4 ms·
It's worthwhile to distinguish between decision-makers and information-gatherers. FAANG interviewers have notoriously little decision-making power, though if y
by fizx 8y ago
It's worthwhile to distinguish between decision-makers and information-gatherers. FAANG interviewers have notoriously little decision-making power, though if you're given a time slot with your potential hiring manager, this approach might be worth a shot.
- closeparen 8y agoA good interviewer wants to stay on their script not because they're a disempowered automaton, but so that they can contextualize your performance relative to others they've given the same questions. Your job on an interview loop is to collect the best signal you can about the candidate's strengths in the assigned topic. You have broad latitude to use your professional judgement in going about that, but what makes your assessment persuasive in a debrief is calibration. An "original" interview may be a useful and necessary cost paid by the employer to train and calibrate a new interviewer, but opinions based on that interview have to be discounted appropriately in actually assessing the candidate. On the other hand, if you're a seasoned interviewer with a long-term favorite question, and report that the candidate's performance is an outlier in either direction, your voice alone could completely change the debrief room's opinion.
- walshemj 8y agoBut Most FANG interviewers don't seem to have any training
- closeparen 8y agoYes. Not all engineers take interviewing seriously, and even fewer actually want to be doing it in the moment. It can be seen as a too-frequent interruption that drags down productivity. This creates pressure to put interviewers in rotation who are not ready (so that more senior people can do their actual jobs) and can lead to a bad time when an otherwise-good interviewer betrays his annoyance at having you appear on his calendar. A disturbing proportion of your success as a candidate depends on luck of the draw.
- walshemj 8y agoThat always struck me as odd given Americas litigious nature. I worked for a big UK company in the past and you had to pass a 2 or 3 day residential course before you where allowed to interview anyone.
- closeparen 8y agoAside from discriminating on protected characteristics, white-collar employment decisions are not really subject to judicial review.
- walshemj 8y agoThey are in labour courts (assuming the USA) and at Tribunals in the UK - and a mistake in procedure is an automatic loss for employer side.