Comment by GuiA | Hacker News Reader

Comment by GuiA | Hacker News Reader

Thanks a lot for writing this.

I don't get full blown panic attacks, but I get extremely stressed out as well during tech interviews. I think I'm a pretty good coder/computer scientist - I've released tons of open source stuff, spoken at conferences, solved many Project Euler challenges, published papers, taught people how to code, etc - but my success rate is still abysmally slow in interviews because of that.

For me, it's a mix of the stress of feeling judged, having to "impress" someone in a very short timeframe solving a problem they know perfectly and that I have never seen before, the fact that I am naturally introverted and shy, etc.

A friend of mine who works at a large tech company in Seattle told me he took Xanax before his interviews. Another friend working for a big tech company in the valley told me he'd chug a couple beers before his. Yet another friend working for a fairly large "startup" in SF recommended that I smoke a joint before my interviews.

Our industry is weird.

Our industry is very weird indeed. When I talk to people in other fields and tell them about what it's like to interview for a programming job they're really surprised. I tell them that I need to actually study for a few days before the interview because it's kind of like a final exam where you have absolutely no idea what's going to be asked.

I have difficulty when I feel I am being watched. Had difficulty even in school finals if a teacher would peer over my shoulder out of curiosity or just stand next to me. I am not quite sure it is anxiety, its as if there is a thread in my head that wont shut up saying "that guy is still over here", now if only I had a baseball bat to shut that guy up in my head it would all be fine. Finally, I just cannot think unless I am pacing.

I wish it was kosher to say this, "now if you will please excuse me and leave the room for 10 mins, then we can discuss, and hope you dont mind me taking your questions while I pace". Many have trouble with coding on the whiteboard, thats a lesser problem than these.

for me it's not really anxiety. in a way it's similar to what you describe.

for me for example it's similar things others consider impressive, i consider so trivial that when i was asked that question the last time. i just looked at them and said i dunno. there was a name for this that i can't remember, but it had something to do with underselling yourself.

another problem i noticed is that i think a bunch of problem solution, and scalability pairs in my head after getting asked an interview question. the guy who's looking at me doesn't know what's going on in my head the only thing he sees is some dude staring in the room. i heard that this is actually very common.

a friend of mine at facebook advised me to actually speak out what i'm thinking, as i try to solve the problem, but to me it almost seemed like i would insult the guy by saying a solution i know only works in certain corner cases.

in summary it's very rare that people don't get a really good impression of me after having worked with me. but exactly that is the problem. in open source you can work with anyone, but in the job world you might never even get the chance to.

> but to me it almost seemed like i would insult the guy by saying a solution i know only works in certain corner cases.

The point of the interview isn't about reaching a solution, but showing you can think and reason about the problem. You want to identify those corner cases, and reason about ways to fix your solution. Someone who can do that is a better candidate than the know-it-all who doesn't have those skills.

I feel like I'd be unable to code if I smoked a joint. I've never tried it though. I'd love to hear about people's experiences doing something like that though.

It's not like it is some foreign psychedelic experience, you're just slower and less focused. With experience that's probably mitigated as well. I suspect if weed didn't affect my motivation so much it would be fine but only thing I want to do when under its influence is sit down watch some comedy and eat junk food, until I fall asleep.

I haven't had the same experience as jaredmcateer. I often find myself more focused when I'm high - it's easier to achieve that flow state and to think creatively. Cannabis can be very helpful for seeing big ideas and thinking in modes that are different from your everyday way of thinking.

That being said, I've only been high for personal programming projects, I wouldn't be likely to smoke before an interview.

It varies from person to person, also varies with the amount smoked.

If I smoke any amount I just zone out and get paranoid, while I have friends who get high and do their discrete math homework.

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