In the Interviewer's Shoes - A More Human Approach

Introduction

Since I begin to discover the interviews world in 2016. I saw myself and many people approach interviews in systematic, robotic ways

Grind coding challenges, check past interviews experience of that company, how to negotiate your salary, and the list goes on ….

Most companies got lazy following the patterns that exist. It almost feels like a game of soulless chess between the interviewer and the interviewee

Today, I am writing these words in 2023, and not much has changed about how most companies do their interviews. The same patterns are still being followed and the candidates play the same game to crack the algorithm

Interviews ≠ The Actual Job:

You definitely heard that a lot and may have experienced it yourself. And I don't think it needs to be an exact reflection of the current job.

The reason for that is, the scope, complexity, and domain of work, colleagues, and culture, all these do change with time and scale. And if you're hiring someone only to do what you hired them for. You might not find them very flexible with inevitable changes that will happen at work

My Setup as an Interviewer:

So when I helped to design the technical interview Engineers at On Running. We were focused on not having coding puzzles (Inspired by Hiring Without Whiteboards) and no automated exercises with timers. But having an environment where we can discuss ideas, get to know the person, and write code together in a collaborative way.

Speaking of collaboration, I tend to use GitHub Codespaces if vscode is the candidate's editor of choice. Helps us to do pair programming through our session much more easily

The format is almost like reviewing a PR. So it feels very familiar with candidates with even a minimal amount of experience, as it is a thing that we do every day at work. You can see how they collaborate in their current workplace. The goal is to make an already working piece of code to be production ready

I tend to make the technical interview an hour and a half. So the candidate will have room to breathe or even take 5 mins to break just to ease the tension. The collaboration exercise usually doesn't need more than an hour or less. So they don't feel the time pressure and can feel more relaxed through our call

My approach is to always assure the interviewee through the whole session. Highlight the things that they do well. Help them if stuck. Once they get the confidence boost you’ll see the best version of them, which is what you want as an interviewer

Things I look for in a candidate:

There are two main things I look for in any candidate, anything else is just a bonus. These two things are:

Being Coachable
Being Capable

About being coachable: Many people mistake being coachable for being agreeable. And they are completely different things.

Here's an example of someone being coachable:

Interviewer: Do you think we should do X instead of Y?

Candidate: Goes through the reasons. Clarify the approach and start going in that direction. Or convince the interviewer about why Y may be better. Understands the reasoning of the interviewer and speak it back to them. All without taking anything personally.

And an example of someone who is agreeable:

Interviewer: Do you think we should do X instead of Y?

Candidate: Yes

About being capable: Here doesn't mean you need to get all the answers right. But having the ability to express your solution, revert back mistakes. Always communicate to get unstuck. And sometimes going a little beyond the scope and showing more of what you can do if time is on your side.

Things to consider if you're a candidate:

1- Don't ask boring questions: One of the most boring questions that I heard many times in interviews "What is the stack that your team is working with?"

If it doesn't have a follow-up question or a specific reason for you to ask it, I find it very boring to list the technologies and then hear "oh okay thank you". Especially if the knowledge can be easily found online, and the recruiter also provides it beforehand

I find filler questions in the interviews are the worst. As a candidate, you have in front of you someone who is in the kitchen and cooking. Get the most out of it and fill your curiosity and trigger theirs too.

Ask about things that went well this year, and things that didn't end well. A process they improved. How can you be involved in different aspects of business? What do they personally expect in their future teammates? All that will yield much fruitful conversation for you and for them

2- Be Genuine: Speaks for itself. Don't pretend to be someone you're not. I have seen candidates being rejected literally just for that because the inconsistency between what they say Vs what was found was the deciding point for candidates that didn’t perform well

3- Be Interested: Before I apply to a company or go into the interview. I always look up the history of the company, the size of the team, whether are they profitable or not, and their key products. All that will help you decide if it's a good fit for you and also will help you through the interview process immensely

4- Take this experience with curiosity, not anxiety: Go to the interview with the mindset of it's an opportunity to learn and meet new people. And discover some of how these companies work internally. Take it as a learning experience.

I know it's usually hard to do so. Especially if you're in a place where you need a job asap. But when you get yourself into this mindset one time after another it'll be more of a routine and will kick-in automatically

5- The Interviewer is your best friend: I find it very strange when I saw people complain about their interviewer and how they didn't want them to pass. I know something like this may happen. But from personal experience, I find this situation very rare.

Interviewing is expensive and exhausting. You don't know how much the interviewer goes into the interview wanting you to pass. They definitely want to fill the position and definitely want you to pass. Take this to your advantage and go into the interview with this perspective. It'll ease your interview anxiety a ton and will help you navigate the interview more easily

And Finally:

A wish that the interviewing experience evolves from the formats that they have been stuck into for years and years.

I have been in both the interviewer's and the interviewee's shoes. And I could see why it's a very difficult process for both parties. I have done my part as an Interviewer to soften it and help the candidates express themselves more. But there's a huge room for improvement to make the experience different from what we currently experience across the whole industry

Nothing in my eyes is more broken than the leetcode culture and “cracking the coding interview” These do more harm than good IMO. And I find it even discriminating against many good candidates who have huge potential. But I can make a different blog post about that

It's a hard problem to crack. Maybe one of the hardest. People are the most complex algorithm you can think of. But one of the most interesting ones all at the same time

Peace