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Comment by VladRussian2 | Hacker News Reader

>I realize that it can be hard to understand without having experienced interview anxiety yourself, but it is an entirely different environment.

my point isn't about denying interview anxiety existence (i suffer from it myself), and it has solid science foundation - speed of dopamine removal once your system is flushed with it. Some people have it faster, some slower. The former ones are great performers in acute short-term stress, while the latter ones are better at long/deep concentration on a task.

My point is about interview situation being preview to a lot [not all, yet a lot and many of them will be key ones] of future situations.

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I understand where you're coming from, but I disagree that this is a matter of individuals' responses to stress in general. I know that in my case there is nothing else I have ever experienced that can trigger a stress response equivalent or even similar to what I experience during an interview. It is irrational, but it is entirely separate to anything I could experience through professional work. It is not the questions being asked during the interview that cause anxiety, it is the interview itself. I actually find that I work quite well under high-stress and high-stakes work environments.

from your descriptions it sounds pretty much like my situation.

>I actually find that I work quite well under high-stress and high-stakes work environments

not getting the stress and being able to manage it is 2 different things. Couple jobs ago we had real clients with real problems, and it happened pretty naturally that i became the top "firefighter" that is brought in when support, escalated support, services/solutions, related development, etc.. exhausted their options and various executives on both sides are having sparks out their tailpipes - one may call this a high-stress and high-stakes environment, yet i just wasn't getting any stress, to me it was a simple 2 step algorithm : 1. forward me your AWR report (and this is instructions on getting it) 2. this is your root cause, config changes, emergency patch, etc... Simple, familiar, no stress (which i can't manage as i just get paralized/stuporred by it, like, in particular, in many interview situations)

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