Engineers can’t gauge their own interview performance

Re:Engineers can’t gauge their own interview performance by edw519 on Thursday December 17, 2015 @01:58PM (#10753583)

I never cared about my own "interview performance".

But I always cared about my interviewer's assessment of me.

So much so that I've always reserved the last 10 minutes of every interview just to find that out.

They almost always ask if I have any questions, but even if they don't I ask them anyway:

Based on what you've just learned:

  - How well would you say I did in this interview?
  - How well do my skills fill your requirement?
  - Where do you see me in the first month?
  - Where do you see me in 3 years?
  - What's the first thing you'd have me work on?
  - What gaps do you think I have?
  - What are your 3 biggest concerns about me?
  - What can I do to address those concerns?

and of course:

  - What is the next step?

I have never had an interviewer afraid to honestly (or appear to be honest) answer these questions. See how easy?

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Re:Engineers can’t gauge their own interview performance by NickLarsen on Thursday December 17, 2015 @02:15PM (#10753697)

The last 10 minutes where you ask questions is a bad time to waste asking someone to judge your 3 year plan when they just met you. Most of these questions are better asked when you fail an interview and request feedback as to why.

I specifically state when I perform interviews that I will not answer the question "How well would you say I did in this interview?" The interview isn't over yet, and that's impossible to answer.

You should really spend this time to see how much you would want to work at the company. Ask about their processes, the things that would absolutely turn you off to a company or the things that would absolutely turn you on to a company and make you forget about all their other bullshit. Ask about the problems they are trying to solve. Ask about how smart the other people are who you'll be working with.

Don't waste time in the interview checking if you passed. You'll know very soon anyway and there is always the chance to get this feedback afterward.

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Re:Engineers can’t gauge their own interview performance by scott_karana on Thursday December 17, 2015 @02:19PM (#10753721)

> Don't waste time in the interview checking if you passed. You'll know very soon anyway and there is always the chance to get this feedback afterward.

I think that would be a mistake. If the interviewer isn't able to answer those questions satisfactorily, it might be a sign that the hiree isn't a good fit. Nobody wants to change jobs to something that doesn't work out.

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Re:Engineers can’t gauge their own interview performance by kajecounterhack on Thursday December 17, 2015 @02:22PM (#10753739)

Just to add another datapoint, some companies don't allow their interviewers to give feedback on how well you did right there. "How well would you say I did in this interview" would not be a question they could answer.

And "How well do my skills fill your requirement?" may not apply for some companies, where their interviewing practices don't look for a specific requirement but go for a more general set of characteristics.

Not commentating on whether this is effective or not, just that it is the case at several of the large companies you might imagine applying for these days.

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Re:Engineers can’t gauge their own interview performance by JamesBarney on Thursday December 17, 2015 @02:26PM (#10753780)

where their interviewing practices don't look for a specific requirement but go for a more general set of characteristics.

Translation: The specific requirements aren't explicit.

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Re:Engineers can’t gauge their own interview performance by Jemaclus on Thursday December 17, 2015 @09:59PM (#10756334)

I might point out that it's not in the company's best interest to answer any questions about your performance. If an interviewer gives you feedback, and they say something wrong, it could open the company up to a discrimination lawsuit.

You're better off asking questions about the business and trying to determine whether they're a good fit for you than you are deciding whether they're impressed by you or not. By assessing their business and their fit for you, you'll decide whether you want to accept any offer they may or may not decide to offer. If they don't offer, they weren't impressed, and they still shouldn't provide you much feedback because of aforementioned liability issues. If they do offer, then they were impressed, and you can ask those questions.

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Re:Engineers can’t gauge their own interview performance by someone7x on Thursday December 17, 2015 @02:10PM (#10753661)

When I'm an interviewee I do the same thing. Opportunities to get interview feedback are already scarce, best to maximize them with questions like this.

When I'm interviewing, I always do a portion at the end to tell them at least one thing that impressed me and one thing that gave me pause.

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Re:Engineers can’t gauge their own interview performance by woebtz on Friday December 18, 2015 @02:22PM (#10760364)

That's an incredibly empathetic approach to interviewing, I'll try to keep that method in mind. I tend to be overly critical to a fault.

How do you phrase or bring up your praise/concerns?

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