They're amazing! Theres no escape for the nooby coursework kids!
Making yourself look like an idiot in interview
- Thread starter ringo747
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They're amazing! Theres no escape for the nooby coursework kids!
The first hour was all about my experience, goal setting, personal challenges, weaknesses, team working, examples from work projects etc. This was all good until the technical stuff started.
They gave scenario of an airport check in system and wanted the scenario of how I would approach developing a new system. i started from the requirements etc, customer meetings, refine reqs, demo/prototype, development, testing etc. After each stage all they said was "then what". So I just kept talking. They interrupted sometimes to ask to give more examples of what i was saying, asking about naming stakeholders etc. I hadn't a clue as it was so vague.
The tech questions were explain what technologies you have used and compare them i.e. .net and php, leading on to what is oo, what is inheritance, polymorph, explain compilers, what output will a compiler give, what is inside the compiler black box. Basically I think every buzz word i mentioned they used it to take everything deeper down. a lot of what I said probably was correct but it got to the stage where they were really dragging it out of me.
They gave scenario of an airport check in system and wanted the scenario of how I would approach developing a new system. i started from the requirements etc, customer meetings, refine reqs, demo/prototype, development, testing etc. After each stage all they said was "then what". So I just kept talking. They interrupted sometimes to ask to give more examples of what i was saying, asking about naming stakeholders etc. I hadn't a clue as it was so vague.
The tech questions were explain what technologies you have used and compare them i.e. .net and php, leading on to what is oo, what is inheritance, polymorph, explain compilers, what output will a compiler give, what is inside the compiler black box. Basically I think every buzz word i mentioned they used it to take everything deeper down. a lot of what I said probably was correct but it got to the stage where they were really dragging it out of me.
Associate
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- 9 Jan 2006
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- 1,440
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- Nottingham
i'm generally pretty confident in interviews and not had any nightmare ones really, i guess I've been quite lucky. i did have an argument with an interviewer though, she asked me a question I gave her an answer and she basically turned round and said that was a rubbish answer! needless to say i disagreed 
O and the bit I struggled most with what when they asked what was an OS and what does it do. I gave the normal memory management, resource allocation waffle and they just kept asking for more examples until I ran out. This eventually led on to comparisons between windows and unix and I hadn't a clue except to say unix had no registry! I couldn't think of anything else. Then of course I jumped into the what is the registry hole! Was wild for a bit as it moved onto give an overview of how you would port a program from one architecture to another and what considerations would you have to take. That was when I just gave up trying!
I had an interview once and I could tell that the guy asking the questions didn't believe a word I said. He kept looking down at my CV and I just wasn't getting a decent feeling it was going well.
Then he asked me about a talk I gave at a Boeing Convention in 2000 and something. He said he was at that talk and he didn't remember me speaking. I said thats because I didn't.
"Well why did you put it on your CV then?"
"I didn't."
"This is your CV isn't it?"
I looked at it and indeed the front page was mine but the bloody HR department had stapled someone elses to my cv.
After that it became a lot more relaxed
Then he asked me about a talk I gave at a Boeing Convention in 2000 and something. He said he was at that talk and he didn't remember me speaking. I said thats because I didn't.
"Well why did you put it on your CV then?"
"I didn't."
"This is your CV isn't it?"
I looked at it and indeed the front page was mine but the bloody HR department had stapled someone elses to my cv.
After that it became a lot more relaxed
I think its as much about the people interviewing you as it is about you. I had a right grilling last year. They had no intention of giving me the job from the outset as the recruitment company had cocked up and the starting salary was far lower than what was advertised. The IT manager spent a good 2 hours asking very personal questions about my health, my partners health, plans to have kids etc.....I point blank refused to answer as to my knowledge this is bang out of order. Subsequently he got more and more ar$ey to the point where I walked out.
Personally I think anyone responsible for interviewing potential employees needs to at least have some HR experience....sadly this is rarely the case.
Personally I think anyone responsible for interviewing potential employees needs to at least have some HR experience....sadly this is rarely the case.
Lol, quality.
Yep most interviews I have had have all been techie people and no HR type folks at all.
The easiest interview was probably for the job I have at the moment. Will be interesting to see if I am offered job after today but it was a graduate position and I don't think they will offer me what I currently am on.
I personally wouldn't work for a company that wasn't friendly in the interview, it should be as much about them selling their company to you. Also don't envy the amount of technical knowledge some of these roles require, companies sure know how to get their pound of flesh from you when there are non technical people earning more.
Soldato
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- 14 Aug 2008
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- North Sea
I always come undone big style in interviews, especially competency based questions, i.e. "Give us an example of a time you....."
The only things I can think of in reply at the time are "Of course I bloody have! What sort of stupid question is that!?" and "How in the hell do you expect me to single out one incident and talk specifics when I do it everyday!?" Then the overriding thought of "I don't want to be here, I hate this." takes over, and I wind up bumbling my way through the rest of the interview. Probably hence why I haven't had a permanent job since 2007. I can work fine under pressure, all my employers have said that, it just seems to be that one set of circumstances where nerves ever become a problem for me, and it would appear it's a fatal flaw at that.
The only things I can think of in reply at the time are "Of course I bloody have! What sort of stupid question is that!?" and "How in the hell do you expect me to single out one incident and talk specifics when I do it everyday!?" Then the overriding thought of "I don't want to be here, I hate this." takes over, and I wind up bumbling my way through the rest of the interview. Probably hence why I haven't had a permanent job since 2007. I can work fine under pressure, all my employers have said that, it just seems to be that one set of circumstances where nerves ever become a problem for me, and it would appear it's a fatal flaw at that.
i was once tipped off as to what my technical questions would be about (the interviewer knew this), yet even me knowing about it and doing more reading into it, i still waffled on about complete rubbish!
made a right tit of myself lol
made a right tit of myself lol
Just remembered more stuff they asked around drivers.. what is a driver, what does it do, what kind of things would be contained in a driver, what hardware and software is involved, how do they interact, how does a device let the OS know when it wants to do something. I mentioned polling but it was the wrong word then I was asked to describe polling. I work with SharePoint currently so how the heck am I meant to know all about drivers! Crazy stuff.
I've had 4 interviews and have got the job every time.
I've put this down to:
I've put this down to:
- Luck.
- Proper research on the company in question beforehand - in depth.
- Building a rapport with the interviewer. Luckily I've always been able to gauge people quite quickly.
- Taking time to think about questions and answering them properly.
- Turning negatives to positives.
- Huddy's interview guide.
- A quality sister who works for a recruitment firm and has walked me through each interview. Also calls me beforehand to make sure I am calm and have my head screwed on.
Soldato
- Joined
- 8 Mar 2006
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- 13,300
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- Near Winchester
Never made myself look like an idiot in an interview.
I've looked silly during dinner at an assessment centre before, I laughed quite a lot louder than I wanted to, but this wasn't for b a bank, so I wasn't being judged then.
I've also done this the second I turned up at a motors meet after hearing the end of Mike's tale of S2000 headlight washers and motorcyclists, in front of about 4 people I'd not met before. "Great, now they think I'm a complete birk."
I've looked silly during dinner at an assessment centre before, I laughed quite a lot louder than I wanted to, but this wasn't for b a bank, so I wasn't being judged then.
I've also done this the second I turned up at a motors meet after hearing the end of Mike's tale of S2000 headlight washers and motorcyclists, in front of about 4 people I'd not met before. "Great, now they think I'm a complete birk."
just think overloading..
i'd say that I'm a pretty competent programmer, am currently a senior web dev, and always found the tech questions hard, as they're always out of context, and you're expected to be an encyclopedia of terms and be able to drawl them out.
In reality when working it's never really like that...
Overloading i.e. same method names but passing different variables etc? Will be interesting to hear the feedback from yesterday. I'll be looking for them to give me some help on what could be improved etc. I am grand coding once I get into it but the theory is just so hard to spill off like you say.
My best interview was for my PhD position. It transpired as follows:
Interview (I): What do you know about liquid crystals?
Me: Not much to be honest. (Then some vague waffle)
I: OK. We can worry about that later. Do you drink?
Me: Yes
I: Excellent. When can you start?
Me: *speechless grin*
Interview (I): What do you know about liquid crystals?
Me: Not much to be honest. (Then some vague waffle)
I: OK. We can worry about that later. Do you drink?
Me: Yes
I: Excellent. When can you start?
Me: *speechless grin*
When recruiting for a new administrator in our office one of the interviewees responded to my question (which was some standard question relating to understanding the concept of line management) with a long rant about how she'd challenge authority and has often got into rows with previous managers because she has a problem with doing what people tell her.
She actually gave a really good interview other than that, but the other interviewer and I just looked at each other after she left like o_O.
We had another guy who admitted to liking to smoke a joint now and then too, lol. It's quite interesting sitting the other side of the table, you realise just how much people are affected by nerves. It's certinaly made me a much more confident interviewee.
She actually gave a really good interview other than that, but the other interviewer and I just looked at each other after she left like o_O.
We had another guy who admitted to liking to smoke a joint now and then too, lol. It's quite interesting sitting the other side of the table, you realise just how much people are affected by nerves. It's certinaly made me a much more confident interviewee.