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The Soft Skills of Interviewing

Kayla Sween on August 09, 2019

This post won't teach you how to become a "whiteboard coder," but it will help you gain some of the soft skills necessary to master the in...
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gergelyorosz profile image
Gergely Orosz • Edited

Very nice post, thanks for sharing! All of this is great advice.

Interview Your Interviewer

As a long-time hiring manager, this is such a good tip! Not only do you get to learn more about the interviewer and the job, but you also get to stand out from the crowd. I would say less than a quarter of all candidates do this. This who do, I can tell are curious, focused and it makes for a much more interesting interview for both of us.

A good question that I very rarely get asked, but would recommend others to do is ”what is the thing you like the best and you dislike the most about what you do?”. You’ll be surprised at the type of honest answers you get.

One more tip I have is be excited/interested during this session. After understanding more about the company, position and team, reflect on what things sound exciting and make you especially interested. Again, from experience, many candidates focus purely on the “dry” questions and try to keep emotions in check, suppressing even the positive ones.

Share when you’re excited or pleasantly surprised! The hiring manager is looking for people who complement the team well and positive/curious/excited people always do.

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Kayla Sween

Those are awesome tips! Thank you for sharing!

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Jason C. McDonald

Fantastic! As a hiring manager myself (among other things), I recommend all of the above.

I'd also add, don't be afraid if your nerves show a bit. It just shows the interviewer you're a real person, not an act. (In fact, half my job is to get you off-script anyway; I've learned that if the person I'm interviewing displays absolute, unyielding confidence, they invariably have an ego the size of Alaska.)

By the way, another question I like asking when I'm the one being interviewed is:

What could I learn now that would best prepare me to get started right away if I were hired?

Not only does that usually leave a good impression, but it also gives me some valuable information about what I'll need to know to do the job.

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Kayla Sween

That's great advice and a really good question! Thanks for sharing that!

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Joe Attardi

This is great advice. Sometimes we focus so much on the technical side of interviewing, grinding LeetCode, that we forget the human aspect.

In my most recent job interview, I spent almost all of my free time going through the problems in CTCI and learning all about the framework they were using. Then at the interview I didn’t even have to solve any whiteboarding problems!

That’s not to say the interview was in any way easy or not technical. There was definitely a lot of technical discussion! I didn’t prepare so much on the nontechnical side and I actually thought I blew the interview. Happily, I got an offer still. But it was an important lesson for me to focus on more than just code for my next interview.

So yes, it’s very important to focus on these other aspects of interviewing as well. You never know what you’re going to be asked!

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Kayla Sween

Absolutely! It's so easy to get caught up in the tech stuff. I don't know how recent this was, but congrats on the offer anyway! Thanks for sharing your experience!

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Joe Attardi

Thanks! This was about two years ago. I’m still working there now!

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E.J. Mason

Thank you for your thank-you-note tip! I always tell my students the same, and that their note should include specific references to topics discussed in the interview. People will sense the personal touch and feel more engaged. :)

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Kayla Sween

That’s a great touch! Thank you for bringing that up!

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sumitchawla27

Last Point - ALWAYS Send a Thank-You Note! is the best one. its at the heart of this article. Thanks

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Kayla Sween

Definitely agree 100%! 😊 thanks for reading!

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Shubham Kumar

Wow, Nice article it will be helpful in the interview

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Kayla Sween

Thanks! Glad I could help!

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Theofanis Despoudis

Nice!

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Kayla Sween

Thanks!

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Andrew Harpin

Excellent article, suggest after a week or so, collecting these suggestions and those from the comments into a cheat sheet.

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Kayla Sween

That is a great idea! I’ll do that and post it hopefully next week. Thanks!