3 ms·

Why are all the other comments so negative and stuck up whether it constituted “cheating” or not? That wasn’t the point of this story. It was a beautifully wel

Why are all the other comments so negative and stuck up whether it constituted “cheating” or not? That wasn’t the point of this story. It was a beautifully well written account on luck and how sometimes the things align. The interviewee at the time was receptive towards the kind of questions that are asked at Microsoft and got the right one. Good luck. And then he passed a 6 hr on-site interview as well! No luck at all! The story resonated with me.

whiplash451 4y ago
Fully agree. Add to that that the question was super standard, it was quite likely that the candidate would have heard about it one way or another before the interview.
isaacremuant 4y ago
The author prepared with the info he had and was "lucky" that he got a question he knew and had situational awareness to sell it. It's all positive traits in my book. The discussion about the ways to interview to smooth this out is great but I don't think he should self flagellate or consider that his entire career was predated on this. If you have the right attitude, prepare and work for it, you find any number of paths to get to the next level. It's unfortunate that interviews sometimes feel so badly fit to achieve the goal and we should actively challenge whatever practice we have an iterate to make things better for everyone.
sverhagen 4y ago
It made me think of how courses take test questions straight from the class materials. And let's say I'm a big procrastinator, and I run out of time, studying the night before the test, and I decide only to go through the odd pages of my materials, and also let's imagine that the test writer, just by accident, took most (or at least, enough) questions from those odd pages, did I now cheat? (I think not...)
- pbhjpbhj 4y ago
  You cheated yourself out of knowledge acquisition by treating a course of education as only a means to get a certificate. That's cheating. You're supposed to study the whole course, the examination is a statistical test to see if it's likely that you studied, and can apply, the whole course. If you didn't study the course, you're misrepresenting yourself by during the exam. That's cheating (in a different way to the first one). Examinations are imperfect, they usually can't cover an entire course without being too onerous. In this circumstance you cheated, but did not break the rules for taking the exam. You will be less competent on the course material than is intended for those who pass.
  - cobalt 4y ago
    I highly doubt anyone will learn every bit of information in the book. I highly doubt anyone will remember every bit of information in the book. Which parts of it will be necessary are very dependent on one's future.
nirui 4y ago
Making me thinking what if the author was not lucky enough to pass the initial interview. Well Microsoft just fail the author, and the on-site interview never happens? I'm feeling that the initial interview might not be completely fair. But of course, many things in life are down to lucks. Good luck helps, I guess.
paxys 4y ago
If it isn’t a relevant part of the story then it shouldn’t be in the title. People get justifiably annoyed by clickbait.

whiplash451 4y ago

Fully agree. Add to that that the question was super standard, it was quite likely that the candidate would have heard about it one way or another before the interview.

isaacremuant 4y ago

The author prepared with the info he had and was "lucky" that he got a question he knew and had situational awareness to sell it. It's all positive traits in my book. The discussion about the ways to interview to smooth this out is great but I don't think he should self flagellate or consider that his entire career was predated on this. If you have the right attitude, prepare and work for it, you find any number of paths to get to the next level. It's unfortunate that interviews sometimes feel so badly fit to achieve the goal and we should actively challenge whatever practice we have an iterate to make things better for everyone.

sverhagen 4y ago

It made me think of how courses take test questions straight from the class materials. And let's say I'm a big procrastinator, and I run out of time, studying the night before the test, and I decide only to go through the odd pages of my materials, and also let's imagine that the test writer, just by accident, took most (or at least, enough) questions from those odd pages, did I now cheat? (I think not...)

pbhjpbhj 4y ago
You cheated yourself out of knowledge acquisition by treating a course of education as only a means to get a certificate. That's cheating. You're supposed to study the whole course, the examination is a statistical test to see if it's likely that you studied, and can apply, the whole course. If you didn't study the course, you're misrepresenting yourself by during the exam. That's cheating (in a different way to the first one). Examinations are imperfect, they usually can't cover an entire course without being too onerous. In this circumstance you cheated, but did not break the rules for taking the exam. You will be less competent on the course material than is intended for those who pass.
- cobalt 4y ago
  I highly doubt anyone will learn every bit of information in the book. I highly doubt anyone will remember every bit of information in the book. Which parts of it will be necessary are very dependent on one's future.

nirui 4y ago

Making me thinking what if the author was not lucky enough to pass the initial interview. Well Microsoft just fail the author, and the on-site interview never happens? I'm feeling that the initial interview might not be completely fair. But of course, many things in life are down to lucks. Good luck helps, I guess.

paxys 4y ago

If it isn’t a relevant part of the story then it shouldn’t be in the title. People get justifiably annoyed by clickbait.