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As an interviewer, it always surprised me how little people would prepare for an interview. For every interview I have done as an interviewee I have studied wh

by mech4bg 14y ago

As an interviewer, it always surprised me how little people would prepare for an interview. For every interview I have done as an interviewee I have studied what I am likely to be asked, what their interview technique is, boned up on the language(s) in question, and tried to think of some interesting questions to ask the interviewer (the last one also includes learning as much as I can about the company and its history). I think these are the basics any interviewee should do - that's just the bare minimum for the big guys. For Google I was pulling out dusty old CS books and revising CS theory and that was still just barely enough preparation. Meanwhile I've given interviews for a C++ position where the candidate hasn't even had a quick brush up on C++ recently. I've had candidates who do C++ as their JOB and not know how to initialize memory, someone describe "polyformic" behavior, and had a good 75% not know at all how virtual functions work. It blows me away.

malyk 14y ago
I've never studied for an interview. I guess I have some internal feeling that you should hire me based on what I know...not what I crammed for the night(s) before an interview. Or maybe it's confidence? I don't know. I've been programming professionally for over 10 years. I think I should be able to sit down and work out almost any problem in an interview. I've definitely been to interviews where I ran into issues and didn't get offers, but I've also been to interviews where I ran into problems and did get offers. I guess, in my gut, I feel like studying for an interview is cheating a bit. It might not be the right outlook, but it's something I can't shake.
- pacaro 14y ago
  I think this is an interesting one, I might make a distinction between studying and preparing. Working through some interview questions as an exercise in intentional practice provides a different type of preparedness from trying to cram CS theory that you don't truly grok. I think that the former helps you manage the unfamiliar interview scenario better, the latter can lead to you digging huge holes when you start talking about something that you don't know much about. There is also a difference between an experienced industry hire - as you say, if you've been doing this for 10 years you can go into an interview and show them a pretty good picture of what they are getting - and a less experienced or campus hire, where what is important might be an expression of potential - the practice helps with letting the interviewer see that, if your interview is the first time you've tried to code at a whiteboard, or solve a problem with someone trying to push you to the edge of your comfort zone, then you are doing yourself a disservice. I have, however, encountered candidates who just didn't know, they didn't go to a top school (or indeed any school), they haven't worked in this environment, they don't have any understanding of what to expect - even the simple web-search that would have warned them requires some level of a priori knowledge - not every candidate has that - I suspect most of these candidates do badly, but just watching how someone learns through a day of interviews tells you something, that higher level bit about learning when in over your head is one of the most valuable.

by mech4bg 14y ago

malyk 14y ago

I've never studied for an interview. I guess I have some internal feeling that you should hire me based on what I know...not what I crammed for the night(s) before an interview. Or maybe it's confidence? I don't know. I've been programming professionally for over 10 years. I think I should be able to sit down and work out almost any problem in an interview. I've definitely been to interviews where I ran into issues and didn't get offers, but I've also been to interviews where I ran into problems and did get offers. I guess, in my gut, I feel like studying for an interview is cheating a bit. It might not be the right outlook, but it's something I can't shake.

pacaro 14y ago
I think this is an interesting one, I might make a distinction between studying and preparing. Working through some interview questions as an exercise in intentional practice provides a different type of preparedness from trying to cram CS theory that you don't truly grok. I think that the former helps you manage the unfamiliar interview scenario better, the latter can lead to you digging huge holes when you start talking about something that you don't know much about. There is also a difference between an experienced industry hire - as you say, if you've been doing this for 10 years you can go into an interview and show them a pretty good picture of what they are getting - and a less experienced or campus hire, where what is important might be an expression of potential - the practice helps with letting the interviewer see that, if your interview is the first time you've tried to code at a whiteboard, or solve a problem with someone trying to push you to the edge of your comfort zone, then you are doing yourself a disservice. I have, however, encountered candidates who just didn't know, they didn't go to a top school (or indeed any school), they haven't worked in this environment, they don't have any understanding of what to expect - even the simple web-search that would have warned them requires some level of a priori knowledge - not every candidate has that - I suspect most of these candidates do badly, but just watching how someone learns through a day of interviews tells you something, that higher level bit about learning when in over your head is one of the most valuable.