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Interview success can depend on how you schedule interviews

tanayagrawal.substack.com

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Re: Interview success can depend on how you schedule interviews

#81

Post by handoflixue »

wppick wrote: post #60
nemo44x wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> An interview is decided in the first several seconds. I've hired hundreds of people and this is just not true. A first impression matters a bit, sure - but it has hardly any effect on the decision. > There is also the reality that when companies need to fill a role, and when first start interviewing they will set the bar way too high and reject some perfectly qualified candidates This is a very poor hiring practice…

> I've hired hundreds of people and this is just not true. A first impression matters a bit, sure - but it has hardly any effect on the decision. The thing about confirmation biases are that they are at the subconscious level and you likely wouldn't be able to detect them. It's possible that you have an impartial and immune to confirmation bias interview process, but it's also possible that you are indeed deciding (s…

> it's also possible that you are indeed deciding (skewing) most of your interviews in the first several seconds.

Not the original commenter, but I've had interviews where I was feeling pretty negative about a candidate in the first 5-10 minutes, but ultimately recommended them (sometimes even quite enthusiastically).

Given that empirical evidence to the contrary, it seems like a pretty incredible claim to insist that I'm deciding primarily based on the first few seconds. Do you actually have anything to back up your claim? That would suggest that, for instance, performance on a coding exercise has absolutely no bearing on my recommendation, since it usually takes a few minutes to get the coding rolling.

Re: Interview success can depend on how you schedule interviews

#82

Post by victoro »

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…

"Always have a beginner / practice mindset."

Just wanted to highlight this because it is a fantastic piece of advice to keep in mind for interviews (and honestly for your career and even crafts or hobbies too). There's a reason doctors and lawyers (for whom the stakes of failure are sometimes measured in lives or years of freedom lost) call what they do "a practice".

Re: Interview success can depend on how you schedule interviews

#83

Post by phibz »

stavros wrote: post #79
jbluepolarbear wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I'm fairly sure the reason I've gotten many of the jobs I've had is that I smile a lot.

Getting the interviewer to like you is most of what you need to land the position.

Re: Interview success can depend on how you schedule interviews

#84

Post by Jensson »

google234123 wrote: post #74
colmvp wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

It might be reflecting the fact that it's easier to talk about something if you know it well.

And the other side is that people who don't know what they are doing are very bad at talking once you try to solve problems. They might still be great at free form chit chat about technical things, like you'd get in an unstructured interview, but they lack the skills to actually apply the words they use and work through problems. So they will take a lot of space in meetings and chats and make everyone else less productive since they use so many words to say so little.

These are basically "brilliant jerks" on the soft skill side. They take so much of the space that the people who knows anything don't get much airtime. But if the soft brilliant jerk would just stop talking for a bit the other people would start talking and actually improve communication in the team.

Re: Interview success can depend on how you schedule interviews

#85

Post by jrockway »

colmvp wrote: post #67
jbluepolarbear wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

You will want to adjust the knob depending on the specific role. You might look for different things in a candidate that will be person #1 on a one person project version person #49 on a 50 person project.

Remember that most of us that are self-taught are pretty good at being person #1 on a one person project. That's what self-teaching teaches us, after all. But, a successful business might not be possible built around one programmer, so as you progress in your career you'll be working on developing the skills to form a cohesive team around you. A lot of this is going to be talking to people, not memorizing some algorithm. (But, many jobs are going to require both, so don't forget all the algorithms while you're in those meetings. At least brush up on them before your interview. A day of prep here can equal hundreds of thousands of dollars over the course of your career.)

Re: Interview success can depend on how you schedule interviews

#86

Post by B-Con »

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.

Engineering skills are easier to teach, particularly if you have an established culture and some senior personal who can spare a couple cycles to onboard new hires.

If you don't, that's a sign the engineering culture needs some TLC. And now that I think of it, in that case good communication may still be a priority factor.

Re: Interview success can depend on how you schedule interviews

#87

Post by [deleted] »

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…

[deleted]

Re: Interview success can depend on how you schedule interviews

#88

Post by lmm »

lazyasciiart wrote: post #57
mitchdoogle wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Millions of people do exactly that and are not 'amazing' at playing the piano.

IME anyone who is willing to put in the time and effort can get to a level where they're "amazing" from the perspective of regular people - of course there's a huge gap between that and being celebrated as top of the world or something.

Re: Interview success can depend on how you schedule interviews

#89

Post by strikelaserclaw »

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…

Some additional points since i'm currently interviewing a lot

-Practice leetcode since it will make up 50-60% of the interview process

-Study your resume inside and out, know the whys of what you did not just the whats

-Don't talk too much, sometimes nervousness and anxiety can make itself with a candidate talking too much or too little, both are bad, be concise with your answers but don't ramble on, the more you ramble the more surface area you give the interviewer to poke holes at what you said. Being concise can lead the interviewer towards areas where you are most comfortable answering questions.

-Realize you might be an amazing developer but you only have a couple of hours to show prospective employer what you got, don't be too harsh on yourself if you get rejected, it is impossible to know a person in 3 hours, they are merely going based on their best judgement of you (which is mixed in with actual performance considerations and bias many times) and not the "reality" of you.

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