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My best interview advice is this: Don't ask questions to judge, ask to learn. A lot of interviewers have an interview process that is mainly designed to elimin
by freework 14y ago
My best interview advice is this: Don't ask questions to judge, ask to learn.
A lot of interviewers have an interview process that is mainly designed to eliminate candidates. Therefore, the process contains interviewers asking "fake questions" that are designed to trip up candidates and eliminate them. An example is a question like "How would you design a database engine". If I really had to build a database engine, the context and details of that situation would dictate how this database system should be approached.
Instead you should ask questions to learn. If you ask me what a cache is, you better be asking me because you don't know what a cache is. If thats the case, I'd love to explain it to you, because I like teaching people things. Its very awkward to explain something to somebody that obviously knows that concept very well.
When you ask questions like that, you end up subconsciously comparing candidates by their explanation of cache matching up with how you would describe cache. In other words, this process favors people who think the same. A team full of people who all think the same is a company that has many weaknesses. A strong company has people who approach problems differently. You need people who approach life differently. Diversity is extremely important, and asking fake questions during interviews leads to less diversity.
- xtreme 14y agoI see three problems with this: 1. It would pretty difficult to judge whether you are correct or not 2. This approach favors candidates with a flair for speaking but may not have good programming ability 3. The interviewer would probably run out of concepts that he can reasonably expect the interviewee to explain.