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

The worst job interview I ever had

oliverio.dev

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

371–380 of 589 posts

Re: The worst job interview I ever had

#371

Post by guywithahat »

nephihaha wrote: post #229
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.

This is quite common. Hobbies may suggest to them an attention to detail, working well in a team (sport) or leadership abilities.

Especially in recent graduate positions. I maybe won't make sense if the interviewee was 35 but if they're 21 there's just nothing else to talk about. That said, at least in software, the right answer still includes something about coding or building things.

Re: The worst job interview I ever had

#372

Post by m463 »

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…

I remember interviewing once and they told me what they were working on.

I was actually familiar with the product, but it had some glaring shortcomings, and I kind of groaned a little inside.

And I told them that I liked some things about the product, but then I unfiltered sort of pointed out what was wrong. I really wasn't interested in working on it (though I didn't say that outright)

And then they decided they loved and needed me. (and I didn't go there)

Sort of like dating I think. Show a little skepticism and you might unintentionally get more interest than if you were open and sincere.

Re: The worst job interview I ever had

#373

Post by malfist »

ambicapter wrote: post #369
rkachowski wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's wild to see so many advocates of "the inexperienced should have experience already". You're put in an awful situation but it's your own fault because you went through it, you should have known better than to take questions at face value as presented.

Uhhhhh these questions are experience filters, that's why it's better to have experience when you answer them.

Don't you think an interview is a collaborative effort? What signal is the interviewer getting from a candidate if they're asking about work experiences and the candidate is answering with personal non-professional anecdotes?

Assuming that the candidate was in the wrong here, and the interviewer wanted work anecdotes, why didn't the interviewer guide them to the right topics? If they didn't guide them to the right topic, your assumption that they wanted work examples may be flawed.

Re: The worst job interview I ever had

#374

Post by voakbasda »

DangitBobby wrote: post #359
nkrisc wrote: post #303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There’s a reason interviewers in the US won’t (or shouldn’t) even ask if the candidate has a spouse. If they ask something about that specifically, and the answer indicates some kind of protected status (a man says “my husband” or reveal which place of worship they got married in) and they then decline the candidate, the candidate could make the claim they were denied because they’re gay or practice whatever religion…

I think people vastly overstate the amount of actual risk companies are taking when they engage is possibly illegal behavior, especially on this forum.

Having been on the sidelines for spurious claims of this nature, these sorts of lawsuits are a huge risk: the cost of mounting a defense can easily bankrupt a small business, even if the claims turn out to be baseless.

Even in the case of complete innocence, it often becomes a he-said-she-said situation, and the outcome boils down to which side presents the best set of “facts”.

I use quotes there because my broader experience with the court system routinely shows that it does not need be burdened by the “truth” or “facts”. That is probably because the regular cast in those venues are literally trained and practiced liars.

Re: The worst job interview I ever had

#375

Post by freehorse »

jrflo wrote: post #363
MattRogish wrote: post #90

This… was a mistake on both you and the interviewer. All interview questions - unless it’s impossible to twist your answer to fit this - is scoped to “… at work”. Nobody who asks “tell me about yourself” is asking you to talk about how you met your partner, how many cats you have, or that experience you had, that one time, at band camp. It would be redundant and awkward to literally say “… at work” at the end of ever…

Another pro tip for interviews: even if they explicitly ask for something like "the worst day of your life, including personal circumstances not at work", just answer about work anyways. You don't have to answer every question as posed. Pretend the worst day of your life was at work and was work related. There are a lot of interview questions asked as bait. If someone asks "What is your greatest weakness?", you bette…

In my understanding, interviewers expect sth like:

> What is your greatest weakness?

> I am too good at my work

Re: The worst job interview I ever had

#376

Post by MBCook »

ljm wrote: post #314
Dumblydorr wrote: post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would a recruiter expect you to give that?

They'll frame it as not wanting to waste anybody's time by submitting you as a candidate if you're already mid-flight on other positions, but they can still figure that out without having specifics on the actual company, role, salary, etc. They're banking on you offering it because saying no would rule out any mysterious prospects they have to offer, but really they're looking for new leads and if it comes from a can…

Also, other positions they now know are open and can see if they can recruit for.

Re: The worst job interview I ever had

#377

Post by ambicapter »

bacchus123 wrote: post #318

Two years ago I applied for a position in the Swiss Federal Gov's IT departement. The interview rounds went well, I liked the team and the atmosphere was good. They told me that I was the best fit from the people who have applied for the position. Before the last interview, which was with the HR and the "boss" of the departement, i got an email which described how the onboarding happens. So I went there on the next d…

Seems like they already knew who they wanted to hire, but HR wasn't in on it.

Re: The worst job interview I ever had

#378

Post by Aurornis »

cwnyth wrote: post #151
Aurornis wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> asking a young person (I don't know that he was young, just saying) "what was the hardest day of your life" is a pretty standard question. Like on a college application, they expect you to answer it. This is not a standard job interview question at all. In fact if you tried asking this at any company with a legal or HR team, you'd get pulled out of interviewing people until they could train you appropriate job inte…

Keeping in mind the context of the original parent comment, yes it is 100% standard to ask about the "hardest day of your [working] life." I wouldn't ever put it like that, but asking about difficult challenges and how you overcame them is completely normal. The blog post reads to me as someone who is oblivious about the subtext of these questions. When I ask that kind of question, I'm not asking you to share about a…

> yes it is 100% standard to ask about the "hardest day of your [working] life."

The comment I was responding to was saying that the question was about your non-working life, and that it’s normal to do so.

You’re trying to argue something else. I’m only saying that interviews questions about your personal life are out of scope.

It is 100% not standard to ask questions about someone’s personal life.

Re: The worst job interview I ever had

#379

Post by arein3 »

dnnddidiej wrote: post #166
elzbardico wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would go by something like: "The industrial society and its future" - Theodor Kaczinski. "The communist manifesto" - Karl Marx. "Rules for Radicals" - Saul Alinsky "Hitler's War" - David Irving "The Souls of Black Folk" - W.E.B. Du Bois "Capital in the Twenty-First Century" - Tom Pickety "Las venas abiertas da America Latina" - Eduardo Galeano "The question of Palestine" - Edward Said. "Grapes of Wrath" - John Stei…

Non zero chance you make a friend by citing the list! Or you get the boot. Especially when the Atlas Shrugged reading startup founder is deciding.

People who are excited about these ideas are prone to be communist enjoyers. Which in practice is a braindead path, as demonstrated by countless examples.

Re: The worst job interview I ever had

#380

Post by misja111 »

gobdovan wrote: post #173

I always wanted to tell the story of my weirdest interview. It's bad in a different way from OP's. This was for a "Machine Learning Engineer" contractor position. - Hi, I'm gobdovan. How are you? says I. The interviewer doesn't bite: - How many prompting techniques do you know? (ok?..) After a couple confused seconds, I respond with 2-3 techniques and ask if I should explain them, but the interview engine is already…

Whenever I'm in an interview (almost) like this, I happily remind myself that interviews work in two directions: they are also for me to evaluate my possible employer.
Post reply on HN