Hacker News Reader

Comment by siquick | Hacker News Reader

>> Take acting classes and learn to speak with no accent It wont be permanent, but you'll be able to minimize your accent for a few hours in the interview. It's akin to speaking with a fake French accent.<<

This is terrible advice. As soon as you start the job, the people who interviewed you will wonder why your accent is totally different, and it will instantly put you on the backfoot.

>>I am almost thinking of halting my job search and finding some kind of hobby to keep me occupied and keep my mind off work.<<

This is a far better idea than just applying for jobs for the sake of it. It could be possible that you are coming across as slightly desperate in your interviews because you hate your current job so much.

Good luck

View on HN

>This is terrible advice. As soon as you start the job, the people who interviewed you will wonder why your accent is totally different, and it will instantly put you on the backfoot.

Struggling to see why this would be seen as bad advice. The basic human response to a foreign accent is "this is hard work for me to understand them". On a more subconscious level, they're probably wondering if you share the same cultural interests and therefore whether you'd get on. If you are not like this, good on you, but I assure most are not.

Some people can be horrendously unforgiving about accents, the quickest way to experience this is to go to France or China and try to speak French and Chinese to them respectively. (these are the two countries I've found to be the most unforgiving on accent from personal experience).

If someone is presenting you with a solution to a problem (as defined by other people), why is that terrible advice?

In any case, why should the acting classes stop after landing the job? Being able to speak with a native accent in a non-native language should be seen as a virtue...

>> This is terrible advice. As soon as you start the job, the people who interviewed you will wonder why your accent is totally different

That's not quite how accent reduction works. I think the goal is to be clear and understandable in the interview. The accent would have no weight on his professional capabilities.

Is being clear and understandable not an important professional capability? If not, then why does the interview require it?

> A: Please take a seat. As you know, we hired you because you did great on your interview. But we recently noticed that you speak with an Indian accent. Did you attempted to hide your accent during the interview?

> B: Uh, maybe a little? I've been taking accent reduction classes and learned to speak without one, but can't keep it up 24/7.

> A: Thanks for your honestly. Unfortunately we'll have to let you go. Please pack your desk.

I don't know man. I can see "acting classes" under hobbies on your CV not as a bad thing.

I believe employers might ask about it. if you tell them you are bettering your communications skills. It can only be a plus? Because this guys is using his spare time to better himself, instead of watching firefly over and over again in hope they will continue the series.

If this conversation happened, you should be glad. That does not sound like the type of place you would want to work at in the first place.

That doesn't sound like a very likely reaction. The acting classes are working, so if A really can't tolerate B's accent, why not just tell him to keep taking those lessons and practicing? Maybe offer to pay for them.

Many people find it uncomfortable to listen to accent. Interviewer feels uncomfortable around you, so he is less likely to hire you. It has nothing to do with ability to do the job.

That's not entirely correct. I've experienced several cases of inadequate language skills leading to misunderstandings that took months to clear up and that had real consequences. On a day to day basis, bad language skills also introduces friction and frustration.

Learning whatever language you use for work properly and being able to make yourself understood is immensely important.

I work for a company that has a pretty extensive global footprint. Just in the office I work we have around 15 nationalities, and it isn't even a big office.

Just about the only hard requirement I have for people being hired on my team is that they can make themselves clearly understood in english over a dodgy phone connection. Despite the fact that we are a norwegian company, I don't care if people know any norwegian at all. But english they must know. And yes, I have passed on norwegian candidates that could not make themselves understood in english.

And to underline how important people being able to communicate is for me: despite almost exclusively hiring people that are multidisciplinary (just being a software developer isn't enough, you need at least one other skill) I don't care about what education people have and I don't look at their grades.

If you are a developer, the most important language isn't any programming language: it is english.

I am stealing your last line for my personal use.

Clear communication is the most important skill for almost any business person, but certainly for developers.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com