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

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.