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Ah, this topic always seems to stir the pot around here. I think these are decent call-outs from the point of the interviewer, so I'll add a couple of my own fr

Ah, this topic always seems to stir the pot around here. I think these are decent call-outs from the point of the interviewer, so I'll add a couple of my own from the point of a candidate: 1) not screening the company during the interview 2) not preparing by doing "warm-up" interviews for roles you won't be too sad about if you don't get 3) not doing enough interviews to get multiple offers for negotiating leverage For my first point, you'll learn a lot about the company and how they work from the interview process. If the company has dysfunctional elements to its corporate culture, depending on the size, it's quite likely they'll be surfaced here. Not only is this one of the first impressions of you for them, but it's one of the first impressions of them for you. Pay attention to what your gut and intuition tell you here. Every time I've broken this rule, it's bitten me. For my second point, I think that people often forget that the only way to get better at interviewing is to just do it over and over again. It's a little hard to do that in a synthetic environment because it's hard to trick your brain into behaving as if it is real unless it actually is. But wait, you may say, treating an interview like practice is unethical! But I'd disagree. After all, if you really do well on the interview but you're not chomping at the bit to join, they might be more willing to negotiate and make you an offer that would make you reconsider. But, you likely know (and can force-rank) the roles you'd be most willing and least willing to take if you had the opportunity, so make sure to go through the sequence from least desirable to most desirable so that you have more leverage. My third point is probably the most crucial. You need the BATNA (best alternative to negotatiated agreement) of accepting something else or staying where you are to be able to negotiate. Otherwise, you have much less leverage. This is part of why timing and interviewing for less desirable roles is preferable, because you are more likely to negotiate with an offer for your more desirable role by the time you get there.

deleted 6y ago
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wtracy 6y ago
> screening the company during the interview Can you offer any advice or resources on what to ask or watch out for in this area?
- yowlingcat 6y ago
  That's hard to say. It feels a lot like dating. First of all, you want to avoid lemons. Secondly, you want to avoid glaring mismatches, so things can at least work out and be sustainable. But there sure are a lot of places where mismatches can occur! Beyond company fit, there needs to be team fit (and proximally manager fit) and role fit. A lot of this depends on size, too. Company fit is going to be really important if you're anywhere early. But beyond a size, it matters a whole lot less than manager+team. For the latter, you have to work with the team and manager on something to get a sense of what their style is and whether you'll clash. Try and find some way to talk about a problem as if it's a real world scenario, and see how easy it is to intellectually collaborate towards a solution. Does it feel natural or no? Would you trust this person enough to work with them for 8H+ a day? Keep this in mind as you compare offers. But it's hard. You can only discern so much, and this stuff is really easy to fake in an interview. You see different shades of people once you really have to rely on them in the dint of production. This is part of what makes warm intros so powerful -- if you've worked with someone you trust and respect before, and they've worked with someone they trust and respect before, it's more likely that you and that other person will transitively be compatible. Move too far outside that transitivity and you're taking existential risks. This is why it's not always a bad thing to move around a bit more in your earlier career -- it can open up your second degree circles a bit more once you hit mid career.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

wtracy 6y ago

> screening the company during the interview Can you offer any advice or resources on what to ask or watch out for in this area?

yowlingcat 6y ago
That's hard to say. It feels a lot like dating. First of all, you want to avoid lemons. Secondly, you want to avoid glaring mismatches, so things can at least work out and be sustainable. But there sure are a lot of places where mismatches can occur! Beyond company fit, there needs to be team fit (and proximally manager fit) and role fit. A lot of this depends on size, too. Company fit is going to be really important if you're anywhere early. But beyond a size, it matters a whole lot less than manager+team. For the latter, you have to work with the team and manager on something to get a sense of what their style is and whether you'll clash. Try and find some way to talk about a problem as if it's a real world scenario, and see how easy it is to intellectually collaborate towards a solution. Does it feel natural or no? Would you trust this person enough to work with them for 8H+ a day? Keep this in mind as you compare offers. But it's hard. You can only discern so much, and this stuff is really easy to fake in an interview. You see different shades of people once you really have to rely on them in the dint of production. This is part of what makes warm intros so powerful -- if you've worked with someone you trust and respect before, and they've worked with someone they trust and respect before, it's more likely that you and that other person will transitively be compatible. Move too far outside that transitivity and you're taking existential risks. This is why it's not always a bad thing to move around a bit more in your earlier career -- it can open up your second degree circles a bit more once you hit mid career.