Timeline for How to respond to overly specific technical questions in an inteview?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
9 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Oct 21, 2013 at 23:10 | comment | added | Kaz | If I was in an interview in whcih I was nothing but grilled on the details of some API that I don't know, or not very well, I'd just put an end to the process and say, "clearly, from the pattern of this interview, it looks as if the position calls for someone who is already an expert in this API and can be productive immediately in that narrow application area. It is obvious that I am not that person, so I don't see a point in continuing the interview. Do you have another position? | |
| Apr 5, 2013 at 21:54 | comment | added | Kaz | Who cares if you become the candidate that does not know? There will be other interviews. If they grill every candidate with these very detailed API questions, they will find that every candidate is the candidate that does not know. | |
| Apr 4, 2013 at 12:45 | comment | added | IDrinkandIKnowThings | I agree with admitting you do not know. But if you just say you do not know to 3 consecutive questions then you become the candidate that does not know. You should really have a method for dealing with detail questions that may avoid answering the specific question, tries to get the interviewer to ask differently. Sometimes though the person interviewing does not have a technical back ground just saying I do not know is the best option. | |
| Apr 3, 2013 at 8:04 | comment | added | user | Complaining is likely to get you nowhere, at best. Offering a solution that perhaps doesn't answer the exact question asked during the interview is a very different matter. I for one doubt I'd want to work for a company which is so focused on one single way of doing something that the managers won't even stop to consider an alternative approach. ("How do you use exactly Facility X to perform Task Y in Language Z?" and "how would you approach Task Y using Facility X in Language Z?" are very different. The latter allows for using Facility ABC or even Language IJK if it is a better tool.) | |
| Apr 3, 2013 at 4:04 | comment | added | Kaz | @kolossus How many places of work are you "aware" of in this business and in what way? And, okay, so reasonable ones aren't like that but how about the UN-reasonable ones? In which category do you suppose is the workplace where OP interviewed? Reasonable or unreasonable? It does look like that place "punishes" interviewees for not being walking API reference manuals. You flunk the questions if you aren't! | |
| Apr 3, 2013 at 3:58 | comment | added | kolossus | OK I will. I'm not aware of any reasonable place of work in this business that will punish or fire one outrightly for not being a know-it-all. It's impractical and wasteful, IMO, to commit an entire body of knowledge to memory for the purposes of regurgitation. It's like trying to memorize the logarithmic tables. Why do it? | |
| Apr 3, 2013 at 3:38 | comment | added | Kaz | @kolossus This is not how what works in the real world? Could you reformulate your comment to make it more effective? And what world am I in, if not the real one? | |
| Apr 3, 2013 at 3:23 | comment | added | kolossus | This is not how it works in the real world sir. | |
| Apr 3, 2013 at 1:21 | history | answered | Kaz | CC BY-SA 3.0 |