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> It's a sad that we can't be honest or humble but in this system we have to sell ourselves, fake enthusiasm for the hiring company is a must, do whatever it ta
by dahart 6y ago
> It's a sad that we can't be honest or humble but in this system we have to sell ourselves, fake enthusiasm for the hiring company is a must, do whatever it takes to pass the interview then think later if we take the position or not. If not, somebody else with the same capability or or less will snatch that job.
As someone who’s given hundreds, maybe thousands of interviews, personally I would advise against this. Being fake about your interests is not more likely to help you get the job you want and one that fits you well, if it even works at all. Being honest about your interests with yourself and your potential employers is the best way to end up being where you want to go.
You can show excitement for specific topics that a company works on, and it’s okay to like the company’s products, or their work environment, but people who are enthusiastic fans of a company without specific reasons to want to work there are, in my experience, not more likely to get hired.
> Plus that interviews like tests are gameable.
This is true, and it’s good to understand so that your expectations don’t go crazy. You are competing against other people, and you have no idea how good they are. All you can do is your best.
- dahart 6y agoOh you know what, I somehow thought you were saying that interviews are a gamble, I misread "gameable". My reply only somewhat applies, but allow me to fix it... This is a pretty common concern, I've heard it before. But in practice I've never actually seen it happen myself. It's worry about what's possible, but not what's likely. The problem with worry about others gaming interviews is that it ignores what happens after they get hired. Someone who's faking it would probably be later revealed. It's usually easy to uncover exaggerations during interviews. And last but not least, the vast majority of people I've met haven't lied or cheated or tried to game the interviews. I've had lots of interviews where people start by inflating or spinning their experience a little - there's nothing wrong with framing yourself from a positive angle. All it takes is a couple of follow-up questions to uncover the boundaries of their experience. This is one reason why the article here is wrong. Unstructured portions interviews serve the super important function of conversation about the candidate's experience. Standardized questions are not as good as casual conversation and follow-up questions, at helping me really get a sense for you and your experience and what interests you.