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Comment by EliRivers | Hacker News Reader

Apply for jobs you've no intention of taking if offered. Use them as practice. Use them to toughen up. Knowing in advance that it doesn't matter, and that you'll never see or hear from the people involved ever again, and that the final outcome - that nothing will change and you're risking nothing - might be liberating enough that you can do it.

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> Apply for jobs you've no intention of taking if offered. Use them as practice.

This runs afoul of the same mental-block when it comes to worrying about your self-identity. It's trading the possibility of "Oh man, what if they think I'm incompetent?" for the self-certainty of "Shit, I'm a horrible person who lied to them and deliberately wasted their time."

Anybody already self-assured enough to "be the jerk" probably isn't that worried about "being rejected".

This is actually kind of a bad thing to do, since you're intentionally wasting other people's time.

Companies interview multiple candidates looking for the best one, and they'll solicit applications from candidates that will never make it past a phone screen.

Why wouldn't you do the same with companies?

Companies don't go into the interview saying "we'll never hire this person, we're just talking to them for the practice".

It's fine to interview at multiple companies that you might consider taking an offer from, but interviewing at a place you know you'll say no to strikes me as, yes, wasting their time (and money, as we usually have a few people interviewing one candidate at the same time).

I believe companies certainly do interview people they don't intend to hire, to get a feel for things like what the field is like, or what the expected salary for prospects with certain skills are. I've heard there are situations where they have a person in mind for a position, but because of corporate policies they're required to post the job and interview people.

I've seen these sorts of shenanigans happen at a public university, where they already know whom they want to hire, and even create a new position specifically for them, but are required to post the job opening to their public-facing jobs website, and are forced to interview at least X number of the people whom apply.

It's never "I will never take the job". I am sure if offered 2x current salary (or 3x if work is especially unpleasant), most people will jump.

... while getting better at interviewing and saving your own time, money and career in the process.

No reason to feel bad about it especially if it is a big corp. These days employers throw careers under the bus at the whim of asshole mba's. And, no, employer's won't agree to "informational interviews" any more.

In any case no one has to know except the interviewee.

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