Interview success can depend on how you schedule interviews • Hacker News Board

Re: Interview success can depend on how you schedule interviews

#61

Post by decebalus1 » Tue, Dec 07, 2021, 9:37 PM UTC

lnanek2 wrote: post #35

daxfohl wrote: post #31

I disagree with not scheduling before holidays. If I like a candidate I'm not going to forget about that just because of a holiday. The first person that makes a good impression almost always has an advantage IMO. The hiring manager will remember that person, and human psychology makes your memory of that interview better than it actually was. So for someone to unseat you they have to do significantly better. (And ob…

As an American, I totally feel the same. But working with some of my European counterparts, they can just totally disappear for a month or two when they vacation, like into a black hole. They just take vacations more seriously. If one of them was a decider for a hiring decision, we definitely wouldn't hear back from them until after. Not anything good or bad about it, it's just a different culture.

On a tangent, I'm an American and I disappear for a month when I take vacation. It probably has something to do with the fact that I was born in Europe or with getting tired of half-assing vacations and getting burned out. I'd like for 'black hole' vacations to be normalized in the American workplace. I'm doing my part!

Re: Interview success can depend on how you schedule interviews

#62

Post by coffee » Tue, Dec 07, 2021, 9:38 PM UTC

Great thinking on this one!

The problem is...that we need this level of creative thinking in the first place.

We need hacks like this so that we can make it through a completely broken industries interviewing process.

Re: Interview success can depend on how you schedule interviews

#63

Post by UncleOxidant » Tue, Dec 07, 2021, 9:42 PM UTC

mitchdoogle wrote: post #34

UncleOxidant wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you're amazing at interviews... Accomplish that special human ability "It's easy, you just..." Most of us are not amazing at interviews so telling people to be amazing at interviews isn't too helpful. Interview feedback tends to be pretty sparse. Often you don't hear anything back unless you got the job. Even if you do get a "no" response it will be light on details (and it's usually this way due to legal concer…

If you wanted to learn to play the piano, how would you do it? You'd get lessons, or watch videos, or read a book. You'd definitely practice. Treat interviewing the same way.

So put a lot of effort into something that you hopefully won't have to do very often. I think that's the objection that a lot of us have and why there's a feeling that there's too much emphasis on the interview. I can practice interviewing or I can spend that time learning more about algorithms, math, programming languages, machine learning, etc. It seems like the latter is ultimately time better spent.

Re: Interview success can depend on how you schedule interviews

#64

Post by lief79 » Tue, Dec 07, 2021, 9:55 PM UTC

ysavir wrote: post #59

TedDoesntTalk wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's much more important to learn how to sell yourself with honesty and integrity than to follow these tips. Nobody else can do it for you.

What about these tips lack honesty or integrity?

Nothing, he's just suggesting that as a different, higher priority.

Re: Interview success can depend on how you schedule interviews

#65

Post by daxfohl » Tue, Dec 07, 2021, 10:05 PM UTC

lnanek2 wrote: post #35

daxfohl wrote: post #31

I disagree with not scheduling before holidays. If I like a candidate I'm not going to forget about that just because of a holiday. The first person that makes a good impression almost always has an advantage IMO. The hiring manager will remember that person, and human psychology makes your memory of that interview better than it actually was. So for someone to unseat you they have to do significantly better. (And ob…

As an American, I totally feel the same. But working with some of my European counterparts, they can just totally disappear for a month or two when they vacation, like into a black hole. They just take vacations more seriously. If one of them was a decider for a hiring decision, we definitely wouldn't hear back from them until after. Not anything good or bad about it, it's just a different culture.

I'd imagine if a hiring manager is doing that though, they'd not schedule interviews straddling the gap.

The whole article is kind of weird though. The interviewee doesn't really have that much flexibility in scheduling interviews. Unless it's for a company with centralized recruiting that's always hiring, in which case when you schedule makes no difference at all.

Re: Interview success can depend on how you schedule interviews

#66

Post by xivzgrev » Tue, Dec 07, 2021, 10:13 PM UTC

zebnyc wrote: post #19

I have a few as well: - You will face rejection (likely a lot). Don't take this personally and don't let it affect your confidence. - Unless you are an outstanding interviewee, this is like a skill/muscle which you need to develop and practice. Hence ensure that you don't schedule your "dream job/company" early in the process. Keep practicing. - Always have a beginner / practice mindset. Otherwise, you will accept th…

"Keep applying and talking to companies even after you have started negotiations"

YES. Do not stop until your first day (half kidding). One time I stopped interviewing after accepting an offer...only to find out there were rounds of reference checks (and one of them didn't go well). It was 2-3 weeks of anxious bullshit, but only because I already turned down everything else that was in motion.

Who knows maybe a second company will come through with a better offer.

Re: Interview success can depend on how you schedule interviews

#67

Post by colmvp » Tue, Dec 07, 2021, 10:14 PM UTC

jbluepolarbear wrote: post #52

zebnyc wrote: post #19

I have a few as well: - You will face rejection (likely a lot). Don't take this personally and don't let it affect your confidence. - Unless you are an outstanding interviewee, this is like a skill/muscle which you need to develop and practice. Hence ensure that you don't schedule your "dream job/company" early in the process. Keep practicing. - Always have a beginner / practice mindset. Otherwise, you will accept th…

I’ve interviewed many candidates and I’ve interviewed many times myself. Having good conversation skills is the single biggest influence on whether a candidate proceeds or not. Talking is a skill and that really stands out against other candidates. When I’m interviewing, I’ll usually choose a stronger communicator over a stronger engineer.

Isn't that kind of odd? I've worked with software engineers who are good talkers but their code and problem solving skills leave something to be desired. Meanwhile, I've worked with guys who took a while to get comfortable with in terms of having conversations and yet they were some of the most productive members of the team both in code output and skill.

Ultimately, most of the time I 'talk' with my team members, we're actually writing which is very different from talking due to the async nature of the former.

Re: Interview success can depend on how you schedule interviews

#68

Post by Zancarius » Tue, Dec 07, 2021, 10:14 PM UTC

Kranar wrote: post #26

wpietri wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For sure. And I also am not sure I want to work at a place where being really good at interview skills is what gets people jobs. The correlation between "interviews well" and "collaborative, productive coworker" isn't very strong.

Definitely has not been my experience. People who interview well are generally excellent communicators and communication is of utmost importance when working with a team.

This was my thought as well.

Also, generally being likeable makes a positive impact on people. Teams would much rather someone they feel they can work well with than someone who is going to be a total stick in the mud and drag everyone down.

Re: Interview success can depend on how you schedule interviews

#69

Post by conductr » Tue, Dec 07, 2021, 10:14 PM UTC

decebalus1 wrote: post #61

lnanek2 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an American, I totally feel the same. But working with some of my European counterparts, they can just totally disappear for a month or two when they vacation, like into a black hole. They just take vacations more seriously. If one of them was a decider for a hiring decision, we definitely wouldn't hear back from them until after. Not anything good or bad about it, it's just a different culture.

On a tangent, I'm an American and I disappear for a month when I take vacation. It probably has something to do with the fact that I was born in Europe or with getting tired of half-assing vacations and getting burned out. I'd like for 'black hole' vacations to be normalized in the American workplace. I'm doing my part!

I'm an American and do this too. Also, I don't take work home. I leave my laptop at work. It's a signal I do on purpose and I regularly talk about my life balance priorities. I don't mind working long hours during projects or busy times but I like to keep it in the office. So long as it's infrequent, couple times a year, something may totally blow up and I'll just go into the office on the weekend. If I'm out of town or not physically able to make it, well that means I can't physically pull out my laptop and dive into my work regardless of my location. I consider that a "not my problem" situation. I've found, if you give in to the instant responsiveness and availability, it becomes expectation. I'm mid-career and have done that, but at this point I go into jobs setting my terms and don't mind telling a C level or BOD member they can wait until I get back in the office. I don't even do that usually because I just don't respond outside of regular hours. It's not for everyone, and I may someday alter this, but I find it suites me at the moment. I have a young child and I'm not jumping on calls/emails/texting during our already limited time together. It works just fine but if I were to do this at a junior level it would have been career suicide. My experience is what has given me the leverage to demand my work style.

Re: Interview success can depend on how you schedule interviews

#70

Post by ClumsyPilot » Tue, Dec 07, 2021, 10:30 PM UTC

wppick wrote: post #42

An interview is decided in the first several seconds. First impressions are a real thing. Most interviewers will decide based on how you look, act, and talk whether you are going to pass the interview, and they will confirmation bias you into their predetermined decision. Of course with an amazing interview performance you can switch a predetermined no into a yes, and with a very poor interview you can turn a predete…

Certainly both phenomena you describe are real, but we do try to keep them in check, especially because 'first impression' is heavily influenced by class, sex, race, physical appearance, nationality, etc.