[HN Gopher] Ask HN: How to talk with logical flow and coherence ...
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Ask HN: How to talk with logical flow and coherence at interviews?
I have noticed that at interviews, I struggle to build a proper
narrative and talk coherently. I live in UK and English is not my
first language which doesn't help. Most of the times the flow of my
conversation is not fluent and it feels like I am putting up
sentences one after the another and there is a ot of "mmmaa",
"mmmaa" in my talking. Are there any practical resources to improve
my conversation skills?
Author : pavanto
Score : 191 points
Date : 2022-06-09 09:33 UTC (13 hours ago)
| gumby wrote:
| Lots of good advice here. One important one is not to be afraid
| to pause* and think. Someone asks you a question and of course
| you want to answer right away to be responsive, enthusiastic, and
| all the other things people correctly tell you to be which are
| all swirling in your head.
|
| So the interviewer asks you "I see you're a Java programmer: what
| are the most common library datastructures you use?" You could
| easily jump into "Yes, I have a lot of java experience, having
| worked on X and Y, and once I had to implement a custom hashmap
| because we had some unusual constraints _blah blah_ ". Just take
| a second to make sure you are answering the question actually
| asked: "Well in my Java code it sometimes feels like the only
| datastructure is ArrayList! Which is funny because when I write
| Python code I predominantly use maps".
|
| This is good when you have some pre-planned answers (as has been
| suggested elsewhere) to make sure you use the right one. Also
| good when you have to think up the right answer: when you know
| what you want to say you can concentrate on saying it.
|
| This problem affects those interviewing in their native language
| as well as those not in their native language, as with you.
| Everybody is nervous.
|
| * I originally typed "stop and think" but really we're talking
| just for a second or two at most.
| whacim wrote:
| One approach I used when I first started interviewing was to
| apply to a few jobs I wasn't really interested in pursuing to use
| as an opportunity to practice interviewing.
| gopher_space wrote:
| I use external recruiters for practice. They don't mind.
| They're either on their way up and are practicing too or good
| at their job and able to give you serious feedback.
| mat0 wrote:
| Please don't do this. I get it's "good practice", but you are
| essentially wasting interviewing time -> company money for your
| little practice. Terrible advice.
| corrral wrote:
| I think it's fine as long as you make sure the company in
| question is one of the many that post fake job openings. Then
| it's simply justice.
| tqi wrote:
| 1. As others have said, practice is the only real way to get
| better. If you can carve out the time, interviewing even if you
| aren't actively looking to change jobs is a good idea.
|
| 2. Specifically to your question about proper narrative, people
| often recommend the STAR (Situation -> Tasks required of you ->
| Actions that you took -> Results that you achieved) framework for
| answers. It can definitely sound a little robotic if over
| applied, but I think it's relatively useful especially for new
| people. It's also helpful to start by taking a moment to gather
| your thoughts ("I would love to take a brief moment to think of
| an example"), and work backwards from the Results you want the
| interviewer to remember.
| jawmes8 wrote:
| +1 for the STAR method, I find it helps with off-the-cuff
| answers too as it keeps me focused.
| whiddershins wrote:
| Record yourself, watch the recording, repeat.
|
| It's tough, and can make you self conscious in the short term,
| but it is the fastest way to radically improve your
| communication.
|
| And as others have said, pause. It's ok to pause. It's good to
| pause. It's ok to collect your thoughts silently.
| idoh wrote:
| This is a bit wild, but learning and being fluid in MECE changed
| my life. Not really, but it really helped me in interviews and
| all types of conversations. Check out How to be MECE on Youtube.
| MECE = mutually exhaustive and completely exclusive.
|
| The short version is that when you describe something you want to
| divide it up into mutually exclusive and completely exhaustive
| chunks. There are five ways to be MECE - algebraic, process,
| conceptual, segmenting, and opposite words (in descending
| priority of insight).
|
| For example, if you are asked a question about how increase
| revenue for a grocery store, then you break it down into revenue
| = number of tickets * value per ticket, and then you can attack
| it that way. This would be the algebraic way to be MECE.
|
| Trick A is that almost all conversations can be broken into MECE,
| and that gives good practice. E.g. if you are planning a road
| trip then when you are talking about it you use a process MECE to
| add structure.
|
| Trick B is that it takes about an hour or two to be fluid in
| applying MECE to a given domain, just start picking random topics
| and breaking them down, and the more insightful the better. E.g.
| how would you describe the items on a menu? Different programming
| languages? Features you worked on?
|
| If you do that, then it gives a proper narrative, good structure,
| and you can use the time where you are setting up the structure
| to think about everything else. By running through all items in
| the MECE list it shows that you are thorough and you have
| literally thought of everything (because you've created an
| exhaustive list).
| corrral wrote:
| > fluid
|
| Fluent?
| idoh wrote:
| Fluid as in able to easily apply MECE to conversations. I
| guess being fluid with the application of MECE will lead to
| more fluent conversations. They both have the same latin
| root.
|
| edit - updated the GP to make it clear that I was talking
| about being fluid in applying MECE to a given domain, which
| could be written or oral.
| corrral wrote:
| OK, cool, thanks--I wasn't asking to nitpick, but because I
| really wasn't sure whether it was a mistake, or a
| neologistic/jargon usage I was unfamiliar with.
| idoh wrote:
| Even if you were nitpicking then that's OK. On Hacker
| News we critique the words and not the person, right?
| gcanyon wrote:
| Mutually exclusive and comprehensively exhaustive.
|
| That's just pedantic -- great write up!
| lupire wrote:
| Don't take a job where saying "mmmaa" is considered more of a
| concern than real issues.
|
| Not down brief notes (keywords) for each of the main ideas you
| want to cover.
|
| After a sentence, stop and count to 3 before changing topic or
| repeating yourself. Then if your partner doesn't speak, ask
| "should I go deeper into that?"
| halayli wrote:
| Being coherent, succinct, and articulate is an outcome/reward
| that you achieve as a result of learning and hard work.
|
| Try improving your learning skills, and focus on your cognitive
| map you've built so far and identify the gaps/holes.
|
| In general, if you are having a hard time explaining something it
| simply means you don't fully understand the topic. But that's
| fine, I often say something along the lines of "I am not doing a
| great job explaining X as I am still learning the topic and have
| gaps in my knowledge about it". Self awareness is key here.
| theonething wrote:
| In addition to other good suggestions here, make sure you get
| enough sleep. Lack of sleep reduces my speech to idiot level.
|
| The same goes for food, exercise, keeping yourself healthy in
| general. I find sleep to be the one that has outsize and
| immediate effects.
| jdtang13 wrote:
| Try using the STAR method: situation, task, action, and result
|
| https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/interviewing/how-to-use...
| ignorantguy wrote:
| One thing that helped me is to start thinking in English. English
| is not my first language either. I noticed I dont have
| conversation fillers like "like" anymore for pauses.
| hutzlibu wrote:
| "I have noticed that at interviews, I struggle to build a proper
| narrative and talk coherently."
|
| Is it only at interviews? Than it would be merley the pressure,
| you cannot stand.
|
| In either case, why not practice talking with logical flow and
| coherence every time, you have a actual conversation?
|
| I am not a fan of learning verbal conversation by books. I
| learned english for 10 years in school like this (and had quite
| good grades). Then I went backpacking into the world - and I
| allmost could not communicate with native english speakers at
| all. Very, very frustrating. The only thing that helped, was
| practice, practice and practice.
| [deleted]
| goodpoint wrote:
| No reasonable interviewer is going to hire you or not hire you
| simply due to your fluency during the interview alone.
|
| With that in mind - relax! Imagine you are explaining things to a
| friend rather than being examined.
|
| Build you answers up, step by step, starting with the basic.
| Explain how you are reasoning around a problem as you go.
|
| Do not just describe how things are or what you would do: clarify
| why one solution is better than another, and what problems you
| want to avoid.
|
| If your fluency in English is low, practice speaking in general,
| so that during interviews you don't have to spend time thinking
| about grammar and phrasing.
|
| Short, simple sentences are much better than mumbling, making
| sounds, etc.
| tqi wrote:
| > No reasonable interviewer is going to hire you or not hire
| you simply due to your fluency during the interview alone.
|
| > With that in mind - relax! Imagine you are explaining things
| to a friend rather than being examined.
|
| +1 to this. This is why I recommend that people take the time
| to go through the interview process every 6 months or so, even
| if (or especially if) they aren't actively looking to switch
| jobs. Being relaxed is a huge part of performance. Interviewing
| when you're not looking to switch means less pressure, which
| can lead to better performance in those interviews, in turn
| which can build confidence in one's interview abilities down
| the road.
| GoodJokes wrote:
| vln wrote:
| One thing I do to give myself time to think is to just rephrase
| the question as a way to ensure I understood correctly as well as
| demonstrating that you're listening and participating. I then ask
| clarifying questions and ask for them to confirm any assumptions
| I'm making based upon answers given as part of my thought
| process. It's just thinking out loud and can also help
| demonstrate _how_ you think about problems. This lays the
| groundwork for you to construct a cohesive narrative.
| jcpst wrote:
| I can't speak to this directly, but I've heard from a few people
| in my company that joining their local Toastmasters group really
| helped them out.
|
| Could anyone speak to that?
| weinzierl wrote:
| I can speak to that directly and Toastmasters helped me a lot.
| In my club for every speech there was an Ah-counter who counted
| all the interjections and unnecessary words. In my opinion this
| feedback, weekly over a long period of time, is the only way to
| improve on this subconscious utterances.
|
| Besides prepared speeches _everyone_ did short two minute
| impromptu speeches at _every_ meeting. We always got feedback,
| verbally in front of the others as well as in writing and
| secretly. Even the short speeches were strictly timed and Ah-
| counted.
|
| It's all very simple but done every week for a few months
| improvement is inevitable.
|
| Membership fees were next to nothing and there was no long term
| commitment. You could just pay in cash at the meetings.
| Toastmasters is also a non-profit, so little money but well
| spent.
|
| The meetings back then were always open to anyone and you could
| just hop-by without registration or being a member. As a non-
| member you could even participate in most of the activities but
| you wouldn't be given speaking slots.
|
| Downsides? You will have to invest a significant amount of time
| and energy.
| bombcar wrote:
| This, or even a community college "speech" class, can do
| wonders. You basically just do speeches and get feedback.
| jcpst wrote:
| This is a good point. I forgot about the fact that I took a
| "speech" class as a freshman in high school, then again as a
| freshman at a community college. It helped!
| sowbug wrote:
| It made an enormous difference for me. Over the past 15 years,
| I've attended TM in three phases: once for a couple years to
| get through the initial course of about a dozen speaking
| assignments, and then twice since then for tune-up sessions of
| about a year each. I started out as a typical engineer who
| meandered and stammered my way through team meetings, and now
| I've successfully presented before audiences of several
| thousand people. I admire top Toastmasters speakers far too
| much to call myself an expert, but if public speaking were a
| pass/fail test, I know I'd easily pass.
|
| What makes Toastmasters work is the immensely supportive
| environment. I've never felt so welcomed anywhere as I have at
| the weekly TM meeting. They want you to succeed, and you can
| feel their positive energy just as the butterflies are trying
| to overwhelm you at the start of a speech. They are experts in
| delivering constructive criticism while still reinforcing what
| you already do well. Most important, you'll find that you'll
| start looking forward to public speaking.
|
| As for the original question about spontaneous interview
| conversation, TM helps there, too. One part of a usual meeting
| is "Table Topics," where the host calls on random attendees to
| get up, stand in front of the the room, and spend one-two
| minutes answering a simple question like "have you ever owned a
| pet?" It's high-pressure but low-stakes, and it's great
| practice for getting comfortable with that common situation of
| having nothing to say but needing to say it.
| MisterBastahrd wrote:
| Interviewing 101:
|
| 1. Know what you're interviewing for. You should clarify this
| with the recruiter before accepting an interview.
|
| 2. Learn about the company that you're interviewing for. This
| shows that you have put thought into being a part of the company
| and that you are diligent about ensuring that you think about the
| tasks you are undertaking.
|
| 3. Learn how to concisely describe what you've done in the past.
| Nobody needs a complete history. They just want to know that
| you're competent enough to do the job.
|
| 4. Be sure to answer the question asked. I recently interviewed a
| candidate for a SDET role and asked her about her experience
| performing simple database queries. Her eyes rolled into the back
| of her head and she went on a 5 minute recitation of the steps
| she went through to do Selenium testing. It's not the information
| I asked for.
|
| 5. Behave as if you are in a position of equality with the
| interviewer. You lose nothing but your time if you don't get the
| job. Don't be meek. Show confidence. Any good manager is never
| going to hire someone they wouldn't want to work for in the
| future.
|
| 6. Practice your answers. We all know that interviewers generally
| ask the same subset of questions. You should be able to answer
| them immediately.
|
| 7. Tied in with #5, prepare questions that you wish to ask the
| interviewer. Show them that you are serious about evaluating them
| for the possibility of joining the company. Show that you believe
| in yourself.
|
| 8. Practice. As a former recruiter, I don't need to do this very
| much, but if you are new to the game, then it's never a bad thing
| to get your answers and response time down.
| phtrivier wrote:
| As others said, don't forget to breathe, and pause accordingly.
|
| Also, a nice trick is, if you can, to try to outline your point
| before making it.
|
| Given a tricky question, if you can at least answer the question
| by a general "well, there is this part of the problem, and then,
| there is that part", before going into any details, you've
| probably reinsured the interviewer that you have a clear idea in
| mind.
|
| If you don't have a clear idea in mind, well, at least you know
| what to prepare for next time !
|
| Also, it's a bad idea to have "memorized" answers in general -
| except for some specific questions, like your"personal pitch"
| ("what brought you here", "tell me about your job history",
| etc... You can't blame your interviewer for expecting you to be
| ready for those.)
|
| Good luck in all cases !
| cl42 wrote:
| Here is what I recommend for _everyone_ , regardless of role.
|
| 1. Make an Excel/Google sheet with 50+ questions you think will
| come up in an interview.
|
| 2. Open Zoom and start recording.
|
| 3. Randomize the question list and practice answering each
| question in 1-2 minutes.
|
| Take a break.
|
| 4. Watch the video and critique yourself.
|
| 5. Rinse and repeat.
|
| You will get very, very good over time.
| yodsanklai wrote:
| I wonder if people actually do that. I think watching how much
| I suck will be depressing.
| demux wrote:
| It will the first couple of times, after that it just becomes
| a video!
| ghostbrainalpha wrote:
| The "best answers" are always extremely simple to understand.
| But often a lot more work than you want to do.
|
| This is a "best answer".
| WmyEE0UsWAwC2i wrote:
| I found reading books, like novels, helps to build the necessary
| skills to chain complex ideas together in "real time".
| gkop wrote:
| Upvoted for creativity in offering a fun recreational option.
| Do folks have others to suggest?
| davidajackson wrote:
| Interviewing is a learned skill. I went through a period where I
| interviewed with every recruiter that reached out, to improve
| interviewing skills. You should do that. You will get the
| practice of nailing conversations through that.
| bradlys wrote:
| You also need to be sitting down and practicing before/after
| though. Just exposing oneself to recruiters will not be
| sufficient. You need to practice and reflect - and then
| practice with real people.
|
| I think it's similar to playing a sport. Yes, just playing will
| get you better eventually but if you practice certain drills -
| you will get better much faster and it can stop oneself from
| developing bad habits. I think it's like doing LC interviews -
| would you just do them all live or would you study subjects and
| practice problems instead? Practicing problems and studying
| subjects is way more effective than getting slotted a random
| problem and doing it live every time where you're unlikely to
| learn what you're doing wrong/right in the moment.
| mathattack wrote:
| Have a bunch of stories handy that you can use in a lot of
| situations. Practice them. Dread the company's values to know
| where the questions come from. (Amazon is the extreme example)
| mattlondon wrote:
| Echo the question back to confirm understanding - this buys time
| for your brain to start filtering ... and makes sure you are
| answering the right question. Start with high level aspects as a
| "summary" rather than "drilling down" too deep in any one thing
| early.
|
| Pause mid-way and confirm "Is this answering your question? Do
| you need more detail?". "No I was hoping to hear more about
| databases" "More about database theory, or more practical aspects
| of running a production database?" "I'm interested in the
| practical aspects" "Alright the practical aspects - ok sure!" Etc
|
| Practice also makes perfect. General rule.od thumb for
| presentations etc is prepare for 10x times the length of
| presentation (so 60 mins = 600 prep). You may want to consider
| something similar.
|
| Good luck
| jeffrallen wrote:
| One thing that can be helpful is preparing several stories from
| your past that show useful aspects of your experience, and your
| character (conflict resolution, managing schedule problems, etc).
| Then when a question can be answered with your prepared story,
| make a small intro explaining why you want to tell this story and
| then tell it.
|
| Politicians do this: they listen to the question and then reply
| to the question they wanted you to ask. You need to be a bit
| smooth about it, but you are certainly allowed to adapt questions
| to the story you want and need to tell.
| ryandrake wrote:
| Take breaks as you talk! Pause in silence. Whether you are giving
| a technical answer, or answering a behavioral/scenario question,
| make it a conversation with pauses and opportunities for your
| interviewer to help steer.
|
| As an interviewer, the _worst_ candidates are the ones who just
| launch into a stream of words, talking and talking and talking
| with no break. Just a continuous stream of consciousness or
| memorized prepared pitch. Especially for the really open ended
| questions! It should be a conversation, not a one-way word salad.
|
| I've had candidates answer the simple "Tell me about your
| background" question with a continuous 10-minute stream of words.
| I've more than once had to physically wave my hands and flag them
| down to stop. I've had a candidate who misheard part of my
| question and started answering something I never asked, and the
| candidate never provided an "in" for me to provide a correction
| and turn them in the right direction. Just non-stop words with no
| breaks. So many candidates do this. I don't know--are interview
| prep guides telling them this is a good strategy? It's not!
| noneeeed wrote:
| We are doing graduate/junior interviews at the moment and the
| first one was just like this. He was like a politician with
| prepared points he wanted to make and would reel them off after
| hearing some key word in s question. Thankfully that was in the
| first half hour screening interview.
| adamhi wrote:
| yacine_ wrote:
| Listen to recordings of yourself giving speeches/interviews.
| After you are done, listen to the whole recording and take notes.
| That's helped me a lot carry out demos & present. Used to say
| "Um" a lot, but now I don't.
| no-dr-onboard wrote:
| It helps to have a pause before you begin to speak. Think of what
| you're going to say before you say it. When you're done, you're
| done. Don't feel pressured to say anything more than what the
| answer is.
|
| Additionally, it helps to have a framework. The STAR method[1] is
| pretty appropriate for interview responses and is pushed pretty
| heavily by FAANG. When I worked at Amazon, I was told that my
| adherence to the method really helped me stand out (for what its
| worth).
|
| Finally, its worth reaching out to the employee working/resource
| groups at the place you're trying to apply for. Let them know
| you're an English as a Second Language (ESL) candidate and see if
| there can be any accommodations. My org allows you to interview
| in your native tongue and provides accommodations.
|
| [1] https://www.thebalancecareers.com/what-is-the-star-
| interview...
| eanc wrote:
| I still suck at being verbally coherent, as my brain isn't quick
| in the right way, but my guess is that it's good to have "talking
| points" that you're trying to work toward from wherever the
| question actually started, and an outline to make sure to hit
| points A, B, C, and D about matter E...
|
| I always went in as a naive kid "they will ask a question and I
| will say the answer; repeat" because I was brought up to be so
| passive. _And still am so passive._ And I naively thought they'd
| recognize there must be _something_ there if I could get that
| GPA.
| eddieroger wrote:
| Regarding verbal crutches, the best advice I've received is to
| just say nothing instead, and pauses never feel as long to the
| other parties as they do you. So when you feel yourself saying
| "umm" or "mmmaa", instead say nothing, take a breath, and move
| forward.
|
| With English not being your first language, I think you can apply
| this plan to formulating your responses in general. Just take a
| moment, plan your reply, and say it. It doesn't feel that long to
| the other party, I promise.
|
| Regarding flow, when asked specific questions about things, I
| remember the acronym CAR - Context, Action, Result. I form my
| answers in this framework to make a plan for how to get to the
| reply. Give a little context to set the stage/problem, say what
| you did, then say how it went - good or bad. Be concise. Fewer
| words get the job done and are easier on you.
|
| Not sure that is what you're looking for regarding practical
| resources, but I hope it helps. It has helped me a lot, I think.
| crispyambulance wrote:
| You're right about "C-A-R", although I find it jarring and
| difficult to think directly in those terms. It can be too
| daunting, much like in a game of billiards when someone
| announces what their shot is going to do in advance and then
| takes the shot and expects everything to unfold as it was pre-
| declared. It's wonderful when it works, but it can be really
| hard to recover from if things go sideways.
|
| Many of us achieve the same end in an easier way by putting our
| experiences into a narrative-- like telling a story in a way
| that's relatable to the audience. That way it's possible to
| discuss problems both technical and non-technical, how they
| were solved, and how the project succeeded. Along the way it's
| totally OK to digress into interesting aspects of the story.
| Someone who is skilled enough can then even plant breadcrumbs
| that stimulate questions for which they've thought through a
| carefully considered answer.
| [deleted]
| Shugarl wrote:
| > I remember the acronym CAR - Context, Action, Result. I form
| my answers in this framework to make a plan for how to get to
| the reply
|
| I was looking for something like that to organize my thoughts
| when I speak. Thanks!
| alchemyromcom wrote:
| I would say record yourself speaking and then listen back to it.
| It will take a little bit of time to get over the discomfort of
| it, but you'll be happy you did once you get used to it. Not only
| will it improve your ability to speak, but it can also have added
| therapeutic benefits (not real medical advice :). The reason why
| this can be helpful is because you notice that, though it might
| feel like you are stammering while speaking, you are actually
| more eloquent than you realize. The small pauses are actually not
| that noticeable and you are already more coherent than you
| realize.
| macintux wrote:
| One reason we use filler sounds when we're talking is to not lose
| the initiative, so to speak. You don't want someone else to
| interpret your pause as an opportunity to talk over you.
|
| When you're answering interview questions, you should make a
| conscious effort to _not_ use them. Pause for the right thought
| in silence. If someone steps in, they might give you the
| information you were struggling for, but regardless a thoughtful
| pause should come across as more professional than a string of
| nonsense syllables.
| mhitza wrote:
| Use the simplest sentence to answer, which is not a yes or no.
| And if you are the one that wants to lead the conversation,
| follow it up with a question.
|
| But don't force the direction of the conversation, only follow-up
| with subject related questions.
|
| If the interviewer is bothered because you are leading the
| conversation that is a job you want to avoid. At least as a
| person that is doing consulting work, that is what I would
| suggest.
| aarghh wrote:
| The best learnt behavior I have is to slow down. In practice that
| means using phrases like "Let me think about that for a second",
| and maybe looking at or writing notes. As an interviewer, if
| anyone actually took a minute to think about what I had just
| asked them, I would consider that a huge positive signal.
| billti wrote:
| Someone posted this Steve Jobs response the other day that
| demonstrates this well.
| (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeqPrUmVz-o) . Even in front
| of an audience that size, there is no rush to answer. He takes
| quite a while to consider a response first.
|
| That said, he is still amazing at how he can have (apparently)
| a long narrative in mind as he starts to answer. I work with an
| architect who I can spring a complex question on, and he'll
| start answering with something like, "There are four things I
| would...", and I'm thinking "Damn! You already thought through
| the entire response in enough detail to count the bullet
| points!". I'm not sure if that is just "practice" or some
| people's minds just work differently.
| Swizec wrote:
| > "There are four things I would...", and I'm thinking "Damn!
| You already thought through the entire response in enough
| detail to count the bullet points!"
|
| As someone in a similar role - it's all cheating. They've
| seen a version of your problem so many times it doesn't feel
| new to them. While you were talking, the architect was
| walking down a decision tree of possible problem patterns.
| Every new clue you provided eliminated part of the tree until
| the only thing that was left were 4 options that you can
| eliminate or confirm by asking followup questions or doing
| followup investigation.
|
| Once identified, you use the off-the-shelf solution in your
| brain. Slightly tweaked for the current problem.
|
| That's what people buy when they hire for experience.
| marginalia_nu wrote:
| Yeah, when you're nervous you kinda feel like you need to have
| an answer immediately and deliver it quickly, but you'd be
| surprised not only how long you're allowed to pause, but how
| slow you're allowed to talk.
| sto_hristo wrote:
| That is normal. Even one of the best recent Presidents can
| "struggle" with interviews. See:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4bDuFJuriw This is the best
| speaker on the planet. On the planet. His bread and butter is
| pro-speaking actually. "Struggle" in quotes, because he's not
| struggling really, it's just how normal human beings speak as
| they are constructing answers in their brains.
|
| But why on most of his others interviews he was going so smoothly
| and effortlessly? Because those were scripted and everything was
| predictable and prepared for in advance by a huge staff in the
| background. He already has all the answers in the brain and is
| merely giving a mental reading.
|
| So ground yourself. You're not giving speeches and your interview
| is NOT going by a script you've been given prior. Relax, answer
| questions to the best of your ability and KNOW THAT you'll be
| judged most likely by people with skills inferior to yours.
|
| Looking at other answers asking you to prepare for interview as
| if you're running for president. Sure thing. Do that. But only if
| you're actually running for president and there are millions on
| the table for the taking.
| vorpalhex wrote:
| Take a moment, fully compose what you want to say, then say it.
| It's totally acceptable to pause the conversation for a moment to
| "digest".
| angarg12 wrote:
| Practices. It's a skill, you get better at doing it by doing it.
|
| However don't just drone through interviews. Do deliberate
| practice. Be mindful and participate fully in the process. After
| the fact reflect on your performance. What did you do well, what
| could you improve? The first few times will be super awkward.
| After 30 interviews you will feel more confident. After a 100 it
| will feel like second nature. Sounds like a lot of work? of
| course! that's what it takes to become good.
|
| This might be overkill though so apply judiciously. Still, if you
| feel the need to improve, going through the process with a
| handful of companies should improve your skills significantly.
| arpanetus wrote:
| jobsearch.dev has quite nice advices you have to follow.
|
| Besides that remember always to build your own narrative.
| Moto7451 wrote:
| A technique I was re-taught as an adult is the story pyramid.
| It's a great way to create a linear and logical profession of
| ideas, their supporting details, and the conclusions you want to
| provide.
|
| https://www.teachervision.com/reading-comprehension/story-py...
| dominotw wrote:
| system design and behavior interviews expect you to put up an
| oscar worthy performance.
|
| There is no way to "design instagram" in a super fluid straight
| line thought process. Only way to beat this system is to prepare
| and have notes handy where you can go from point to point.
|
| Eg: you are expected in system design to have these 4 components
|
| 1) functional requirement 2) non functional requirement 3) back
| of envelope calculations 4) components of design.
|
| Similarly for behavior you need STAR format with actual numbers (
| improved latency of 20%)
|
| Freestyling in an interview is a recipe for failure.
|
| Ppl complain about leetcode but i find these interviews really
| embarrassing for all parties to involved to participate in this
| charade.
| powersnail wrote:
| Also a second-language speaker here.
|
| It's fine to "hmm". Many highly regarded public speakers "hmm" a
| lot. If the rest of the sentence makes sense, most listeners will
| ignore the interruption.
|
| The best way to practice is to make conversation with people, but
| try to use full sentences and complete thoughts, instead of
| shortened, colloquial expressions.
|
| It was very easy to fall into the trap of colloquialism as a
| second-language speaker, because it's way easier to learn to
| "Awesome", "Nice, "oh yeah" your way through conversations with
| friends, which doesn't your spoken English when you need to
| actually convey something.
|
| Another tip is preparation. Prepare full sentences that reflect
| your current state of mind. "Let me think this through for a
| second." "I'm going to store the data into a 2D array." "I'm
| going to loop through this array and do xxx with each item."
|
| And also, don't fret too much about it. Interviewers in tech
| industries are familiar with language barriers. If you feel like
| you're lost in the middle of a sentence, give a pause and start
| over. Not a big deal.
| muzani wrote:
| Preparation. Anyone who has done public speaking knows that it's
| a _lot_ of work to be a good speaker.
|
| Neil DeGrasse Tyson says you have to be 10x more prepared than
| you need to be. He calls it his Batman utility belt. You
| anticipate every question you'll get and do your research.
|
| One interviewer asked Neil whether it was worth the $3B mission
| to Saturn. He brought up that it's $3B over 12 years and that
| it's how much Americans spend on lip balm. He researched the
| reporters, anticipated 10 different questions, and prepared to
| answer a question on cost.
|
| For example, a very common question to rehearse is "tell me about
| yourself" or "tell me about your biggest or latest major
| project." A big company might ask your experience with processes
| - CI/CD, how you work with a team, when you've let the team down.
| A smaller company might ask about what you think about their
| product.
|
| Don't memorize a speech or answer though.
|
| A more advanced trick I learned from public speaking class is to
| get a topic, draft bullet points in my head within 5 minutes,
| then speak from those points. An example I love is "Do you think
| a sewer system or waste disposal system is more essential to a
| city?"
|
| If you answer immediately, you will "ummmm uhhh" a lot. Learn to
| take a breather and buy time.
| unsupp0rted wrote:
| > He calls it his Batman utility belt. You anticipate every
| question you'll get and do your research.
|
| Part of the reason Neil DeGrasse Tyson is so painful to
| watch/listen to (especially on his recent appearances) is that
| this over-preparation or expectation of specific talking points
| comes off as smugness, interrupting behavior, etc... is it this
| which hurts the flow of conversation and even seemed to
| exasperate Joe Rogan during their talk recently?
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwZXR2PlcEM
| itsmemattchung wrote:
| Watched about 3 minutes of this...too cringe to finish the
| rest.
| jrh206 wrote:
| Those clips are painful.
|
| DeGrasse Tyson interrupts Rogan right before important words
| - punchlines. For instance, in the first clip, Rogan begins
| "what's interesting is that the town is -", and DeGrasse
| Tyson takes that moment to pattern break: "wait, wait, wait,
| have you seen that they did Starry Night in bacon?!". Rogan
| blinks, stunned. His point about the town lost forever.
|
| Regardless, it's possible to be well prepared but not
| interrupt the person you're talking to right as they get to
| the juice. I would suggest Sean Evans and Nardwaur as
| examples from the other side of the fence - interviewers -
| who are unrivalled in preparation and give their guests a
| chance to speak.
| glitchc wrote:
| This might be on purpose, especially if Mr. Rogan is
| pandering to the audience and Dr. Tyson is aware of his
| behavior.
| spicyramen_ wrote:
| throwbigdata wrote:
| Pandering?
| jvanderbot wrote:
| DeGrasse Tyson is insufferable anyway. He takes every
| chance to pontificate and play the skewering science
| expert, even when it's not necessary. His generation /
| audience just wants a scientist to slam dunk on everyone
| all the time and "Science the shit out of it", and he's
| responding perfectly.
|
| And I work in space exploration! I've seen 100s of better
| voices for science than him fist hand.
| samstave wrote:
| Agreed, as is Michio Kaku. They are the Zahi Hawass of
| astro physics.
| PragmaticPulp wrote:
| It's the difference between natural conversation and
| performance.
|
| NDT wasn't trying to have a conversation, he was trying to
| put on a performance. He was using intonation, cadence, and
| speech patterns rehearsed for putting on a show, whereas
| podcasters want to have something more like a natural
| conversation.
|
| This can actually be a problem when people try to study
| social skills and speaking habits from performers and then
| deploy those habits into natural conversations. It comes off
| as inauthentic and awkward.
| scrozier wrote:
| Thank you! I've always found DeGrasse Tyson unbearable. He's
| clearly a very smart guy, but as a communicator of the
| people? Not at all sure why he's so popular. That clip is
| positively grotesque.
| hinkley wrote:
| Speech and conversation are not the same skill.
| IE6 wrote:
| This to me is tangential - I am wondering if you are more
| annoyed at his preparation (which I believe is an excellent
| example and suggestion to the OP's question) or that he
| talked over Joe Rogan and didn't let him finish his joke ...
| rangersanger wrote:
| This plus having a formula for how to answer. I like the star
| technique. It's what people want to hear in the right order.
| https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/interviewing/how-to-use...
| SenHeng wrote:
| NDGT had an interview or youtube once about public speaking, I
| couldn't find the video anymore so paraphrasing.
|
| > _Not anyone can become great at something, but everyone can
| become_ better _. So you don 't have to learn to speak like all
| those famous people out there, just practise so that you can be
| better than you were._
| publicola1990 wrote:
| But some people seems so at ease with spontaneity, dealing with
| dynamic, emergent conversations, and even the ability to direct
| it to particular directions or narratives. I doubt all of it is
| preparation.
| ftio wrote:
| As a person who fits your description above, I can attest
| that at least for me: it is 100% preparation.
|
| For big presentations, I put in practice time equivalent to
| 10-20x the time of the talk. For a one hour presentation,
| I'll practice for 10 hours at least, if not substantially
| more.
|
| For high-stakes conversations with Important People, I think
| to myself, in advance: what do I want to achieve from this
| conversation? What do I need to say or ask in order to
| achieve those things? This is true even if the conversation
| is "just a chat." The goal might be as simple as: _build
| credibility and familiarity with Important Person._ Pro tip:
| plan up front what you 're going to ask/say if there's
| awkward silence. It happens even to the best
| conversationalists. Better to be prepared than to be caught
| flat footed.
| dagmx wrote:
| There's definitely an art to seeming spontaneous and
| conversational, but it really comes down to practice.
|
| The thing is that some of us get practice from just our
| upbringing and life experiences, others may not have that. So
| for those others, it's about identifying where they can
| bolster things and practice.
| wantsanagent wrote:
| It is _all_ practice. For a 30 minute presentation I might
| spend 6 hours in practice. Over my lifetime I 've spend
| months of time practicing public speaking.
|
| That said, the _motivation_ to practice comes from success.
| If someone tells you you 're good at something you'll do it
| more and be willing to spend more time doing it. Success
| comes from practice, so the hardest part is getting that
| first positive feedback if you're starting from a deficit
| (language barriers, previous criticism). I recommend getting
| a tutor for just about anything like this. Pay a stranger,
| whose opinion you don't care about, to get you past the
| awkward bits and into a range that's better than average.
|
| Also, while some of us _come off as_ comfortable, that doesn
| 't mean we are.
| iovrthoughtthis wrote:
| 4 things help for me:
|
| 1. i like myself regardless of if this other person likes me
| 2. i will be fine, even if i fuck this up 3. every time im
| asked is an opportunity to practice, tweak something 4. write
| what you've been up to down
|
| it's like rapping tbh. you learn snippets and lines that work
| and then you mix and match them for the context.
|
| you don't want to be deciding word by word but phrase by
| phrase.
| larrywright wrote:
| The last time I was interviewing I wrote out a narrative
| about my skills and experience. Basically a short bio, but
| also what roles I'd had in my current job, what
| technologies and practices I had used, some highlights of
| major projected, etc. I didn't read it word for word but
| just having it up on my screen during phone interviews
| helped. Before in person interviews I'd review it a few
| times.
| tokamak-teapot wrote:
| I come across as one of these people and I do minimal
| practice of what I'm going to say, maybe thinking about what
| I want to say as an intro - and that's it. Most of my
| thinking is done while building slides that I use as cues for
| what I want to talk around.
|
| I can't be sure of course, but I would guess that the reasons
| I get away with very short prep time are:
|
| 1. 99% of the time I know the subject inside out, because I
| wouldn't be able to do my job if I didn't, so that is already
| covered.
|
| 2. Sharp focus on prepping exactly the right things - and
| nothing else. If I'm trying to get a point across, that's the
| bit I need to make sure I've considered - what the obvious
| holes are in my argument, how I would answer the obvious
| questions, etc.
|
| I'm definitely not the smoothest presenter, but I do get
| great feedback (and am still surprised considering I feel
| like I'm cheating by not spending hours in prep) so if you
| are already armed with deep and broad general knowledge in
| your area, maybe going for the laser focus on the specific
| points that you really care about and then 'winging' the rest
| might work for you too.
| deepGem wrote:
| It may not be preparation for that particular interview or
| task but there is preparation elsewhere that's paying off
| here in the interviews. Perhaps even sub conscious
| preparation.
|
| One such preparation happens at school when you prep for
| debates and speeches. This may not be apparent at that time
| but I see those who are very coherent in interviews have had
| some debate prep in their schools or colleges. Just quoting
| an example. Any public speaking prep actually helps in
| stitching together multiple ideas as you are talking and as
| you converse and do it in a coherent way.
|
| I really wish many people had these skills. Most of the
| meetings I sit in, people take 30 mins to convey what should
| ideally take like 10 mins. 20 mins is just blabber.
|
| The other counter intuitive prep that personally helped me
| was GMAT verbal. What started as pure hatred turned into a
| treasure trove of brevity and coherence. Especially the
| reading comprehension aspects. A month or two you spend
| through that exercise really helps in the long run. You get
| pretty good at communicating your ideas coherently.
| edmundsauto wrote:
| Preparation not only gives pre-baked answers, it gives you a
| chance to practice coming up with those answers.
|
| And as with all human things, natural aptitude varies.
|
| Preparation is all you can control, however.
| willidiots wrote:
| I spend a lot of time thinking about important conversations
| beforehand, and the directions they could take. I'll pace
| around the house for half an hour talking to myself,
| practicing speaking. This has proven helpful in my job, which
| involves a lot of meetings and conversations.
|
| To the original commenter's point, you don't want to
| _memorize_ your answers, you just want to explore these
| conversational avenues and test-drive what you might say,
| seeing how it sounds, what positions are more defensible,
| what topics to avoid. This is the skeleton of the
| conversation you 'd like to achieve, the "plan".
|
| Of course no plan survives contact with the enemy. When
| conversation gets spontaneous / goes off the rails, I try to
| detach and control my emotions. Sit for a few seconds,
| consider what you're about to say before speaking, and be
| straightforward and honest.
| 121789 wrote:
| I thought I was the only one who did this (the pacing and
| practicing conversations). I am surprised at how often it
| pays off
| blowski wrote:
| There's an article about Boris Johnson's bumbling talking
| style, and how it's all a schtick.
|
| Before he was even London Mayor, so had fewer repeat
| listeners, a journalist went to three of his speeches in the
| same year. In each one, Boris arrived and apparently didn't
| know where he was. He then made a brilliant speech with the
| same "ad-lib" jokes, mixed up his reading notes at the same
| point.
|
| Making public speaking look effortless takes a lot of effort.
| drBonkers wrote:
| I'd love a link to this if you have it.
| blowski wrote:
| I think it might have been this, though it's only two
| speeches and 18 months apart here.
|
| https://reaction.life/jeremy-vine-my-boris-story/
| larrywright wrote:
| This is actually a symptom of ADHD, something to do with
| working memory I believe.
| sleepdreamy wrote:
| This is me. I work in IT(Not Coding) but we still get fairly
| technical questions etc all day. I have no issue going into a
| tirade about issues I faced recently at work, the way PMs
| work with the team bla bla bla. I am a naturally good
| conversationalist. My fiancee on the other hand is the polar
| opposite to me and has to prepare when speaking in front of
| people. She is very shy. Some people are lucky, many are not.
| It's totally normal to prepare for that sort of thing from
| what I've read. I'm just lucky
| wnolens wrote:
| You prep for what you're weak at.
|
| I spend all my time practicing stupid coding questions since
| I'm prone to screwing up easy ones (I can get em all, just
| need more time and less pressure).
|
| But I NEVER practice behavioral questions, nor system design.
| And consistently blow those out of the water. The bar is low
| in a tech interview, and my personality means that I've had a
| lot of experience having spontaneous conversation in my life,
| piecing together coherent narrative on the spot.
| jstanley wrote:
| Waste disposal. You can always put sewage in the bin, but you
| can't empty your bins into the sewage.
| blowski wrote:
| First time I gave a presentation, an experienced speaker
| congratulated me afterwards. I said that I'd had to rehearse
| the talk 5 times before I gave it. He said he still rehearsed
| his 10 times.
| lkxijlewlf wrote:
| > If you answer immediately, you will "ummmm uhhh" a lot. Learn
| to take a breather and buy time.
|
| Not just in interviews (I don't interview that often), but just
| in general, I've trained myself to smile and say, "That is an
| _interesting_ question! " (and subtle variants so I'm not a
| robot). It buys me a second or two if it's not that hard, and
| even more if it _is_ a hard question because now they know I 'm
| thinking about the answer and, well, that is okay.
|
| Edit: And it often buys you points, so to speak, with the
| person asking.
| scrozier wrote:
| Seems like a good technique, but boy, is that overused these
| days. Let's face it, not all questions are that interesting.
| Seems that a lot of people start with that, robotically.
| gknoy wrote:
| I can see how it might get old hearing that a lot, but when
| I look at the suite of tech screen questions we have here,
| several of them are basic under the hood (tree-building and
| traversal, string manipulation, etc). However, they all do
| have something about them that made them interesting to me
| when I did them to calibrate my interviews.
|
| Things can be interesting without being hard or novel, and
| as Aphyr's entertaining "Hexing the interview" series
| shows, you can often find something interesting for purely
| personal reasons that are separate from the question
| itself. The interesting part might be that a normal data
| structure isn't enough, or that the difference between the
| naiive solution and the performant one is substantial. It
| might just be that we might be doing a task that we
| normally use a library for (string manipulations) in our
| normal work, so it's refreshing/challenging/interesting to
| look at things from a different level of abstraction.
| lkxijlewlf wrote:
| > Seems that a lot of people start with that, robotically.
|
| Can't tell if you're trying to be an ass or not.
|
| People can use whatever they want. The point, as many
| others point out, is to come up with something you'll use
| to _not_ say, "ummm..." so much.
| lowercased wrote:
| > And it often buys you points, so to speak, with the person
| asking.
|
| I had a tech interview with some folks... 15 years ago.
| Smallish agency, and I was meeting with the owner and his #2.
|
| I got asked some question - "how would you do X?" - I think
| it was something like "build a house". Not a _tech_ task,
| just "how would you go about X". I went to a whiteboard and
| picked up the marker. Just before I started to draw
| something, I asked some questions. "Who's going to live
| there? How many people? Do they have any specific needs?"
| Stuff like that. Just a handful of questions, and I started
| answering/drawing based on their feedback. I asked a few more
| questions, got more answers, drew some more and explained
| things, then sat down.
|
| I got a job offer the next day (turned it down - couldn't
| afford me). But I was told (both by the owner and later
| someone else I met who worked there) that I was the only
| person they'd interviewed who'd ever asked any clarifying
| questions before answering.
| kube-system wrote:
| > If you answer immediately, you will "ummmm uhhh" a lot. Learn
| to take a breather and buy time.
|
| Some of the best advice I've ever gotten for this was: If
| you're pausing to think, just be silent. Practice for a while
| and have someone call you out on it. It's a hard habit to
| break, but someone who doesn't fill space with "um" will sound
| twice as smart.
| kettro wrote:
| A coworker I had (a good friend and an _amazing_ engineer)
| would generally just pause silently and think after a
| question. It was initially off putting, and I couldn't tell
| what was happening, but very quickly got used to it. I
| started doing it myself, but start with a short "hmm" to
| indicate that I'm now thinking about the question, or just
| say "let me think".
|
| Waiting helps you ignore the impulse responses, and double
| check if you heard the question correctly, whence you can
| just ask for clarification.
|
| No one complains about a sorta slow speaker, but a frenetic
| one is hard to follow and will blurt things out.
| lostcolony wrote:
| Yep. "Hmm, give me a second to think on that" is my
| favorite pause to collect my thoughts. Take a minute to
| flip through my prepared stories, potentially think through
| ones I haven't prepared but that might fit better, settle
| on one, decide the beats I need to hit to best answer the
| question, and then "Okay. One time..."
| ruh-roh wrote:
| Using silence strategically is a superpower.
|
| Best leader I ever worked with had a "7 second silence"
| rule. Just don't say anything for 7 seconds. Requesting
| input on a topic/idea in a meeting? Wait in silence for 7
| seconds. Dropping an important point in a presentation?
| Wait for 7 seconds. Not sure of the answer to a question?
| Wait for 7 seconds. If you have doubt about what to say or
| do? Just wait and breathe for 7 seconds.
|
| It is _extremely_ difficult to do in practice. But it is
| crazy what a breather can do to help you organize your
| thoughts. Or what other people will do to fill the void.
|
| (Note: It's not a novel idea, I've seen other folks use 5,
| 6, or 8 seconds. imo 7 is _just_ on the border of
| uncomfortable.)
| grandchild wrote:
| It's an especially hard habit to break for people who are
| "Team Interrupt", because we learn to cling to the speaker
| position in normal group conversations this way. People from
| "Team Wait" are probably much more natural in staying silent
| for a second (I wouldn't know for sure, but I think I'm
| observing this in others).
|
| [1] Team Interrupt/Team Wait:
| https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/LuXb6CZG4x7pDRBP8/wait-vs-
| in...
| SenHeng wrote:
| Some good examples by Elon Musk and Steve Jobs described in
| this article.
|
| https://www.inc.com/justin-bariso/why-intelligent-minds-
| like...
|
| This was probably one of Steve Job's most impressive example.
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FF-tKLISfPE
| gcanyon wrote:
| I clicked to double check, but I knew what Jobs clip you
| were linking to. That answer is _so_ well done.
| klenwell wrote:
| On this point, there was some good practical advice in this HN
| comment that I've adopted and applied successfully:
|
| _What I did is I prepared 10 different stories about my career
| experience and then tagged them with a bunch of prompts. For
| example I have a story about one project that had dual PMs that
| experienced a lot of scope creep and eventually fizzled on
| release. I can now use that story to answer a broad range of
| questions from failure to various project management
| approaches. Overall I now have prepared stories to answer
| probably 50-75 different questions immediately.
|
| Another benefit is that I have also told these stories multiple
| times in interviews now and I get better telling them each
| time. Even if the answer isn't 100% relevant, I feel more
| confident and likely come off better launching immediately into
| a detailed story about my experience rather than trying to
| awkwardly come up with an answer on the fly. It is also easy to
| drop irrelevant parts or expand on specific details when the
| basic framework of the story is already something that feels
| natural.
|
| I will even have the document with all the prompts and story
| bullet points open whenever I am doing phone or remote
| interviews. _
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25519718
|
| I also keep a document where I'll record new or challenging
| questions after I do an interview and outline a response so I'm
| better prepared next time.
| 0xFACEFEED wrote:
| Freestyle rappers basically do the same thing! It's very
| impressive when you see it done in person; very good
| strategy.
| klenwell wrote:
| Just like Homer, haha. I guess when you think about it,
| it's all just another form of the prehistoric craft of oral
| poetry or storytelling.
| 0xFACEFEED wrote:
| A pessimist might say that this only demonstrates how
| tech interviews reward the better performance art.
|
| :P
|
| :|
|
| :(
| jvanderbot wrote:
| One step further: Choose _characteristics_ about yourself
| that you want to emphasize. Perhaps you want to be know as
| dilligent and detail oriented, or a fast mover, or a creative
| person. Then craft many stories about those points and have
| them in reserve. Chances are someone will ask a question that
| lets you bring up those qualities.
| GordonS wrote:
| This is gold, I'm definitely banking this idea. 10 suddenly
| feels like a lot of stories to come up with though :)
| MrWiffles wrote:
| One thing I'm having trouble with is anticipating the
| questions themselves. Not the technology specific ones, but
| also the generic stuff and the things that are still generic
| (tell me about yourself) but also more relevant to our
| industry and software eng roles. Any resources you could
| suggest that have worked well for you or anyone you know?
| muzani wrote:
| If you interview often enough, you'll see a similar
| pattern. Here's my list:
|
| "What's your product development attitude?"
|
| "How did you know about this position?"
|
| "How did you learn about Technology X?"
|
| "Tell me about your latest role"
|
| "Why are you switching jobs?"
|
| "What would you change at current role?"
|
| "Tell me about another project, it can be a side project."
|
| "What do you plan on being in 5 years?"
|
| "Why aren't you at senior/manager level yet?"
|
| "I see you did tech X here, and then Y. Why the career
| shift?"
|
| "What excites you?" (This is a surprisingly common question
| that throws me off. The first one I got it, I answered
| "productivity". Which was true, but it sounded like a
| bullshit answer and lost me that interview. I've learned to
| talk about AI or cooking or exponential growth and relate
| that to incremental games. This question is often a
| bullshit detector)
|
| "What advice would you have for younger you?"
|
| "What is something you've had trouble with recently?"
|
| "How would you change that?"
|
| "What's the worst mistake you've ever made?"
|
| "Why haven't you joined FAANG?"
|
| "Tell me how did you handle disagreements at work"
|
| "What's your growth plan? What do you want?"
|
| "What's your favourite design pattern?"
|
| "How do you manage tech debt?"
| klenwell wrote:
| It's the "What's your greatest weakness?" type of questions
| that always throw me. Some variations include:
|
| - What's something your not good at?
|
| - What's the biggest mistake you've ever made on the job?
|
| - Describe a time you disagreed with a colleague. How did
| you resolve it?
|
| - Tell us about a time you received some negative feedback
| from a manager and how you handled it.
|
| For these types of questions, it has definitely helped me
| to have rehearsed a little ahead of time.
| jacobr1 wrote:
| There are tons of blogs out there with example interview
| questions. If you review a few dozen, you start to pick up
| some commonalities.
|
| Another approach that has worked for in the past is a mock
| interview. Ask a fried or college to interview you and give
| some feedback.
|
| Look at job descriptions for role you are interested in.
| For each bullet point, you should able able to speak to why
| you are qualified, probably via an anecdote of a prior
| experience.
| lucisferre wrote:
| The one tip I'd give any interviewee is to take time and *pause*.
|
| Often the interviewer is looking for fairly short and concise
| answers to their questions so they can direct the flow and
| conversations to what they need to hear through further
| questions. Filling all the available air time either forces them
| to rudely interrupt you (which feels awkward) or wait for you to
| finish even though they aren't that interested in the content.
|
| As an example, if you are asked a very open ended question like
| "tell me about about role X and company Y.
|
| Start with a brief overview of the role, the company and
| responsibilities and then pause. Then if they don't immediately
| ask a more detailed question about the role suggest something.
| "Would you like to me get into some details about my most recent
| project/success/challenge?"
|
| Staying brief helps the interviewer get to what they want to know
| and eases your own burden of maintaining all of the flow in the
| conversation.
| nescioquid wrote:
| That's a good way for a candidate to help the interviewer.
| Often an overly general question sends the candidate to empty
| out their mental filing cabinets in hope of finding the magic
| word the interviewer is waiting for.
|
| If a candidate does that, I feel I've screwed up as an
| interviewer. The best interviews I've conducted turn out to
| just be conversations where we're talking shop and we get to
| know each other a little.
|
| There's so much coaching on the interviewee side of the
| equation, yet the only guidance or coaching I've seen given to
| interviewers is to shield the company from discrimination
| claims by turning in a consistent set of interview questions to
| HR.
| gkop wrote:
| This is great and I lean on it heavily when explaining
| technical stuff to a non-technical audience or low level stuff
| to an executive audience. This looks like a decent dive into
| this tactic sometimes called "headline style":
| https://blogs.cfainstitute.org/investor/2017/05/03/conscious...
| hintymad wrote:
| There are two frameworks. I'd suggest you combine both. The first
| one is STAR: situation, tasks, action, and results. The second
| one is used by product managers a lot: MECE, or mutually
| exclusive, collectively exhaustive. Use the first framework for
| your narrative with a focus on why, or so-called working
| backwards. Use the second framework to narrow down what you need
| to dive deep.
|
| I can't stress enough how important it is to work backwards and
| explain the why of your work. Too many geeks mistake claims for
| reasons, and got dragged into irrelevant details to the point
| that their work appears irrelevant too. On the other hand, the
| bigger a problem, a more impressive a solution. If you can
| articulate why you're solving a problem and why you solved it in
| the way you described, people can probably figure out the how
| part easily.
| MarkMarine wrote:
| As an interviewer, if your code is great, solves the problem
| concisely and is easy to understand, you don't need refined
| English language skills. Respond honestly to my questions and I
| don't care one but if the English isn't perfect, you can say umm
| and mmaaa all you want.
|
| I've given technical interviews to people in China who barely
| speak english, just understand a bit, and I can't speak one word
| of Mandarin. But we could communicate through a live coderpad and
| it actually worked.
| why-el wrote:
| There is a lot of advice here, all good, but also I wonder if you
| yourself were given this feedback by someone else or this is your
| own somewhat subjective opinion. I am a non-native English
| speaker myself and 6-8 years ago I've mistaken my slower recall
| of words and linguistic structure for incoherence and lack of
| "logical flow", but this is not true at all. Your language will
| get better and so is your confidence, and a qualified interview
| should (must?) not confuse the two situations.
| sintMaartin wrote:
| What I have realised is that there is no trick or shortcut to
| communicate better.
|
| You have to read more, be more knowledgeable, practice speaking
| and writing, then you will have more intelligent things to say.
|
| Also the fear of making mistake is what holds back. To let
| creativity flourish you have to let yourself go, not be afraid of
| being wrong, not be afraid of opening up or be judged. For that
| you also need to have sincere good intentions and straightforward
| life that is not based on lies. Then there is nothing to be
| afraid of from spilling your thoughts. As you do it more, you
| learn that opening up produces good results, and people don't
| judge you as much as you thought they would, this creates
| feedback loop which extinguishes your anxiety in future. This is
| why talking to different people that force you to open up and be
| transparent also helps to unblock that blockage.
|
| I see that a lot of people have basic hangups about opening up
| deeply. And it does more bad than good. I'd be much more likely
| to accept the person when he is upfront about his worries, than a
| mr. perfect who is stonewalling every question and answers them
| the way he is expected to answer, but not in a deeply truthful
| way.
|
| Nobody is perfect, we just want to work with real humans, not
| robots. Opening up about your imperfections provokes empathy.
| Selling yourself too strongly provokes skepticism.
|
| As for the interview, the reason you seem unconfident is because
| you are unconfident. That means most likely you are trying to
| pretend to be someone you are not.
| crispyambulance wrote:
| Mostly agree, however, it's NOT necessarily the case that the
| OP is "trying to be someone they're not".
|
| Communication takes practice and experience. Not everyone has
| enough of that and it's especially hard for folks who are not
| using their native language.
|
| One thing that helps, in many scenarios, is to "take turns"
| driving the discussion. The OP could be more forward about
| asking questions and making commentary. It's never all about
| "logical flow and coherence". It's more about opening up a line
| of inquiry with the other person and relating to them on a
| human level.
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