3 ms·

I had one experience in an interview where I couldn't context switch fast enough to answer a simple technical question. It was for a CTO job and I was asked to

I had one experience in an interview where I couldn't context switch fast enough to answer a simple technical question. It was for a CTO job and I was asked to prepare and present a presentation on "how to launch a product" - I think I had 30 minutes to prepare and 30 minutes to give the presentation to their management team. This went really well. Then the CEO wanted a quick chat and asked me a simple technical question - and I could not do it. My brain simply froze and he clearly thought I was an idiot or some marketeer pretending to be technical. The reverse being far closer to the truth! Edit: I've interviewed a lot of people over the years and would never had believed this could happen until it happened to me.

ionwake 6y ago
Same happened to me. I remember thinking " these 2 interiewers are thinking Im thinking about the solution, but Im not, my mind is blank because of the stress of having to answer a seemingly simple question, but I know if I say the slightest thing in the wrong way Ill be judged harshly for it" I realise this is a problem with me and stress during long interviews, but it was still a little funny at the time.
- arethuza 6y ago
  I was upset about it at the time but eventually realised, based some of their longer term plans, that I had dodged a bullet.
- josephg 6y ago
  Its not just you. When I interviewed regularly I felt like that was probably the biggest difference between a great interviewer and a terrible one. Any decent programmer can ask technical questions, but great interviewers will do everything in their power to help you stay relaxed and calm while you answer them. When you get too stressed, your creativity then your memory stop working properly. So its simply impossible to fairly assess the technical skills of a candidate while they're on their way to a panic attack. Knowing how to keep people calm is rarely on the job description, but its an essential skill of any good interviewer.

ionwake 6y ago

Same happened to me. I remember thinking " these 2 interiewers are thinking Im thinking about the solution, but Im not, my mind is blank because of the stress of having to answer a seemingly simple question, but I know if I say the slightest thing in the wrong way Ill be judged harshly for it" I realise this is a problem with me and stress during long interviews, but it was still a little funny at the time.

arethuza 6y ago
I was upset about it at the time but eventually realised, based some of their longer term plans, that I had dodged a bullet.
josephg 6y ago
Its not just you. When I interviewed regularly I felt like that was probably the biggest difference between a great interviewer and a terrible one. Any decent programmer can ask technical questions, but great interviewers will do everything in their power to help you stay relaxed and calm while you answer them. When you get too stressed, your creativity then your memory stop working properly. So its simply impossible to fairly assess the technical skills of a candidate while they're on their way to a panic attack. Knowing how to keep people calm is rarely on the job description, but its an essential skill of any good interviewer.