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Well, it's easier to say when you're doing the one interviewing, right? I think you'd have a different opinion if you were on the other side of the table for th

Well, it's easier to say when you're doing the one interviewing, right? I think you'd have a different opinion if you were on the other side of the table for those 400 interviews.

josephg 6y ago
After 400 interviews? I highly doubt it. The discomfort you feel in an interview isn’t part of the interview. It’s something you’re generating and bringing into the room with you. Anxiety before a job interview (or exam) is your body believing that if you do badly, you might die. It doesn’t take 400 job interviews to notice you don’t actually die. The article suggests it takes about 5 practices. I also liked what they said about the collage experience. Seeing a lot of my fellow students succeed and fail job interviews seemingly randomly probably helped more than I think. It made failing an interview feel like just a normal uncomfortable thing.
- gkoberger 6y ago
  Sure, at 400 interviews, you'd get decent. But that's my point! Do you want to hire people who are good at the job, or do you want people who are good at interviewing?
  - josephg 6y ago
    Sure, I want to hire people who are good. But honestly a well designed interview is a pretty good way to find them. You get some false negatives (people who are good, but interviewed poorly because of stress). But I suspect most people I passed on (90%+) were true negatives - they didn’t pass the interview simply because their programming skills aren’t as strong as I’d like to see. And (I hope) most people who struggle with interviews can figure that out with a bit of practice. If it takes you 5 bad interviews before you do a good one (and land the 6th job you apply for), that’s great. Nothing is harmed in the process but your ego, and a bit of time. Every time there’s an article like this on HN there’s people whinging about the interview process. But for most developers, interviews work fine. I stand by my claim that a well designed interview with a balance of content (see my other comments in this thread) is a fair and accurate way to assess a candidate’s programming skills.

Well, it's easier to say when you're doing the one interviewing, right? I think you'd have a different opinion if you were on the other side of the table for those 400 interviews.

josephg 6y ago

After 400 interviews? I highly doubt it. The discomfort you feel in an interview isn’t part of the interview. It’s something you’re generating and bringing into the room with you. Anxiety before a job interview (or exam) is your body believing that if you do badly, you might die. It doesn’t take 400 job interviews to notice you don’t actually die. The article suggests it takes about 5 practices. I also liked what they said about the collage experience. Seeing a lot of my fellow students succeed and fail job interviews seemingly randomly probably helped more than I think. It made failing an interview feel like just a normal uncomfortable thing.

gkoberger 6y ago
Sure, at 400 interviews, you'd get decent. But that's my point! Do you want to hire people who are good at the job, or do you want people who are good at interviewing?
- josephg 6y ago
  Sure, I want to hire people who are good. But honestly a well designed interview is a pretty good way to find them. You get some false negatives (people who are good, but interviewed poorly because of stress). But I suspect most people I passed on (90%+) were true negatives - they didn’t pass the interview simply because their programming skills aren’t as strong as I’d like to see. And (I hope) most people who struggle with interviews can figure that out with a bit of practice. If it takes you 5 bad interviews before you do a good one (and land the 6th job you apply for), that’s great. Nothing is harmed in the process but your ego, and a bit of time. Every time there’s an article like this on HN there’s people whinging about the interview process. But for most developers, interviews work fine. I stand by my claim that a well designed interview with a balance of content (see my other comments in this thread) is a fair and accurate way to assess a candidate’s programming skills.