# Intro to being interviewed --- Why is this guy here? --- - Worked in 6 startups - Helped take Facebook London from 0 to 450ish engineers - To date, I've done ~700 interviews - Including multiple "batch weeks" where we ran 40+ interviews in a single week - Helped hire an entire recruitment team - Trained > 100 interviewers so far --- - Maths was my worst subject in school - I didn't study computer science or go to a fancy school - I have *bombed* in interviews more than once --- (the part with some real talk) --- Final point here (I promise!) - I've now hired 4 FAC developers - They're succeeding on a team with people from Facebook, Oculus, and Google --- - So can you. --- # What are we going to talk about? --- - The mechanics of an interview - What role you're supposed to play in an interview - How you'll be evaluated as a candidate --- ## Mechanics of hiring --- They have some work that needs doing. They define a job role to fill it. --- They pick one or more interviewers. --- They pick questions/tasks that they believe will tell them who is good. --- They source candidates (~50+) --- They do initial calls with some of them (~20) --- They interview a number of people. (~5) They ask each of these people the same or similar questions. --- They (might) debrief on the candidates. --- They compare candidates: - To their own idea of good - To their team - To each other --- They pick someone to make an offer to. (1) --- Look at how much work they have to put in to make an offer. --- - They define a job role to fill it. - They pick one or more interviewers - They pick questions/tasks that they believe will tell them who is good - They source candidates (~50+) - The have initial calls with candidates (~20) - They interview a number of people. (~5) - They (might) debrief on the candidates (~5) - They pick someone to make an offer to. (1) --- ## Being Interviewed --- Being interview starts *before* the interview --- - Research the company - Research your contact - Research the interviewer(s) (if you know who they are) --- *Before* the interview: - Try to understand what the company does - Try to understand what the role is --- Pro Tip™: Go in well informed, but don't be a show-off about it --- - You join the interview - You make some brief introductions - They (should) have some questions for you - You answer them to the best of your abilities - They give you some time to ask them questions --- But what's *really* going on? --- Hint: It's more than just answering questions good. --- What interviewers are actually looking at: --- ## The explicit content of your answers (i.e. what you said?) --- ## The implicit content of your answers (i.e. what you *didn't* say?) --- ## The interpersonal content of your answers (i.e. what's the social/emotional content of your answers?) --- ## The emotional content of the interaction (i.e. how did interacting with you make *them* feel?) --- Let's put on our interviewer socks now --- # Explicit Content - Is this answer correct/reasonable? - Does this person know what they're talking about? - Did they pass or fail on the *technical* content? --- # Implicit Content - What can I understand about them based on what they've said? - Are they hiding something they don't want to say? - Does this answer make sense for this person's level of experience? --- # Interpersonal Content - Does this person seem like a good teammate? - Are there are red flags? - Does this person's maturity match their level of experience? - How hard did I have to work to understand this person? - How hard did I have to work to be understood by this person? --- # Emotional Content - Do I feel energised or drained by this conversation? - How nervous was this person? - How hard did I have to work to do this interview? - Would I feel excited to talk with them again? --- Let's work some examples! --- Example: Q: What's something you're trying to improve on? A: I'm trying to be nicer in my communications. --- Follow-up: Q: What are you doing differently to be a better communicator? A: I've tried adding more emojis. --- Example: Q: Tell me about your favourite teammates to work with. A: I like people who work hard. My current team, no one works hard and they make excuses all the time. --- Pro Tip™: Do not bring negative energy into your interviews --- Example: Q: What's the algorithmic complexity of your solution? A: Well, I know it has two for-loops, which I think means it's O(n^2). --- Questions ---