4 ms·

Where is this asking "quite a lot about their personal life" ?

teddyh 6y ago
I did say that it was implicit, but “having a conversation with the other person like if they were a human being” seems to imply that they are having an informal conversation as in simply shooting the breeze. In such a conversation as an interviewee, it is hard to remain professional and separate your personal and workplace activities, and this seemed to be what the interviewer was aiming for, in order to get to know them better.
- brailsafe 6y ago
  This all seems reasonable to me. If you're worling with other ppl, why not have them be people you might vibe with?
- C1sc0cat 6y ago
  I think they meant not reading algorithmic questions of a list in a robotic way.
- jschwartzi 6y ago
  GP seems like someone who interviews like I interview. I never ask candidates to talk about their personal life. I ask them to tell stories, and I try to understand whether they can reflect on their experiences and form a narrative. I’ve found that technical ability alone isn’t a great predictor of success. What matters is more that the candidate can communicate their thoughts fluently and that they give some consideration to their goals and how to work with others to achieve them. So I ask behavioral questions. And I ask questions and prompt people because I want to make sure I got a good story out of them. Some people don’t immediately trust you with a good story so I try to establish trust first. I do that by actually telling them what they’d be doing and why and what my employer is about first. I’d rather hire for those skills plus code reading ability because I’ve honestly never used a single “algorithm” in my entire working life.
  - teddyh 6y ago
    People are normally at least discouraged to talk about what they did at a previous employer at any level of detail; there might even be NDAs involved. So, when you don’t explicitly ask candidates about their personal life, but ask them to “tell stories”, what do you expect them to talk about? Employers seem to be entirely ignorant of the power relationship in job interviews; interviewers all want to talk to the candidates like a peer, even though this is not at all appropriate.

I did say that it was implicit, but “having a conversation with the other person like if they were a human being” seems to imply that they are having an informal conversation as in simply shooting the breeze. In such a conversation as an interviewee, it is hard to remain professional and separate your personal and workplace activities, and this seemed to be what the interviewer was aiming for, in order to get to know them better.

brailsafe 6y ago
This all seems reasonable to me. If you're worling with other ppl, why not have them be people you might vibe with?
C1sc0cat 6y ago
I think they meant not reading algorithmic questions of a list in a robotic way.
jschwartzi 6y ago
GP seems like someone who interviews like I interview. I never ask candidates to talk about their personal life. I ask them to tell stories, and I try to understand whether they can reflect on their experiences and form a narrative. I’ve found that technical ability alone isn’t a great predictor of success. What matters is more that the candidate can communicate their thoughts fluently and that they give some consideration to their goals and how to work with others to achieve them. So I ask behavioral questions. And I ask questions and prompt people because I want to make sure I got a good story out of them. Some people don’t immediately trust you with a good story so I try to establish trust first. I do that by actually telling them what they’d be doing and why and what my employer is about first. I’d rather hire for those skills plus code reading ability because I’ve honestly never used a single “algorithm” in my entire working life.
- teddyh 6y ago
  People are normally at least discouraged to talk about what they did at a previous employer at any level of detail; there might even be NDAs involved. So, when you don’t explicitly ask candidates about their personal life, but ask them to “tell stories”, what do you expect them to talk about? Employers seem to be entirely ignorant of the power relationship in job interviews; interviewers all want to talk to the candidates like a peer, even though this is not at all appropriate.