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I remember with horror one technical interview I had. I was asked to complete a fairly basic problem, which I had actually just practiced a few hours before (t

I remember with horror one technical interview I had. I was asked to complete a fairly basic problem, which I had actually just practiced a few hours before (the fact you can practice for these interviews indicates how questionable they are). As soon as the question was asked, I proceeded to start typing the answer and explaining what I was doing when suddenly my mind went blank, I struggled for nearly ten minutes to regain my confidence but by that point it was too late. The interviewer quickly ended the interview and told me to apply again after I had more programming experience, since apparently he was able to conclude the extent of my knowledge based upon my answer to a single question made during stressful circumstances.

army 12y ago
Um, you can practice for anything that involves communication or demonstrating your skills. Its just arrogant to think that you can go into an interview cold and rely on the interviewer to tease out your positive qualities. If they're a good interviewer they'll do their best to do that but its also on the interviewee to convince the interviewer that they're a good fit for the job. I wouldn't present on a technical topic without preparation, because I'm not going to do a good job of explaining it or communicating the ideas - I'd be wasting the audiences time. Same with interviews - you need to be prepared to explain your work and put your experience in as favorable a light as possible.