetcode bullshit, maybe 25% more applied type interviews.

Literally anywhere that doesn’t think of itself as a “tech compan.” or the job as a “tech” job.

I’m on the line between neuroscience and machine learning. Interviews for “neuro jobs”, even ones where my major responsibility would be coding, usually involve talking about things I’ve done and how I would tackle new problems. Put a similar position in an org that thinks of itself as “tech” and suddenly I’m traversing graphs and drawing trees.

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

#297

Post by rorykoehler »

milansm wrote: post #295
rorykoehler wrote: post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I ask a variation of this question. It is along the lines of "how would you like your career to progress over the next 3-5 years?". I am it because I don't want to hire someone for whom the organisation doesn't have a career path for. Any answer is fine. I'm not looking for a particular answer just an honest one.

> I don't want to hire someone for whom the organisation doesn't have a career path for and > I'm not looking for a particular answer just an honest one. are contradictory one to another.

How so? I'm having an open conversion. The goal is to align expectations. It makes little difference to me on a personal level what their answer is. I'm representing the company and they are representing themselves so they have way more skin in the game. It's my moral perogative to have this open conversation with them. I don't want to hire them if the lack of career opportunity/progression makes them unhappy but if they still want the job even after it becomes evident that they may have difficulty reaching their goals in this organisation I'll still extend the offer. I'll only ask this question to people I've already decided to try hire.

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

#298

Post by throw2016 »

This just seems so much myth making and gratuitous glorification so people can feel special just getting a job. The famed difficulty of getting hired creates a sense of elitism and exclusiveness and perpetuates a culture of insecurity.

This is very cult like, If people are indoctrinated to think that they are part of an elite group they will be devoted and would look at leaving as a step down. Cults are a great business model as the followers are very devoted.

It suits the agenda of employers to construct this and target individuals who derive all sense of identity and self worth from their jobs and when employed will work their asses off in a constant reaffirmation of 'specialness' just to retain their sense of self worth. Very cult like.

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

#299

Post by dahart »

“women leave interviewing.io roughly 7 times as often as men do, after a bad interview.”

To me that means that imposter syndrome is striking women much harder than men, but that’s not what the headline was talking about. They’re defining imposter syndrome as whether someone is mis-estimating their own performance. Unfortunately, a lack of accuracy doesn’t necessarily demonstrate imposter syndrome, in fact imposter syndrome is defined as self-doubt in the face of evidence of competence. So, imposter syndrome wasn’t measured here at all.

The data shows women estimate their competence as well as men, and perform as well as men, and then when there are any signs of trouble they bail seven times faster than men. To me that could very well be much greater levels of impostor syndrome, or it could be much lower confidence, but to actually measure it you’d have to actually ask questions about how people rate themselves against others, not measure how accurate their responses are.

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

#300

Post by brandall10 »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #257
brandall10 wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not that unusual. 15 minute recruiter screen -> 1 hour tech screen -> 5 hour onsite (5 parts w/ 2 devs each) can do it. I've probably exceeded 20 before if you count lunch and meeting VPs/directors toward the end.

I still don't get it tbh. Our interview process is 3-4 1 hour talks at most - introduction / initial interview (phone or face to face) with 1-2 people (manager / HR), technical interview / code review (2 people), then a final chat with the CEO and finally a contract offer / negotiation. People can have a signed contract within a day. And we are actually very demanding of our people.

That sounds close to a dozen people involved in the process if teams double up on the 1 hour sessions.
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