4 ms·

My wife used to work with students to help them get through interviews, and one of her pieces of advice when interviewing is to ask near the end of the intervie

My wife used to work with students to help them get through interviews, and one of her pieces of advice when interviewing is to ask near the end of the interview is if they have any concerns about them as a candidate. It gives the interviewer a chance to address the concerns and gives them a chance to get feedback to make future changes. I’m not sure how well this would work for a technical interview loop, since my wife was working with law students, and the interviews aren’t the same kind of technical, but it might sidestep/short circuit typical lack of feedback technical people complain about.

meej 7y ago
I witnessed a candidate ask a question along these lines in a group interview and I found it extremely awkward, because there was huge potential for disagreement amongst the interviewers, and also because this group consisted of people who had a stake in the hire as future coworkers for the role, but were not members of the search committee making the final hire decision, we were just providing feedback to the search committee. One person answered no, but at least two of us in the room were no-hire on the candidate. This question and some of the others the candidate asked also struck me as inauthentic, they sounded like they came straight out of an interview skills book. So I would be cautious with implementing this advice... at minimum, reserve it for 1:1 interview contexts.
- gowld 7y ago
  > group interview Off. That's not a good look.
  - steverb 7y ago
    On. I appreciate a company that isn't going to waste two days of my time with a succession of people asking the same questions over and over. Also, I want to meet my potential co-workers so I can decide if I want to work there.
  - meej 7y ago
    Don't ever interview at an academic library, then. It seems to be the only way we do interviews at mine, and I gather it's not an unusual practice in this field. That said, I have participated in group interviews when I still worked in the tech industry, and I have found I prefer it to 1:1 interviews. As an interviewer, it feels more conducive to behavioral interviewing, and more people get to weigh in on the hire. As an interviewee, I found it makes the interview more conversational and sets me more at ease. I wish it was more common.

meej 7y ago

I witnessed a candidate ask a question along these lines in a group interview and I found it extremely awkward, because there was huge potential for disagreement amongst the interviewers, and also because this group consisted of people who had a stake in the hire as future coworkers for the role, but were not members of the search committee making the final hire decision, we were just providing feedback to the search committee. One person answered no, but at least two of us in the room were no-hire on the candidate. This question and some of the others the candidate asked also struck me as inauthentic, they sounded like they came straight out of an interview skills book. So I would be cautious with implementing this advice... at minimum, reserve it for 1:1 interview contexts.

gowld 7y ago
> group interview Off. That's not a good look.
- steverb 7y ago
  On. I appreciate a company that isn't going to waste two days of my time with a succession of people asking the same questions over and over. Also, I want to meet my potential co-workers so I can decide if I want to work there.
- meej 7y ago
  Don't ever interview at an academic library, then. It seems to be the only way we do interviews at mine, and I gather it's not an unusual practice in this field. That said, I have participated in group interviews when I still worked in the tech industry, and I have found I prefer it to 1:1 interviews. As an interviewer, it feels more conducive to behavioral interviewing, and more people get to weigh in on the hire. As an interviewee, I found it makes the interview more conversational and sets me more at ease. I wish it was more common.