Is recruitment process outdated or I suck at interviews | Hacker News Reader

Is recruitment process outdated or I suck at interviews

4 pointsarkniazi4 comments

Hey tech folks and technical recruiters. I'm hoping to get your attention on the recruitment process.

First about me: I have been working with a medium range company. I started as a fresh grad and managed to get into team lead role quickly. How did this happen? I am pretty good with problem solving and I was never bound to a single language or framework. And whatever was thrown at me, I did that exceptionally.

But now like after 3+ years I thought I should move on and I started going into the interviews. That's where the problem originated from me.

Most of the folks are hiring specialists and would ask nitty gritty details about that specific topic. I know most of the things being asked and have worked on them, but I haven't memorised those things like most people use to do. And as said earlier I wasn't bound to any language. So didn't felt the need to memorise everything.

But in interviews they expect me to answer to their every question. And I'm unable to clear their doubt about me.

In my company I'm known as the guy who gets the work done. Irrespective of the task and also doesn't compromise on quality. But but but ....

Am I being too dramatic Or am I being interviewed the wrong persons?

I think it might be a bit of both.

Hiring is a noisy process and interviewers try to use questions which can divide the signal from the noise with high efficiency (read: no false positives). They willingly take the risk that they will generate a lot of false negatives this way. It is sad, but I when you have such a short amount of time to get to know someone’s abilities, you have to cut some corners.

Also I think you might be a little too hard on yourself. How many interviews did you do? I would expect that except maybe for the top x%, everyone has hit or miss interviews and it might need a couple of rounds until you get the first positive result. I would assume it is like that for most people and quite normal in very competitive markets. I would say chill first and simultaneously keep preparing your stuff until you strike gold.

Thanks,

Actually I didn't wanted to memorize the nitty gritty details they ask. I thought I could just rely on my concept and problem solving but I believe I have to make preparations to get through these type of interviews.

It’s a circus like finding a rental apartment in a city. Everybody knows you are playing an artificial role but you need to be able to play it well enough so people can be sure you are “normal” enough.

Just try to look for advanced concepts in your main language, memorize some questions you experienced and maybe look only for questions that can be asked. I thought this guide had a good list:

- https://techinterviewhandbook.org/system-design/

And if you want to go in the nitty gritty algorithmic questions:

- https://techinterviewhandbook.org/best-practice-questions/

And leadership stuff:

- https://techinterviewhandbook.org/behavioral-questions/

Thanks man. Really appreciate.

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