6 ms·

The biggest challenge with software interviews is that you don’t know when to lie. The process is maximally biased and so you have maximum incentive to lie. The

The biggest challenge with software interviews is that you don’t know when to lie. The process is maximally biased and so you have maximum incentive to lie. The only reason to not lie is reputation damage in the highly unlikely case you are caught. In the end you are either hired for more money or you are just wasting your time as a candidate. Most of us really want to be as honest as possible, not just because we are good people, but because went want to ensure maximum compatibility. This is incredibly deceptive in itself because employer compatibility doesn’t really matter. As an employee you do things the company way or you don’t work there. So, just lie. I really hate that, but there is no reason not to and every reason to do so. It’s just the nature of conforming to system of inherent implicit bias.

rsj_hn 5y ago
> So, just lie. I think this is bad advice. I have never lied in an interview. I've also never had a job not offered to me if I made it to the in person interview part. This isn't to say that I have magical job-getting powers, but only that not lying has not hurt my chances. In one job I applied for, I didn't have a lot of domain knowledge, but I had knowledge in an adjacent domain and wanted to to jump over to this one. I told this to the interviewer up front, and the interview was a bit rough but I managed to do OK. What I did was explained my thinking process and in many cases arrived at the right solution, or close to it. In others I didn't. The interviewer was sufficiently happy with my ability to solve problems on the spot that they hired me. It wasn't hard to acquire that new domain knowledge, but I had to work at it. I also took a level down in the new job, but they increased my pay over my old job, so I didn't care about the leveling. Long term, that helped me as my salary ended up being higher as a gained levels in the new place. So being honest about not being the perfect fit has worked out for me. I think it can work out for you, too.
- austincheney 5y ago
  Think about it like this. The goals are attain employment and maximize compensation. That’s it. That said you are probably best off training machine learning to do this for you. It won’t suffer the nonverbal faults associated with dishonesty, because truth to a machine is how effectively it completes the assigned goal.
  - rsj_hn 5y ago
    > Think about it like this. The goals are attain employment and maximize compensation. That’s it. Meh, I think devoting 30-40% of your life to something is more than just maximizing compensation. In tech, at least, you normally have quite a few options about where you will work and what you will do. If you feel you need to lie just to get into the door and are convinced that you wont get the job unless you do lie, then consider that this might not be the best job. On the other hand, if you are too afraid to tell the truth even in the interview, it doesn't bode well for when you need to deal with other people in the corp bureaucracy (which is inevitable once you go past the junior engineer level).
    - austincheney 5y ago
      The reality is that most people are not completely honest. Extreme honesty is shocking and casually associated with extreme personality types or behavior disorders.
  - spurgu 5y ago
    I recently accepted a position with 20% lower pay, because the work is more interesting, challenging and rewarding.
- mark-r 5y ago
  I once failed an interview, and I think it was because the interviewer laid a trap for me. He asked if I would use such-and-so algorithm to solve a particular problem, and I said sure. I had never heard of such-and-so algorithm, but I figured that I could look it up once I had the job. When I didn't get the job, I realized that such-and-so was probably made up by the interviewer to see if I was trying to BS my way into the job. Being honest would have been a better approach.
kube-system 5y ago
Maybe this works in big companies, but many small companies that I’ve worked at, you’d be caught, even lying on silly little things. The people reading your resume are the same ones you’re going to be working beside, and they’ll absolutely ask you about things you said you knew. And once they find out that you lied about your volunteering experience at your local little league team, your whole resume goes under the microscope. I’ve seen it happen.
- austincheney 5y ago
  There is a couple of problems with that. More than half the time I have interviewed nobody reads resumes. They know your name and kind of how long you have been employed. Second, you control what appears on your resume. You can spin it how you want by the facts you include and omit. You list the great selling points about yourself and none of the bad. Don’t lie on a resume because its already under your control and it’s a document of record that can follow you from any point in the past. This tread isn’t about resumes. It’s about interviewing, specifically as a discussion.
  - kube-system 5y ago
    When I interview, I don't spend much time reading the resume beforehand, but I'll ask a few specific questions about it during the interview. If one assumes nobody reads their resume, however, then what benefit would they get from lying?
    - austincheney 5y ago
      A resume is not an interview.
      - kube-system 5y ago
        I never said it was. It’s a reference that most interviewers will have on hand before/during the interview.
- b20000 5y ago

rsj_hn 5y ago

> So, just lie. I think this is bad advice. I have never lied in an interview. I've also never had a job not offered to me if I made it to the in person interview part. This isn't to say that I have magical job-getting powers, but only that not lying has not hurt my chances. In one job I applied for, I didn't have a lot of domain knowledge, but I had knowledge in an adjacent domain and wanted to to jump over to this one. I told this to the interviewer up front, and the interview was a bit rough but I managed to do OK. What I did was explained my thinking process and in many cases arrived at the right solution, or close to it. In others I didn't. The interviewer was sufficiently happy with my ability to solve problems on the spot that they hired me. It wasn't hard to acquire that new domain knowledge, but I had to work at it. I also took a level down in the new job, but they increased my pay over my old job, so I didn't care about the leveling. Long term, that helped me as my salary ended up being higher as a gained levels in the new place. So being honest about not being the perfect fit has worked out for me. I think it can work out for you, too.

austincheney 5y ago
Think about it like this. The goals are attain employment and maximize compensation. That’s it. That said you are probably best off training machine learning to do this for you. It won’t suffer the nonverbal faults associated with dishonesty, because truth to a machine is how effectively it completes the assigned goal.
- rsj_hn 5y ago
  > Think about it like this. The goals are attain employment and maximize compensation. That’s it. Meh, I think devoting 30-40% of your life to something is more than just maximizing compensation. In tech, at least, you normally have quite a few options about where you will work and what you will do. If you feel you need to lie just to get into the door and are convinced that you wont get the job unless you do lie, then consider that this might not be the best job. On the other hand, if you are too afraid to tell the truth even in the interview, it doesn't bode well for when you need to deal with other people in the corp bureaucracy (which is inevitable once you go past the junior engineer level).
  - austincheney 5y ago
    The reality is that most people are not completely honest. Extreme honesty is shocking and casually associated with extreme personality types or behavior disorders.
- spurgu 5y ago
  I recently accepted a position with 20% lower pay, because the work is more interesting, challenging and rewarding.
mark-r 5y ago
I once failed an interview, and I think it was because the interviewer laid a trap for me. He asked if I would use such-and-so algorithm to solve a particular problem, and I said sure. I had never heard of such-and-so algorithm, but I figured that I could look it up once I had the job. When I didn't get the job, I realized that such-and-so was probably made up by the interviewer to see if I was trying to BS my way into the job. Being honest would have been a better approach.

kube-system 5y ago

Maybe this works in big companies, but many small companies that I’ve worked at, you’d be caught, even lying on silly little things. The people reading your resume are the same ones you’re going to be working beside, and they’ll absolutely ask you about things you said you knew. And once they find out that you lied about your volunteering experience at your local little league team, your whole resume goes under the microscope. I’ve seen it happen.

austincheney 5y ago
There is a couple of problems with that. More than half the time I have interviewed nobody reads resumes. They know your name and kind of how long you have been employed. Second, you control what appears on your resume. You can spin it how you want by the facts you include and omit. You list the great selling points about yourself and none of the bad. Don’t lie on a resume because its already under your control and it’s a document of record that can follow you from any point in the past. This tread isn’t about resumes. It’s about interviewing, specifically as a discussion.
- kube-system 5y ago
  When I interview, I don't spend much time reading the resume beforehand, but I'll ask a few specific questions about it during the interview. If one assumes nobody reads their resume, however, then what benefit would they get from lying?
  - austincheney 5y ago
    A resume is not an interview.
    - kube-system 5y ago
      I never said it was. It’s a reference that most interviewers will have on hand before/during the interview.
b20000 5y ago