Ask HN: How do I prep for interviews, and stay calm before? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How do I prep for interviews, and stay calm before?

7 pointszupancik9 comments

I know there's advice all over the Internet for this, but still just hoping for some feedback. I just finished a Skype interview that I'm feeling horrible about and this isn't the first time - I constantly feel terrible when doing coding interviews, I was even hesitant in my basic Fibonacci implementation (which was just a warmup!)

I can't let this keep holding me back, so any words of wisdom on this are appreciated.

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Good advice here so far. I'll add a few nuggets from my experience helping tons engineers prep:

1. Some people just freeze up in interviews. It's anxiety-inducing, especially coding interviews; you're not alone. Here's a bolder approach that often works: reach out to interviewer, hiring manager, even HR beforehand, and give them the heads up that: you know in advance, you're not a natural interviewer, but have learned that you're still capable and interview nerves don't mean incompetence on the job. They'll appreciate the honesty, you'll have set the expectation beforehand (preventing disappointment), and I wouldn't be shocked if you run into interviewers who can sympathize, may respect you for being vocal, self-aware & upfront.

2. Same theme as above (going above & beyond as communicator during process), but during the interview. Don't be afraid to ask questions or for clarification, and keep it light by saying something like "sorry, I just get the jitters with interviews." That can break the awkwardness and maybe just set a nice, new tone, in turn reducing your stress and resulting in a win-win.

3. Common sense, but not followed enough for people who struggle in interviews: practice with someone else. The more you do it, the closer you'll get to "being yourself" in the interview.

Feel free to let me know if you have Q's about this!

I was nervous in interviews until I had a job that involved interviewing candidates. Sitting on the other side of the desk really helped me to understand that my nerves were not necessary and were not helping anyone.

Here is an exercise that you might try:

1. Ask a friend to help

2. Your friend will play HR. He should find 16-20 resumes online and email them to you one at a time over the next couple of days. Each one should be accompanied with a one-line note, "I like this one", "Wow, cool font", "Will she be a good fit for the team?" etc

3. Your friend will choose a random time over the next few days to email you one of the CVs with a note "You are interviewing this guy in 20 minutes, don't be late". You have 20 minutes to finish whatever you are doing, read through the CV and formulate some questions.

4. Your friend now pretends to be the candidate. You are the interviewer. Try to put the candidate at ease, ask pertinent questions, avoid questions about remuneration, etc. This interview has to last about 40 minutes. Shake hands, your friend leaves.

The four steps above are chaotic and a dumb way of hiring anyone, yet this is exactly how many businesses conduct interviews. Having been through the process on the other side of the desk, how could the candidate make life easy for the interviewer and ensure that he leaves a memorable and favourable impression?

Yep. And given how chaotic and dumb it all typically is: You will succeed if you can fix somebody's problem. This process, having to hire somebody, is the company's problem. They want it to be over. You can fix their problem by...

- having a cover letter that correctly identifies (1) the company, (2) what it does, and (3) why you specifically are a good fit for the specific position you are applying to

- showing up in person or over the phone and executing on those 3 points once again

- following up after the interview with a short thank you note that reiterates on those 3 points one last time

Companies (typically) want just these 3 simple things. They WANT them from you. They WANT you to succeed. Show up and BE the solution to their problem. You will blow most of the competition out of the water with the force of your application's coherence alone, and the company will greet you like a long lost child.

Now there are other situations that are designed specifically to intimidate and upset the applicant... undergraduate management consulting and finance recruiting processes can turn into this, notably. I don't have any advice on those situations, other than: Sure you want to work there?

Heh, that's exactly how I got my last job.

As you note, there are interviewers that want to gauge how a candidate will react under pressure (as if a job interview wasn't enough pressure already). It's a strong signal that the company has some problems, if "ability to work under pressure" is a job requirement.

Another trick is that management/finance/accounting/legal consultancies will often arrange a "social" evening for candidates, including alcohol. If you find yourself in such a situation, you know how you should behave but you can guarantee that someone will mess up.

One last point, when I conduct a technical interview, I often will attempt to gauge a candidate's depth of knowledge in a particular subject. That means I will ask harder and harder questions until there is one that the candidate cannot answer. Please note that "I don't know but..." is the perfect answer and often leads to a great conversation about related tech or work experience that might just land you the job. Trying to make up some BS answer will not.

Perhaps we shouldn't strive (and stress about) being the best you can be, during the interview.

On the contrary, if you passed an interview being your worst, and still be hired, it would be much cooler, for everybody:

- you wouldn't stress about the interview, - you would exceed expectations on the job, therefore - your employer would be happy; - also, since you'd be less stressed, you'd be more creative, and therefore overall more successfull, as a lot of studies seem to show.

Of course, since in the capitalist system, getting hired is often a question of life of death, it can't be less stressful. I'll let you guess where the actual problem lies...

Practice and interview. That's all you can do. If you think there's some secret to it, there isn't. The more you interview, the more you'll realize that a lot of it is luck-based, in that the questions you're asked are either reasonable or unreasonable. You have no control over that, so don't bother worrying. If you're trying to join a company that consistently asks unreasonable questions, then you either need to level up and learn the material behind the questions they're asking, or give up.

I used to get crippling anxiety interviewing remotely. My trick was to pour a double of something (usually whiskey) and drink on that. Of course, you can't do that before an in-person, but it helped me overcome the anxiety of interviewing. The words seemed to flow easier with a drink or two in me. They don't call it 'liquid courage' for nothing. YMMV, of course :)

Honestly? Just practice a lot and get people who have some familiarity with Software Engineering/Computer Science to interview you. It's also important that you ask those people to not take it easy on you.

The initial discomfort is necessary if you want to get better at this.

you believe you're smart. regardless of any specific question you get hung up on, have faith that your basic intelligence and skills will show through. try to represent yourself honestly, that should be enough for them.

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