In the Interview: Look for Leads

Technical interviewers are notorious for asking a question with dozens of potential right answers, but wanting to hear only one of these answers for a completely arbitrary reason. If the interviewer asks you a question, and you give an answer (that you know to be right), and they’re still pushing for a response, look for any hints they might be giving you to lead you into a certain answer.

If you're confused on the question, it's totally understandable. You've already answered the question, and in a way that any sane person would find acceptable and correct - but these aren't normal, sane people, they're geeks. Try to think through the problem from the beginning, and don't be afraid to ask if there's a direction you should be moving in. Unfortunately, the typical interviewer in this situation is the kind of person who is going to answer every question with a question (when asked, "Am I missing something?" they will respond with, "I don't know, *are* you?" which is always a big help).

I’ve worked with a lot of guys that ask a technical question, get a perfectly acceptable response, and then tell people that the candidate “didn’t know the answer” because they couldn’t come up with some obscure line of reasoning that the interviewer was expecting. The best you can do here is answer the question to the best of your ability, try to go in different directions, and when all else fails, move on to the next question.

Comments

The Gobbler from Arby's

Stop. Stop what you're doing and go to Arby's. Right. Now. Have them make you a Gobbler . This is not something you'll regret. Go. Eat this thing. Look at that bacon. Go. Arby's has a new sandwich. It's called "The Gobbler" and as far as I can tell it's two things: a vehicle for their new deep fried turkey, and an attempt at a Thanksgiving themed sandwich. It's also a third thing: magically delicious. move over Lucky, there's a new holiday mascot on the block Unwrapping: this actually looks like a sandwich. It looks appetizing. It looks like something I want to eat. It doesn't look like the promo photo above, but it doesn't look like someone was flailing around and accidentally smashed up a sandwich, either. sexy Instagram caption goes here First bite: Wow. I mean, "WOW." Holy h*ck this is good. The turkey has a really bold, meaty flavor. It tastes a lot like turkey sliced fresh from your...

Sheetz Sandwich Standoff: El Gringo vs Twisted Swiss

My wife left me alone for dinner tonight so I decided to check out the latest GetGo offerings... but to my great chagrin, they have no promotional subs. My travels led me to the local Sheetz, where I'd be able to keep eating the best gas station sandwiches around. To keep tradition alive, I picked the two most outrageous "Burgerz" on the menu: El Gringo and Twisted Swiss. The ingredient list is promising: Twisted Swiss is the burger with topped with swiss cheese, cole slaw, pickles, bacon, and whatever "Boom Boom Sauce" is on a pretzel bun. El Gringo is the burger topped with pepper jack cheese, chili, Doritos, and BBQ sauce on a regular old bun. I unwrapped them both and stood back to admire the majesty before me. They're not pretty, but they do look a lot better out of the wrapper than many fast food burgers I've eaten. Twisted Swiss I expected this sandwich to be an awful mess. It just seemed like a bunch ...

Interviewing: Tell Stories

Softball questions are questions the interviewer asks to try to find out about your personality, your history, your level of enthusiasm, and your experience. While technical questions evaluate your skills or your knowledge, softball questions are meant to have you talk about less quantifiable abilities. An interviewer might ask a dozen or more softball questions to determine what you're like outside of an interview room. The word to remember for interviews, especially the softball questions, is: STORIES . People who are good storytellers tend to be good interviewees. Technical questions are important - you need the skills to be able to do the job. However, often interviewers are convinced by your answers to softball questions - then they spend the rest of the interview trying to convince themselves why they should hire you, instead of spending the rest of the interview trying to convince themselves why they shouldn't. A great strategy for prepa...

geekitarian

Search This Blog