Totally true that people with no self-doubt/impostor syndrome overperform their ability level in whiteboard interviews compared to people with more self-doubt, who are often the better engineers. I am personally a beneficiary of this. It also contributes to all of the terrible dick-swinging culture in a lot of tech companies since these are the people who pass the interview.
Tech sector job interviews assess anxiety, not software skills: study
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Re: Tech sector job interviews assess anxiety, not software skills: study
#62I went through the interview gauntlet last year. When my extended family would ask what it is like I would say:
Imagine you want to hire a comedy writer for a TV show. However, you conduct your interview by having your candidate perform stand-up improv comedy like "Who's Line is it Anyway". While you want to hire someone funny, you don't need to hire a performer.
In my experience, programming interviews are basically an improv programming performance. I didn't pass an interview until I had enough practice performing while others watched.
Re: Tech sector job interviews assess anxiety, not software skills: study
#63That experiment assumes that SWE job is exclusively about solving technical problems, so we can just "lock the candidate in a private room and let them solve it". In reality human to human interactions, sometimes stressful, are part of the job. Customer & PM requirements, technical debates, giving feedback, explaining your technical solutions, etc. are common. Maybe part of the problem is the education that does not…
Agreed. When I'm conducting interviews, the actual code produced is less than half of what I'm looking for.
I want to assess if the candidate can communicate their thoughts effectively, if they can identify alternative approaches and justify their decisions, how they receive and incorporate feedback.
Locking someone in a room to write on a whiteboard is not a coding interview.
Re: Tech sector job interviews assess anxiety, not software skills: study
#64Huh, the only successful interviews I have are the ones where I'm burned out after a long, fruitless, frustrating job search. And so I walk in assuming the interview will be a waste of time and just not caring anymore. That's when I get an offer.
I had a quick phone screen with a recruiter the other day. For unreleated reasons the night before I hadn't slept much. That morning I was clambering about in the woods and stumbled on a wasp nest and got about 15 stings all over my body. I took 3 Benadryl anti-histamines before I remembered that I had the interview that afternoon. I was a complete space cadet.
Somehow the recruiter was still interested.
Maybe this should be my strategy for every job application? :-)
Re: Tech sector job interviews assess anxiety, not software skills: study
#65That experiment assumes that SWE job is exclusively about solving technical problems, so we can just "lock the candidate in a private room and let them solve it". In reality human to human interactions, sometimes stressful, are part of the job. Customer & PM requirements, technical debates, giving feedback, explaining your technical solutions, etc. are common. Maybe part of the problem is the education that does not…
I think a hybrid model (create solution in private, then present it and answer questions) might be better. That way you can assess the person's communication without looking over their shoulder.
Re: Tech sector job interviews assess anxiety, not software skills: study
#66If you get anxiety during a job interview it is because you don't have enough experience, you have a massive ego or you were raised improperly. I've never met anyone who gets crippling anxiety from a job interview when they've done what they say they have done and they are humble enough to just admit when they don't know something.
Or, you know, some people are just naturally anxious?
People have lives outside of a job interview. Family, children, jobs, or otherwise. All of those add to anxiety and can creep into your interviews.
They're not just robots that can turn off their emotions when they walk in the door.
Re: Tech sector job interviews assess anxiety, not software skills: study
#67Re: Tech sector job interviews assess anxiety, not software skills: study
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
Haha. So the more driven and hungry i am the worse ill be viewed. The more silver spoon and apathetic ill be cherished. Sounds like dating ;)
A different way to view this is that being desperate makes you behave badly. For example, someone desperate for a job won't push back against bad decisions and will become a "Yes Man". Someone desperate for a date won't engage with the other person as a person.
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Re: Tech sector job interviews assess anxiety, not software skills: study
#69A company flew me out to San Francisco to interview once. On my way into the building in the morning I was mugged (almost right outside). I told my interviewer, they took me to the lunch room to sit down and compose myself. "Take as long as you like", they said. 2 minutes later they came to collect me for my interview.
I was a wreck. Worst interview of my life. Didn't get the job. I am pretty sure I would have if I wasn't falling apart.
Re: Tech sector job interviews assess anxiety, not software skills: study
#70It was made the clearest to me when I interviewed a colleague who had left to another company and two years later was interviewing to return. I knew he knew everything and had the skills for the job because, well, I know him, I’d worked with him before. He’d done this very job previously. Yet he still performed terribly in the interview and (rightly or wrongly) I had to base my evaluation on my knowledge of him rathe…
I feel in the tech industry, networking and knowing people only gets you so far - typically just to the whiteboard interview. Then you have to solve the leetcode problems just like everyone else. Especially so in larger companies. FWIW, all of my friends who somehow managed to get into FAANG or other top tech companies swear that were they to go through the interview again, odds are they would fail. This despite all…
On the other hand you can get pretty far even if you don't any social network but you can solve textbook problems.