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>Programming interviews seem incredibly confrontational compared to my current profession. Interviewers seem to be out to trick you at something, or else to pro

>Programming interviews seem incredibly confrontational compared to my current profession. Interviewers seem to be out to trick you at something, or else to prove how much smarter they are than you. well, welcome to software engineering. The interviews are for the reason, they let you peek into your future job. If you can't manage that environment for 4 hours of the interviews, how you're expecting to manage it for many years if/when you get into software engineering? I'm not trying to be mean, i'm just warning that something like having a fresh out-of-college arrogant Millenial reviewing your code means - well suffice it to say that at my previous job it drove 6 out of 8 person team in 1 year, all from mid to senior engineers, me being 7th, to either change the team (3) or leave the company (4). The guy is a pest, smart, driven, high GPA from top University...

jnbiche 13y ago
I hear what you're saying, and to a certain extent I agree. However, maybe that's the other benefit of doing these kind of pre-hiring contract jobs. They let me see what kind of an organization I would be working with. In any case, what are you doing now, having left your company because of the environment that you see as plaguing software engineering? Did you change professions, start up your own company, or find a company that didn't have these issues?
- VladRussian2 13y ago
  droning at a BigCo. with guys we go some way back.
lfuller 13y ago
I realize that it can be hard to understand without having experienced interview anxiety yourself, but it is an entirely different environment. I suffer from interview anxiety to the same extent as the author of this blog post. Though I am a very skilled developer, I completely freeze in these situations (I even failed a fizz buzz test once). This doesn't translate to difficulty with on-the-job stressful situations however, as my anxiety is only present in interviews. Most of the anxiety stems from me running through negative thoughts in my head ("I'd REALLY like this job - I'd better not screw up.", "I did poorly on my last interview. I'll probably do poorly this time", "The interviewer can probably see that I'm anxious.", "Does my voice sound shaky?", etc.) to the point where they trigger a fight-or-flight response.
- VladRussian2 13y ago
  >I realize that it can be hard to understand without having experienced interview anxiety yourself, but it is an entirely different environment. my point isn't about denying interview anxiety existence (i suffer from it myself), and it has solid science foundation - speed of dopamine removal once your system is flushed with it. Some people have it faster, some slower. The former ones are great performers in acute short-term stress, while the latter ones are better at long/deep concentration on a task. My point is about interview situation being preview to a lot [not all, yet a lot and many of them will be key ones] of future situations.
  - lfuller 13y ago
    I understand where you're coming from, but I disagree that this is a matter of individuals' responses to stress in general. I know that in my case there is nothing else I have ever experienced that can trigger a stress response equivalent or even similar to what I experience during an interview. It is irrational, but it is entirely separate to anything I could experience through professional work. It is not the questions being asked during the interview that cause anxiety, it is the interview itself. I actually find that I work quite well under high-stress and high-stakes work environments.
    - VladRussian2 13y ago
      from your descriptions it sounds pretty much like my situation. >I actually find that I work quite well under high-stress and high-stakes work environments not getting the stress and being able to manage it is 2 different things. Couple jobs ago we had real clients with real problems, and it happened pretty naturally that i became the top "firefighter" that is brought in when support, escalated support, services/solutions, related development, etc.. exhausted their options and various executives on both sides are having sparks out their tailpipes - one may call this a high-stress and high-stakes environment, yet i just wasn't getting any stress, to me it was a simple 2 step algorithm : 1. forward me your AWR report (and this is instructions on getting it) 2. this is your root cause, config changes, emergency patch, etc... Simple, familiar, no stress (which i can't manage as i just get paralized/stuporred by it, like, in particular, in many interview situations)

jnbiche 13y ago

I hear what you're saying, and to a certain extent I agree. However, maybe that's the other benefit of doing these kind of pre-hiring contract jobs. They let me see what kind of an organization I would be working with. In any case, what are you doing now, having left your company because of the environment that you see as plaguing software engineering? Did you change professions, start up your own company, or find a company that didn't have these issues?

VladRussian2 13y ago
droning at a BigCo. with guys we go some way back.

lfuller 13y ago

I realize that it can be hard to understand without having experienced interview anxiety yourself, but it is an entirely different environment. I suffer from interview anxiety to the same extent as the author of this blog post. Though I am a very skilled developer, I completely freeze in these situations (I even failed a fizz buzz test once). This doesn't translate to difficulty with on-the-job stressful situations however, as my anxiety is only present in interviews. Most of the anxiety stems from me running through negative thoughts in my head ("I'd REALLY like this job - I'd better not screw up.", "I did poorly on my last interview. I'll probably do poorly this time", "The interviewer can probably see that I'm anxious.", "Does my voice sound shaky?", etc.) to the point where they trigger a fight-or-flight response.

VladRussian2 13y ago
>I realize that it can be hard to understand without having experienced interview anxiety yourself, but it is an entirely different environment. my point isn't about denying interview anxiety existence (i suffer from it myself), and it has solid science foundation - speed of dopamine removal once your system is flushed with it. Some people have it faster, some slower. The former ones are great performers in acute short-term stress, while the latter ones are better at long/deep concentration on a task. My point is about interview situation being preview to a lot [not all, yet a lot and many of them will be key ones] of future situations.
- lfuller 13y ago
  I understand where you're coming from, but I disagree that this is a matter of individuals' responses to stress in general. I know that in my case there is nothing else I have ever experienced that can trigger a stress response equivalent or even similar to what I experience during an interview. It is irrational, but it is entirely separate to anything I could experience through professional work. It is not the questions being asked during the interview that cause anxiety, it is the interview itself. I actually find that I work quite well under high-stress and high-stakes work environments.
  - VladRussian2 13y ago
    from your descriptions it sounds pretty much like my situation. >I actually find that I work quite well under high-stress and high-stakes work environments not getting the stress and being able to manage it is 2 different things. Couple jobs ago we had real clients with real problems, and it happened pretty naturally that i became the top "firefighter" that is brought in when support, escalated support, services/solutions, related development, etc.. exhausted their options and various executives on both sides are having sparks out their tailpipes - one may call this a high-stress and high-stakes environment, yet i just wasn't getting any stress, to me it was a simple 2 step algorithm : 1. forward me your AWR report (and this is instructions on getting it) 2. this is your root cause, config changes, emergency patch, etc... Simple, familiar, no stress (which i can't manage as i just get paralized/stuporred by it, like, in particular, in many interview situations)