Comment by AndrewMoffat | Hacker News Reader

Comment by AndrewMoffat | Hacker News Reader

This blog post strikes home. Anyone who has worked with me or seen my work has identified me as a top-tier developer, and yet I rarely nail any interviews because I never "sound" how the hiring manager thinks a good candidate should sound.

I've boiled it down to my salesmanship, or lack thereof. I don't like talking myself up, and therefore I have difficulty conveying myself confidently. And, as it goes with vicious cycles, each time I fail to do so lessens my ability at future attempts.

> Mistrust in applicants runs deep among hiring managers, and I have found that I must still perform Houdini tricks during the interview process, even if an insider vouches for me.

Even though I know I'm accountable for my salesmanship, I get this sense as well. It's incredibly frustrating to sense that you're being looked over as being a phony trying to pull one over on a company (how does this work exactly, anyways?) More often than not though, I've noticed this happens more with hiring managers who are not qualified technically to hire developers.

Yep, I'm right there with you. I know I'm not selling myself correctly, but the thought of putting anything on my resume that even remotely embellishes the truth a little makes me want to hurl.

Also, combine that with the fact that I hate my current job so much that I am afraid that my next just might suck as much, so I am being /very/ picky. I've turned down a couple of job offers that in hindsight I probably should have taken.

I would encourage people like yourself to put enough information your HN profile that you can be reached for networking purposes by other HN readers. Many of us may be in a position to offer interviews for non-suck jobs or pointers towards same, that we aren't going to post in open comments to the entire HN community, but would send targetted to the email in your HN profile.

If you are shy or anti-marketing, you may need to work just a little harder in mediums you are comfortable with to network. (This isn't directed at you specifically, MC.)

Seconded. I'm hiring and whenever I see HN posts I like I check profiles immediately for location information and contact details, or at least info on where I might find out more about someone.

HN is networking. Make yourself discoverable.

Thanks for the tip guys. Updated.

You now have location there (which turns out to be fairly close to one of our facilities) but no contact information, so I still can't reach out to you.

If you're extremely uncomfortable listing an email address (or lisp form that evaluates to one or something similar), you can reach out to me based on my profile, but I'd really urge you to list some contact information in your profile, even if it's a throwaway account that you can easily walk away later from if the volume becomes overwhelming. If you're reaching out to me, add "HackerNews" in the subject line, please.

Thanks, I had put an email in the email field, I just assumed that was available from accessing someones profile. It's also in the about field now.

I want to deliberately look for people like you. How do I tell it's you? The skilled but modest/unsociable/shy/... programmer.

Look at their hobby projects. And/or contributions to the public projects. Good programmers nearly inevitably leave some visible trace.

I mostly like this answer. It depends on the individual's time and how they balance against the needs of the rest of their life. I can judge a certain amount of motivation from outside contributions, but I understand it is not the only angle to learn about that.

I would add that you should hold an intelligent dialogue with your interviewee. This means doing more than just asking a question. Follow up. Not only find out if they have done something, but figure out if they understood what they were working on. Find some specific details in it. If you need a nice canned starter question for this: "What was the hardest problem you ran into when implementing X?"

In other words, interviewers should have filter dialogues, not filter questions. Genuinely learn about your interviewees. You must direct the conversation intelligently. That is how you can find the diamonds amongst the poor salesmen.

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