

Job Search: Interview Disasters Revealed By Employers - eroach
http://roachpost.com/2010/02/25/job-search-interview-disasters-revealed-by-employers/

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xenophanes

      --  Candidate wore a business suit with flip flops.
    

God, who cares?

    
    
      --  Dressing inappropriately - 57 percent
    

If dropping your dress code expectations will increase your potential hire
pool by over 50%, that is a serious competitive advantage over more stodgy
companies.

~~~
radu_floricica
It's not about the suit, it's about the message. As an employer you want to
hire people who make an effort, and want to avoid people who can't be bothered
to. Dressing well for an interview is so obvious it's actually a pretty good
way of sorting candidates.

This may apply less for programmers and high-end technical positions, but this
is the exception not the rule.

~~~
pg
What you're overlooking is that attention is a limited resource. Someone who
pays attention to how they dress has thereby paid less attention than they
might have to something substantive.

So not only don't we care how people dress at YC interviews, dressing up is
actually a (minor) red flag. We'd rather you spent that effort on something
else.

~~~
radu_floricica
In certain domains this applies (and indeed, given the blog's background it's
on the mark). But in large segments of the job market I still think it's
important to dress reasonably well.

Even if attention is a limited resource, the interview usually is a place
where first impressions matter, so I'd say budgeting some attention towards
looks is not misguided at all.

~~~
pg
You're right that dressing well matters in large segments of the job market.
But I'd argue that this is a pretty good heuristic for deciding which segments
of the job market to avoid.

~~~
radu_floricica
That is true. However there still remain the entry-level interviews. When most
of what you sell is potential every detail under your control matters.

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boredguy8
We're going through panel interviews right now, and a lot of that article is
rubbish, as others have pointed out. But I want to tease out the "don't be
negative" because it's got the reasons wrong.

"Also, no matter how tempting it is, don't say negative things about a
previous employer, regardless of how the job ended - hiring managers may fear
that you will say the same things about their organization."

That's not why you don't say negative things. You don't say negative things
because it means you blame other people or you're a negative person. You say,
"I don't like my current job because they don't listen to me," and all I hear
is that you don't have very good ideas, you're very bad at explaining those
ideas, or your disconnected from the people you work with. And on top of that,
you don't understand how to solve interpersonal problems. None of that make me
super excited about you.

Instead try realizing that you might bear some of the blame for the things you
don't like, and realize the other party might have good justification. So
instead: "I find myself getting excited about very different opportunities
than my current coworkers. They have a real passion for solving the immediate
problem whereas I'm far more interested in solving the underlying cause. So
while I appreciate their desire to provide a quick solution, and have even
learned when that can be appropriate, I'm really looking for an environment
that emphasizes long-term thinking while still making sure customer needs are
met as quickly as possible."

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CoryOndrejka
Pretty clear BigCo corporate bias in these results, as this would likely be a
positive in SF/Bay:

\-- Candidate used Dungeons and Dragons as an example of teamwork.

The meeting for drinks also cracked me up, as Linden ended many a job
interview with drinks at the end of the day!

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radu_floricica
I wish there was a way to link to my younger acquaintances just this part:

    
    
        --  Dressing inappropriately - 57 percent
        --  Appearing disinterested - 55 percent
        --  Speaking negatively about a current or previous employer - 52 percent
        --  Appearing arrogant - 51 percent
        --  Answering a cell phone or texting during the interview - 46 percent
        --  Not providing specific answers - 34 percent
        --  Not asking good questions - 34 percent
       

Edit: This and not re-reading the CV 3 times before sending it.

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angelbob
This is an excellent summary of the kind of things a company should worry
about only if they can't actually measure performance.

Though "appearing disinterested" should still be a huge turn-off.

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warfangle
Funny, the most common thing I've seen in candidates getting rejected promptly
is not being able to answer basic questions about things they've listed on
their resume. Example: listing Java and not understanding what an interface
is.

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vital101
The author made a point about researching the company before the interview. I
always thought this was common sense (why are you applying with this company
anyways?), but apparently it isn't.

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jacktasia
I am curious how many of these became "disasters" for the interviewer because
the interviewee had already reached a point where they considered the
interviewer/company/etc. a disaster (no longer wished to work there).

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pw0ncakes
_\-- Candidate used Dungeons and Dragons as an example of teamwork._

That's a negative? WTF? There's a hell of a lot more interesting in the way of
teamwork, management, etc. in role-playing games (especially MMORPGs) than in
most corporations.

~~~
sounddust
On the flip-side, I once had an interviewer ask me to solve a problem where
several hurdles/criteria were introduced randomly based on rolling a 20-sided
die.

~~~
wlievens
That's pretty awesome. What kind of company was it?

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lucifer
And at this late stage the realization comes that reciting poetry in
interviews was the silent assassin of my career! Just the other day I was
asked to explain a concurrent design and I just couldn't help but recite the
immortal words of Halyna Krouk:

    
    
        Two couplets and a refrain
                                                  a carousel
                                                                 of non-stop passing
        at each turn one more door closes before us
        with a rusty whinny
        legless horses tear into the prairie –
        racing
        two couplets and a refrain
                                                  eyes gaping
        two couplets and a refrain
                       catching up from hind to front
        reach out to me
                                                  throw me the lasso of a glance
        who made us so hopelessly distant
        who conceived us such irreparable losers
        on this overplayed record
                                                  – two couplets and a refrain –
                   where even love leaves only scratches

