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I would consume like Thanksgiving turkey any recommended reading on asking difficult questions in job interviews without immediately getting dismissed as “not a
by dvtrn 6y ago
I would consume like Thanksgiving turkey any recommended reading on asking difficult questions in job interviews without immediately getting dismissed as “not a culture fit”.
Had that happen once. Friend in one department made a referral for me to join another, I ask pointed and direct questions in the interview-which was otherwise light hearted and engaging, the response was filibustering, platitudinous non-answers about “shared sacrifices” and “we all jump in” and “take the flank” and “no man left behind” (please do NOT get me started on the amount of militarized battle-speak that has rooted itself into corporate America like a tick). So I tactfully and delicately but firmly try to bring the conversation back on track.
Friend tells me a few days later “they disqualified you as not being a good culture fit. What did you say??”
“I asked what the on-call schedule was like”
- blisse 6y agoDefinitely don't have the experience asking these questions, but I think this would be much better served as a question to the hiring manager and as follow-up questions post-interview, as opposed to "confrontations" during the interview? Usually after they've extended the offer, before you've accepted, you can have more "real" talks with your supposed manager, which might be a more appropriate time (since you'll eventually have real 1:1s with them anyways).
- dvtrn 6y agoI think this would be much better served as a question to the hiring manager and as follow-up questions post-interview, as opposed to "confrontations" during the interview? That's the kicker: experience has taught me that if I don't ask specific (but tactful) questions about things that have caused excess anxiety and stress in the job, and how the company interviewing me handles them (or fails to handle them) early enough, I find out in the worst ways after taking the job and starting. This is no attempt at setting myself up for malingering down the road, I am not that kind of a person; but I have also grasped how important it is to interview the company as much as the company is interviewing me. If they get to be stringent about how good we would "fit", then so should job candidates. And ironically given the thread we're in about 'over optimization', it's just not worth the time to me to wait until getting an offer to find out the engineering culture believes in 'drinking from the firehose'. I want to know that early, so as to self-select out.