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Following guides on how to answer interview questions does more harm than good. Just be honest and be yourself.

rdl 14y ago
It's totally worthwhile to learn about interviews, successful and unsuccessful, both as an interviewer and interviewee. "Just be honest and be yourself" is necessary but insufficient. You really should understand how interviewers think and work to be interviewed successfully.
- redguava 14y ago
  My experience has been that I interview worse for having "researched" interviewing. It gets me trying to answer what they want to hear rather than what I actually would normally say. That is a bad way to interview. Also as an interviewer, the people trying to answer "the right way" never get past first round. I want someone that's genuine, not someone just trying to pick the right answers to get the job.
yock 14y ago
I don't see how that's helpful. English can be an imprecise language and there is a lot of unspoken convention in interviewing for a job. Many have had to learn that convention by just plain interviewing badly enough times for it to click. Understanding these conventions and how to recognize and respond to them can really be helpful in landing the job you want.
eddieroger 14y ago
My exact thought as I read the article. It has worked for me many times. These questions are there for people who don't know how to be an interviewer - or worse, when the interviewer is a cog in an HR wheel and has to pass the answers back to someone who has never met you. A good interviewer (it is definitely something you can be bad at) can tell more about you from conversation than questions like these. The best interviews are with the team you are interviewing to be part of, and are highly conversational. Skills can be taught, and bullshit can be seen through. Speaking of technical interviews, it's easy to tell if you are regurgitating a textbook or actually demonstration comprehension. But the most important thing to come from these interviews is whether or not you will work well with the team, and questions like "what is your biggest weakness" doesn't say anything about that.

rdl 14y ago

It's totally worthwhile to learn about interviews, successful and unsuccessful, both as an interviewer and interviewee. "Just be honest and be yourself" is necessary but insufficient. You really should understand how interviewers think and work to be interviewed successfully.

redguava 14y ago
My experience has been that I interview worse for having "researched" interviewing. It gets me trying to answer what they want to hear rather than what I actually would normally say. That is a bad way to interview. Also as an interviewer, the people trying to answer "the right way" never get past first round. I want someone that's genuine, not someone just trying to pick the right answers to get the job.

yock 14y ago

I don't see how that's helpful. English can be an imprecise language and there is a lot of unspoken convention in interviewing for a job. Many have had to learn that convention by just plain interviewing badly enough times for it to click. Understanding these conventions and how to recognize and respond to them can really be helpful in landing the job you want.

eddieroger 14y ago

My exact thought as I read the article. It has worked for me many times. These questions are there for people who don't know how to be an interviewer - or worse, when the interviewer is a cog in an HR wheel and has to pass the answers back to someone who has never met you. A good interviewer (it is definitely something you can be bad at) can tell more about you from conversation than questions like these. The best interviews are with the team you are interviewing to be part of, and are highly conversational. Skills can be taught, and bullshit can be seen through. Speaking of technical interviews, it's easy to tell if you are regurgitating a textbook or actually demonstration comprehension. But the most important thing to come from these interviews is whether or not you will work well with the team, and questions like "what is your biggest weakness" doesn't say anything about that.