

Ask HN: Should I continue working on this? - hschool

I have been working on http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.phoneinterviewme.com&#x2F;. Its a tool to help developers prepare for phone interviews. The way it works is you sign up and pick a time to be called. You get a call on your phone and the automated call asks you questions similar to what you might get during an actual interview. Once the call is over, you can go back and listen to how you did during the interview.<p>I got some people to sign up. I wanted to speak with some of the users to get their feedback, but none of the users that signed up replied to my email. This gave me the impression that it was not a helpful tool to begin with. I even offered to do free mock interviews, but none of the users that signed up were interested.<p>I recently came across
https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=6389293 and it seems a lot of developers suffer from freezing up during interviews. Would a tool like this help? Should I continue working on it?
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cprncus
You should expand the logic to allow the user to press buttons to change the
"mode" of interviewer instantly. Say they start off with "Standard", and the
voice utters the, "Tell me what your greatest weakness is?", etc.

Then the user presses the 7 key. This puts the interviewer in "ill mode",
where they start coughing and wheezing a lot into the mouthpiece. The voice
becomes nasal and garbled, and the interviewer takes up a lot of the interview
complaining.

The user then presses *9 and puts the interviewer into bizarre mode. He
suddenly says, "Just who do you think you are? This is my bat, my ball, and my
field, and I make the rules when I have the bat. My bat." The interviewer than
starts singing "Danny Boy" and then moaning, almost imperceptibly.

~~~
AznHisoka
I'd pay $1000 for that killer feature. OP, take note.

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georgecmu
This doesn't sound like a useful service. Problems that people have with
interviewing on the phone are not that they can't hear the question that's
being asked. They mostly stem from the fact that interaction space with the
interviewer is so much more limited.

Your service does not simulate a phone interview -- there's no ability for
your automated service to interpret and judge responses and to provide
feedback.

I suggest you pivot into setting up mock interviews between developers. They
can interview each other getting valuable practice and then rate each other on
interview skills on both sides of the fence; your value is in \- setting up
developers with each other and tracking their info/scores if they do more than
one interview \- providing interview scripts and questions to guide them

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hschool
You are right. Since its an automated system, you can't get follow up
questions. You can only practice by replying to a script. I believe this is
the biggest drawback with my approach. I was thinking of it as a way to build
your confidence by actually hearing yourself on the phone after the interview.

I like the idea of having developers interview each other. Thanks!

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ada1981
Also - your landing page could use some work. It's not that clear what you are
offering - the image is not really useful. I'd use a headline like "Who else
wants to effortlessly ace their next phone interview?" Then something like
"never freeze up again, sign up for a free 30 minute prep interview for
developers and get domain specific questions and a detailed review."

On the sign up, let them pay $30 (or whatever) for access to unlimited calls,
100% refund if they don't get a job in 90 days, and have the option to get the
call for FREE if they agree to a post interview debrief with you about the
service (or even an automated form response).

You can also cross sell resume services, tips and coaching, all sorts of
things.

~~~
hschool
Thanks for your feedback. I will work on it.

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shawnreilly
I would recommend getting some in-person customer validation. Since your
customers are developers, I would goto the local Tech Meetups and talk with
other developers about your product and the pain point you're solving.
Performing the customer validation face to face will probably make the
interaction more genuine, and you'll probably get more feedback. It's sad to
say, but sometimes the virtual feedback process just does not work out, not
enough incentive for the customer to invest the time to provide feedback. Good
luck!

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ada1981
Can you build feedback into the app from the start? This sounds like a good
idea but you will have to market it. You might try having people agree to a
follow up call after the interview to get feedback from them before they do
the interview.

Do you have their phone numbers? Call them directly. Your email might have
gone to the promotions tab... I wouldn't give up so quickly.

~~~
hschool
I have their email addresses. I offered to do free mock up interviews for
them, but no one was interested. It could be that they didn't need the service
and were looking to use it once it became available.

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1123581321
I had this idea awhile back and did some mock interviews manually on Fiverr to
see what demand was like. The only interested people were young developers
with heavy accents and were concerned about being understood by the
interviewer. I decided to pursue a different idea, but I think there is a
market.

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ada1981
This might be good reference material: [http://www.girafferesume.com/giraffe-
mock-interview.php](http://www.girafferesume.com/giraffe-mock-interview.php)

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nodata
> but none of the users that signed up replied to my email

From how many people?

~~~
hschool
I sent an email to around 30 people. I have been following the lean startup
advice of getting feedback from users to develop the product. I was about to
abandon developing since I couldn't even get them to talk to me for about 20
minutes.

~~~
nodata
I don't think no replies from 30 people is unexpected - unless you made it
clear that you would be contacting them for feedback when they signed up. I'd
probably shoot them a personal one line e-mail asking them one more time.

