4 ms·

I have no data to back it up but if YC interview setup is even slightly inspired by the YC video guidelines [1] then being genuine is better than having scripte

by AhtiK 12y ago

I have no data to back it up but if YC interview setup is even slightly inspired by the YC video guidelines [1] then being genuine is better than having scripted answers for everything. Of course there is a point for balance and being unprepared is not the way to go. [1] http://ycombinator.com/video.html http://ycombinator.com/video.html

matthewarkin 12y ago
Yea, I and a couple friends interviewed for S13 (maybe it was S12), and while preparing is definitely helpful there is no way you can have scripted answers to everything. That assumes you know what they are going to ask (and chances are if you know what they are going to ask, you didn't make something clear). We did a couple practice interviews with YC alums and the questions they asked ended up being quite different from what was actually asked in the room. To me at least, the interview seemed much more like a discussion about our idea and its merits and issues than what people may normally think an interview to be (of a VC asking you intense questions and pulling apart every single hole in your financial model). On the other hand, maybe they saw three college freshman and decided to go easy on us.