4 ms·
On the plus side: I wholeheartedly agree with all those points. On the contra side: Nothing of this really felt like it helped me. I found interviewing people
by wink 8y ago
On the plus side: I wholeheartedly agree with all those points.
On the contra side: Nothing of this really felt like it helped me. I found interviewing people absolutely horrible and almost never had a good feeling. People who seemed like they may have been a good fit didn't get offers for one reason or another, some people seemed awesome in the interview and then weren't. Overall I've been happy with the decisions I personally made (not all that the team/higher-ups then made) but even with the best of intentions.. it's hard. But it was a small company so maybe it was already a problem of not looking very interesting to some.
It still amazes me that some people seem to be utterly disinterested in what your company does or how they will work in a team, asking basically zero questions besides "how much money?" and "which language?".
- r_smart 8y agoAt my last employer, I sat in on an interview for a co-op with my boss. After asking the interviewee some questions the conversation went basically like this: Boss: Do you have any questions for me? Co-op: No Boss: Would you like to know about the company? What we do? Co-op: No I couldn't help myself from laughing. I know he's just a student, but he's still a 20 something adult. No interest at all, just looking to check another box on his list of credentials. At least fake it!
- watwut 8y agoI just don't really get this attitude. What exactly you want me to ask assuming I know salary and position? General information about company is usually right there on the website. I am really not sure what exactly the hiring manager is supposed to be asked at that moment, especially by someone young who does not have enough experience to distinguish between lying hiring manager and the one that tells the truth. I could see meaningful questions about vacation policy and overtimes and such, but that comes with experience and a.) youngsters wants pretend how they don't care bout weekends in work b.) companies lie about that sort of thing. I know that this attitude exist so I will ask something, it is not about that. But, the exercise is mostly empty for someone who is inexperienced and does not fully know yet what are situations where he fit vs where he does not fit.
- jimbokun 8y ago"What exactly you want me to ask assuming I know salary and position?" "Who are your most important customers?" "What is your monthly recurring revenue?" "What is your best selling product?" "What's one thing you like about working here?" "What's one thing you don't like about working here?" This isn't very difficult. Just requires a slight interest in the industry you plan to work in.
- watwut 8y agoNone of them is useful for anything. They are just questions that you ask to fulfill the "must ask question" requirement. Generally, product is on company main page. Asking that one likely shows you did not seen it. Moreover, they are unlikely to tell you monthly recurring revenue. That is just odd question. Our company would not definitely. Hiring manager will not tell you what he does not like about working there - for the same reason why you are not truthful about why you left previous place. Seriously. I would not ask the like dislike question for similar reason - it strikes me as odd and possibly would mark me as someone with low social skills. But the risk there is not too high.
- wsy 8y agoIf you read the company's web site, and are a curious and interested person, then you should pretty quickly stumble upon things you would like to know which aren't written there. So if you come up empty, either you are not interested in that company at all, or your curiosity is so easily satisfied that a plain web site can answer all your questions. Both is not a great sign for a prospective employee. Even suppose you apply to a straightforward company with an extremely detailed web site, so that all your questions have been answered already, then this is still a test if you can meet social expectations. You are indeed expected to have questions, and if you don't even follow this simple convention because you think you know everything already, then your social skills are probably underdeveloped. Finally, even you already know much about the company (e.g., about the most important product), asking about things you know already and comparing this with what you are told in the application talk will give you additional valuable information. Are they excited about their product? Are they exaggerating? Are they bored when answering? Do they know the basic information on their own web site? If you don't use the opportunity to extract as much information as you can, it's simply not smart.
- pnw_hazor 8y agoOne of my last tech interviews was for a startup. The tech team were all kids and seemed embarrassed to be interviewing me because I had much more experience than them. That all went well. I asked to have a brief meeting with senior leadership to talk about their business model/plan -- how did they intend to make money? CEO, COO, CFO, CTO, or the like, would do (it was a small co.). So I got an appointment for 30 minutes with the CTO or CFO (can't remember). Day of the meeting I show up and checkin with reception. 20 minutes later, I reminded them I was still here and someone came out and told me the guy I was supposed meet was out of the office on travel.
- mratzloff 8y agoI call this "developer swagger." As in, "I'm such a hot commodity, I don't need to care about your company specifically."