6 ms·

Exactly. There's no game you can play that'll win every scenario because you can't possibly know how the person on the other side of the table will be judging y

by jghn 11y ago

Exactly. There's no game you can play that'll win every scenario because you can't possibly know how the person on the other side of the table will be judging you. I made this realization a while back and decided to make two changes to how I approached interviews: - Be myself. This sounds simple but it's harder than one would think. Most people are trained to put on faces and airs in these situations, most guides will tell you how to act, dress, etc. Ignore all that. If they don't like the real you they're not going to like you long term. There are some people who will ding you for not acting all prim and proper in an interview situation, but do you want to work with them? - Flip my mentality around. They're the ones that need the selling, not me. This ties together with the first point but it is a key mentality change. It's easier to just be yourself and stay calm if you can think about the interview in terms of you interviewing them.

analyst74 11y ago
That's one way to deal with it, the other way is to not take it personally. It is not you who are being judged, you are merely a sales person selling your service, if the buyer ended up not buying yours, it's totally OK, you just find another buyer. In the end, it's all about framing a situation in your own mind to make yourself comfortable with it. It is a very powerful technique to allow you perform well in stressful situations, and in a sense, keep yourself happy. It also applies to more than just interviews, but dating, social events, giving presentations, etc.
- jghn 11y ago
  That's more or less what I was saying. I didn't mean I'm interviewing them quite literally in that I don't believe I'm above them but rather that we're on a level playing field and I have no need to be a supplicant or to put on airs. If it works it works, if it doesn't it doesn't.
vdnkh 11y ago
>Be myself Super important, and easier said than done. I was too much "myself" during an interview, and I ended up disparaging their choice of Visual Basic as their main language (at a trendy startup in 2015) a bit too heavily. Said I passed the interview except for that bit. Did a similar thing recently during a phone interview. Another trendy startup who acquired a legacy .NET product and were looking for engineers to "automate" it. Sorry, I'm not buying what you're selling.
- gohrt 11y ago
  You have options: * Stop being yourself in the interview, and then have a bad experience on the job, battling over your disagrements. * Be yourself, and get a job that fits you. * Change yourself, then be yourself and get a job that fits you.
- rifung 11y ago
  I disagree that you were "too much" yourself, because if being yourself means you aren't a good fit for the company, it's better for both parties that you don't join the company. I'd argue that it just wasn't a good fit. I've definitely faked my way through interviews in the past, basically saying what I thought they wanted to hear. However, it just leads to being unhappy on the job because presumably you aren't going to fake it your whole time working there, or, even if you are, you're at a place where you constantly disagree with everyone on the inside.
- s73v3r 11y ago
  It should go without saying that "be yourself" does not mean be an asshole.
- pc86 11y ago
  To be fair there's nothing you can do in VB that you can't do in C# with an order of magnitude more available talent. Half my VS extensions are C#-only, to boot.
- rwallace 11y ago
  If you're going to have a policy of being yourself, that needs to go with an understanding that yourself is mutable, and a policy of changing yourself to be better adapted to your environment. In this case, it's important to realize that the days when choice of programming language was very important are long past. Pay, working conditions, not having to live in a very expensive area are important. Programming language is a minor detail, not worth getting worked up about.
  - jghn 11y ago
    It depends. There are languages I have no desire to work with and others which I very much would prefer to work with. It's a factor even if it's no longer the factor.
deleted 11y ago
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by jghn 11y ago

analyst74 11y ago

That's one way to deal with it, the other way is to not take it personally. It is not you who are being judged, you are merely a sales person selling your service, if the buyer ended up not buying yours, it's totally OK, you just find another buyer. In the end, it's all about framing a situation in your own mind to make yourself comfortable with it. It is a very powerful technique to allow you perform well in stressful situations, and in a sense, keep yourself happy. It also applies to more than just interviews, but dating, social events, giving presentations, etc.

jghn 11y ago
That's more or less what I was saying. I didn't mean I'm interviewing them quite literally in that I don't believe I'm above them but rather that we're on a level playing field and I have no need to be a supplicant or to put on airs. If it works it works, if it doesn't it doesn't.

vdnkh 11y ago

>Be myself Super important, and easier said than done. I was too much "myself" during an interview, and I ended up disparaging their choice of Visual Basic as their main language (at a trendy startup in 2015) a bit too heavily. Said I passed the interview except for that bit. Did a similar thing recently during a phone interview. Another trendy startup who acquired a legacy .NET product and were looking for engineers to "automate" it. Sorry, I'm not buying what you're selling.

gohrt 11y ago
You have options: * Stop being yourself in the interview, and then have a bad experience on the job, battling over your disagrements. * Be yourself, and get a job that fits you. * Change yourself, then be yourself and get a job that fits you.
rifung 11y ago
I disagree that you were "too much" yourself, because if being yourself means you aren't a good fit for the company, it's better for both parties that you don't join the company. I'd argue that it just wasn't a good fit. I've definitely faked my way through interviews in the past, basically saying what I thought they wanted to hear. However, it just leads to being unhappy on the job because presumably you aren't going to fake it your whole time working there, or, even if you are, you're at a place where you constantly disagree with everyone on the inside.
s73v3r 11y ago
It should go without saying that "be yourself" does not mean be an asshole.
pc86 11y ago
To be fair there's nothing you can do in VB that you can't do in C# with an order of magnitude more available talent. Half my VS extensions are C#-only, to boot.
rwallace 11y ago
If you're going to have a policy of being yourself, that needs to go with an understanding that yourself is mutable, and a policy of changing yourself to be better adapted to your environment. In this case, it's important to realize that the days when choice of programming language was very important are long past. Pay, working conditions, not having to live in a very expensive area are important. Programming language is a minor detail, not worth getting worked up about.
- jghn 11y ago
  It depends. There are languages I have no desire to work with and others which I very much would prefer to work with. It's a factor even if it's no longer the factor.

deleted 11y ago

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