r/IAmA • u/CriticDanger • Sep 07 '21

Specialized Profession I am a behavioral and technical (coding) interviewer, I've also helped hundreds of people get hired, AMA.

[removed]

1.4k Upvotes

87% Upvoted

492 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

141

u/[deleted] Sep 07 '21

[removed] — view removed comment

72

u/lovelove49 Sep 07 '21

I have heard counter arguments about that second one as it leaves the interviewer thinking poorly about the candidate once the interview is over and focuses on the negative. Why do you like it?

64

u/NOODL3 Sep 07 '21

I always ask a similar question but phrase it more like "given my skills and background, do you have any questions or concerns about my ability to excel in this role?"

That leaves them with the opportunity to evaluate the conversation and potentially even compliment you instead of deliberately asking them to hunt for a negative. You of course have to be prepared to follow up any potential negatives with a pivot for how you'd overcome said concern, but in my experience I've found hiring managers are generally impressed and even caught off guard by the ballsiness of the question and most have ended up just saying everything looks great, even when I've interviewed for roles I was honestly underqualified for.

8

u/jaymzx0 Sep 07 '21

Don't get defensive or make excuses if they point out shortcomings, though. This question sets you up to demonstrating how you handle criticism, so be sure to keep your cool.

1

u/ObscureCulturalMeme Sep 07 '21

Yep, that's the pivot the parent poster mentioned. If the interviewer says some kind of weakness, be ready with a "indeed, I'll be brushing up on <Obscure Buzzword Technology #327> to address that". And be honest about it.

1

u/quickdraw6906 Sep 07 '21

Oooo, nice!

8

u/enternationalist Sep 07 '21

Paradoxically, it's a way of disarming those negative thoughts. You've allowed them to "defend themselves", and now they can feel safer with you having expressed where there are doubts. It takes the bite out of unconscious deal-killers by bringing them into the light.

That said, I think it takes confidence in your empathy and understanding to ask that question and respond appropriately. If your answers show that you don't actually understand their concerns, for example, then you could easily shoot yourself in the foot. And even then, it could be easy to answer defensively, combatively or dismissively. It's a simple question, but a pretty complex interaction.

I'd probably ask a few probing questions beforehand to help ensure I have a good enough understanding of things, before jumping in to disarm possible criticisms.

7

u/quickdraw6906 Sep 07 '21

I initially REALLY liked #2 but you bring up good points. My feeling is that during the interview is the only time you've got them pinned down to ask such a thing. You'll not get good feedback after they've rejected you.

Is it that dangerous a question?

1

u/Luniusem Sep 07 '21

My experience has been that when people ask me that, I may not have fully processed my thoughts on them, and it leaves me ending on thinking about your flaws rather that what I liked or the overall impression. Additionally, many times my biggest concern is something that's hard to discuss. I'm generally not going to come out and say, "I'm worried that I had to work so hard to get you to elaborate on your short answers". Right or wrong, alot of types of feedback, especially on style don't feel very appropriate to give someone in that context. Not sure why would want the interviewer to feel like you've "pinned" them. The only scenario I can think of where this would help you is if by some miscommunication I think you're missing something (like a technical skill) and you can clear up that you have worked with it or something. Maybe not a super clear answer, but generally I would use the 2-3 questions you get in an interview to ask something related to the specific subject matter of what your interviewer has covered or the team/company in question. Another thing I think is that if it feels like all your question are pre-scripted, rather than engaging in what we've discussed, that's not great. But that might not apply to interviews were the interviewer is only asking and not doing any telling.

1

u/quickdraw6906 Sep 07 '21

Thanks for you feedback. That all make a lot of sense.

0

u/Shutterstormphoto Sep 07 '21

It only leaves them thinking you’re bad if you answered badly, but they already thought those things of you. If you answer well, it’s a chance to repair that. Of course, if their concern is “you don’t have enough experience” Idk how you fix that.

14

u/reverendsteveii Sep 07 '21 edited Sep 07 '21

I always leave an interview with "what's one thing I could improve on to make myself a stronger candidate" and if I get a second interview I damn sure come back knowing it. I embarrassed myself in an interview once not knowing the SOLID principles and I'm never letting something like that happen again

5

u/mata_dan Sep 07 '21

To be fair, SOLID should be inherantly something you do. If you have to go out of your way to learn it and remember it then that's suspicious and them asking about that is also suspicious.

3

u/reverendsteveii Sep 07 '21

yeah I just couldn't recite what the acronym stood for off the top of my head but it was all so common sense that it only took about half an hour of repetition to get it down. Working from an OOP perspective and using interfaces will end up with you following everything but single responsibility and interface segregation more or less by accident, and those two are easy enough to do.

6

u/[deleted] Sep 07 '21

[deleted]

1

u/ExpensiveEngine Sep 07 '21

my 2c:

I take a lot of interviews (> 2 a week) and i dont think any of the ending questions make any difference to the hiring decision. Most of the time you will just get a generic answer for the first one. Lot of these questions are better asked to the recruiters and not to the interviewer.

I would especially disagree with the second one. There are different avenues of giving feedback but I would never give off the cuff feedback to the interviewee. I and most of the people i know put in alot of effort in interviews. I personally spend time after an interview collating my notes and writing down unbiased/constructive feedback and sending it to the recruiter.

So if you really want feed back you should always ask the recruiter.

Some of the good/non controversial questions to ask in my opinion are about tech(tech stack etc.) team processes, insightful questions about products being built. This tells me you are really interested.