5 ms·

It seems that technical interview is a great way to do psychological evaluation. How does this person manage stress and deal with it?

• kevbin 6y ago
  The authors address this: the induced stress is not necessarily similar to the stress experienced on the job they're applying for.
  • planet-and-halo 6y ago
    This has been my experience. Time is crunched in a rather unrealistic way. Not that time crunches don't happen, but it's never once been the case in my real job that I was approaching an unpracticed academic algorithm problem which had a 30 minute time cap. Recent example: I was asked to do a density map with about ~20 minutes remaining in an interview. I could immediately see the performance issue of the naive solution (re-summing the same positions), but I needed some time to think through an efficient solution. But because of the time limit and the fact that I had someone watching my every step (i.e. there was more performance than problem solving going on), we agreed that I would take the naive approach and simply sum all of the positions as quickly as I could. When I wasn't asked back for a second round, it was obviously in part because I had resorted to such an ugly and inefficient solution. I don't blame the interviewer—he was actually one of the best I've ever interacted with—and I actually think the problems selected fit the role very well. But at the end of the day I don't feel that format gave a very good snapshot of my abilities. (Case in point, I looked up solutions afterwards and an intuitive approach I had thought of was very close to the optimal solution, but I didn't feel I had time to go down that route.) I don't think there is a perfect interview format. They all have downsides. But this is definitely a tradeoff you're making with timed algos.
• hinkley 6y ago
  Why do you want all of your employees to be the ones most resilient to stress? Are you hiring for a fire department? The Navy Seals? Engineering section on a nuclear submarine? Maybe, just maybe, things would improve if you had a few people who said 'no way' when someone tries to crank up the drama on your team instead of just grinning and bearing it. Capitalists don't reward the quiet workers. They exploit them. Billionaires and wannabees do it remorselessly.
  • tesnirnat 6y ago
    If I had a Bitcoin for every time I heard a manager say that he idolizes the Navy SEALs.....
  • potta_coffee 6y ago
    These aren't even the same kinds of stress. I've been in life-threatening situations in the military and felt no stress in the moment. I've played drums in front of a crowd of 4,000 people and felt no stress. Whiteboarding interviews wreck me though.
    • hinkley 6y ago
      My brain read 'waterboarding' and then didn't entirely correct itself.
• 2pEXgD0fZ5cF 6y ago
  You can be the most resilient person to real life work/emergency/deadline pressure and stress and still get stage fright when giving talks or being in an interview.
• dgellow 6y ago
  It’s a great way to pass on otherwise awesome employees. You don’t need all your employees to be the same. You don’t need them all of them to manage their stress the same way. You don’t even need all of them to be good at managing their stress.