5 ms·

Frankly, I don't want to hire people who are too timid to ask a simple clarifying question in an interview. A big part of this job is dealing with ambiguity an

Frankly, I don't want to hire people who are too timid to ask a simple clarifying question in an interview. A big part of this job is dealing with ambiguity and communication. If you feel the requirements of your task aren't clear, then go to the person who made the task and clarify them. What's the alternative, exactly? Staying silent and waiting? Wasting time implementing the wrong solution?

davidw 3y ago
Then make it clear that it's "real world" and that they can and should ask questions about aspects of it that they need more information on, rather than just hoping they do so.
- redditor98654 3y ago
  Usually all interviewers will say “please take some time to consider the problem and ask any clarifying questions if you have any”. This is standard for all Amazon interviews. Source: Conducted 250+ interviews in Amazon.
  - davidw 3y ago
    That feels very formulaic, which is I guess par for the course for behemoth corporations. If it were me, I would try and frame it like "this is an attempt to be a bit more 'real-world' where we've received some initial direction on what the results are supposed to look like from management, but don't consider any of it set in stone and I'm happy to talk you through it as if we were working together...". IDK the exact verbiage, but something that gets people in that mindset without straight up telling them "this is meant to be ambiguous, wink wink".
    - redditor98654 3y ago
      Yeah, I made my comment concise but in a real interview I do say something similar.
chiefalchemist 3y ago
You're assuming the nervous stressed candidate can read your mind? That's not going to yield the best candidates. It's going to yield the candidates who are best "tuned" for the process. I've already explained simple and obvious scenarios where the context can impact the candidates in sub-optimal ways. If someone says, "Solve this" and the canidate attempts to do so, but that's not what was really expected? That's trickery (and foolish). On the other hand, if the interviewer wants, "Here's a problem, let's discuss..." then *that* is what the interviewer should lead with.
- sneed_chucker 3y ago
  No, they don't need to read my mind. I tell each candidate before they start that they can ask any questions at any time during the interview.
  - chiefalchemist 3y ago
    So context doesn't matter? And they're to blindly trust you? Because you said so [1]? Because they've never been screwed by an interviewer before? My sense is, you don't get out enough (i.e., be the candidate). I hope the next time you do an interview the candidate asks, "Why should I trust you?" or "When was the last time you were the interviewee?" [1] That's not how trust works. It is, by definition, earned.
    - sneed_chucker 3y ago
      ...I don't know what to tell you dude. It just sounds like you're projecting your poor interview experiences onto me. If you can't take a statement as unambiguous as "feel free to ask questions at any time" at face value, then why even bother interviewing? And for the record, I've been the candidate in plenty of interviews. I've done the 5-hour FAANG interviews and know how shitty they are. It's why I specifically designed the coding interview process at my company to be much more candidate friendly.
      - chiefalchemist 3y ago

davidw 3y ago

Then make it clear that it's "real world" and that they can and should ask questions about aspects of it that they need more information on, rather than just hoping they do so.

redditor98654 3y ago
Usually all interviewers will say “please take some time to consider the problem and ask any clarifying questions if you have any”. This is standard for all Amazon interviews. Source: Conducted 250+ interviews in Amazon.
- davidw 3y ago
  That feels very formulaic, which is I guess par for the course for behemoth corporations. If it were me, I would try and frame it like "this is an attempt to be a bit more 'real-world' where we've received some initial direction on what the results are supposed to look like from management, but don't consider any of it set in stone and I'm happy to talk you through it as if we were working together...". IDK the exact verbiage, but something that gets people in that mindset without straight up telling them "this is meant to be ambiguous, wink wink".
  - redditor98654 3y ago
    Yeah, I made my comment concise but in a real interview I do say something similar.

chiefalchemist 3y ago

You're assuming the nervous stressed candidate can read your mind? That's not going to yield the best candidates. It's going to yield the candidates who are best "tuned" for the process. I've already explained simple and obvious scenarios where the context can impact the candidates in sub-optimal ways. If someone says, "Solve this" and the canidate attempts to do so, but that's not what was really expected? That's trickery (and foolish). On the other hand, if the interviewer wants, "Here's a problem, let's discuss..." then *that* is what the interviewer should lead with.

sneed_chucker 3y ago
No, they don't need to read my mind. I tell each candidate before they start that they can ask any questions at any time during the interview.
- chiefalchemist 3y ago
  So context doesn't matter? And they're to blindly trust you? Because you said so [1]? Because they've never been screwed by an interviewer before? My sense is, you don't get out enough (i.e., be the candidate). I hope the next time you do an interview the candidate asks, "Why should I trust you?" or "When was the last time you were the interviewee?" [1] That's not how trust works. It is, by definition, earned.
  - sneed_chucker 3y ago
    ...I don't know what to tell you dude. It just sounds like you're projecting your poor interview experiences onto me. If you can't take a statement as unambiguous as "feel free to ask questions at any time" at face value, then why even bother interviewing? And for the record, I've been the candidate in plenty of interviews. I've done the 5-hour FAANG interviews and know how shitty they are. It's why I specifically designed the coding interview process at my company to be much more candidate friendly.
    - chiefalchemist 3y ago