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I actually ask "Tell me about a project that went well for you. What was it, what was your role, and what was the final outcome?" I ask follow-ups, and generally let the interviewee get comfortable, since it's a low-pressure question. However, as a follow-up, I usually ask "Tell me about a project that -didn't- go so well. Same questions, and what'd you take away from the experience?"

People tend to slide into a comfort zone and open up a bit about their successes. They then -tend- to stay open and offer up useful insights into their past behaviors under pressure. I've found that it helps to ask the "success" question first, then ask the "failure" question second, rather than directly asking about someone's failures.

As an aside, the technique outlined above is something taken from "Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion," [1] and is a useful read to recognize situations where someone might be using certain techniques to influence the outcome of a situation. :-) Also - note that the general prompt above expects someone to answer in the "STAR" technique. [2]

[1] https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002BD2UUC/

[2] https://careerservices.wayne.edu/behavioralinterviewinfo.pdf

Yes, that's an excellent approach, and really, that's how I'd usually do it. The important thing is to get them feeling comfortable, safe, and confident.

> What do you think about giving the candidate an opportunity to get advance notice of that you'll be asking that question, in an interview, and ask them to prepare three to five bullet points to discuss?

Depends on the level you want to interview for. For a higher-level position, I don't think it's unreasonable to rely on someone's communication and presentation skills to adapt on the fly. Explicitly tell them that they can take a minute to think about it, rather than having to have an instant response.

I'm after maximal side effects here. I'm not trying to figure out what they know. I'm trying to figure out who they are. That happens when they're unguarded.

Now, I do my level best to make interviews unstressful. I don't think a stressed candidate is going to do their best, or be their best. They're going to be second-guessing their answers.

That's the point of war stories. Every experienced candidate has them. We've all done memorable things in our career, both good and bad. If it sticks with you, the details aren't what matter.

edit: This goes both ways. I expect the war stories to be an exchange, a patter. They should be learning about me and my co-interviewers as well. And, as someone who gets interviewed, if I feel the interview is completely one-sided and not revealing anything about potential colleagues and the working environment, I'm going to hesitate.

This could end up being stressful for both sides. Experienced candidates could/should counter with the same question. I doubt decision made under stress will turn out good.

If someone is so nervous and anxious that they can't just talk shop with a peer and share some war stories without feeling stressed... well, that tells me something very important about them.

Me, I'm always good for that kind of conversation. It's not going to stress me out if they're asking me things like this.

In my experience, asking a question that demands one to recall specific details about a painful event in an interview, which is typically a stressful situation, may produce poor results.

To some extent, yes. But the flip side is that for candidates that have had negative experiences in poorly managed environments (i.e. negative experience with past employers) this allows them to vent this information in a somewhat more clinical (neutral) way.

> In my experience, asking a question that demands one to recall specific details about a painful event in an interview, which is typically a stressful situation, may produce poor results.

Stressful and painful are not the same. Every engineer is going to go through stressful situations. Good ones will learn from them: to minimize the risk of them happening, and to better cope when they do.

> If you want to see how a person handles stress, give them a situation that is stressful in a way it'd be on the job

How is this any better?

> "apologies in advance for the following situation, which is intentionally stressful..."

Stressful situations don't send calendar invites.

I'm not arguing one should be an asshole during the interview. I've been interviewed by clearly hostile engineers. I didn't like it, and it surely impacted my performance. But real life is like that. Being able to react in a polite and composed manner to an unexpected situation, and recover from it, is a superb data point in an interview.

> If you want to see how a person handles stress, give them a situation that is stressful in a way it'd be on the job

Mainly because you're paying someone to do a job, not to interview. I've interviewed a lot of people, and sometimes interviewing just sucks for reasons that have nothing to do with the interview.

For example, say you're homeless, and you get your first interview in quite a while. Landing the job means housing for you. The pressure to perform is enormous, and it's not something you can prepare for. I was homeless for a bit, and in that situation.

I don't expect to get a job for which I'm not qualified, but it'd be nice if an interview process allows me to show I can meet the requirements of the position, regardless of the circumstances of my life situation outside of work.

I like screening people in for the right reasons, and not screen them out for reasons that aren't really all that important. And when you have a hard time getting any qualified applicants, can you really afford to false negatives?

> I've been interviewed by clearly hostile engineers... is a superb data point in an interview.

I agree, having someone be clearly hostile to you during an interview (which is often the first impression of what the culture at a particular company is like) is a great data point for the decision on whether to continue with the process of interviewing there.

>What do you think about giving the candidate an opportunity to get advance notice of that you'll be asking that question

I've been doing this and advocating for the practice for years. What is with the "gotcha" interview?