Re:You're Not Smiling Enough
by Simon_ORourke on Saturday September 14, 2024 @02:12AM
(#41537826)
It's a cultural thing, I know of one Russian guy recently who went for an interview for a principal dev in a FAANG company, and didn't get the role because he was too serious, no smiles, no little ice-breaking smirks, no chortles - but a deadpan response to each interview question. Sometimes, it does matter how you appear to be saying something as well as what you say.
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They don't tell you why, so it's strange to say this is the reason. At Google the interviewers write up the discussion, questions and answers, and a separate committee decides based on the feedback from all the interviewers. There is no scoring for pun quality sadly.
Yes it is rude or uncouth to bare your teeth in Russian culture but I think that sentiment is belongs to Russia alone; I could be wrong but I don’t think throughout the world there are countries where people refrain from smiling. There is a rhetorical ambiguity in saying “it’s cultural” rather than “it’s Russian cultural”.