[tfigment]

Frankly, what you just wrote is what I want to hear in an interview. That you were first and the team grew around you and if mistakes were made how what would you do differently. To me, the company/team talk eats away at the limited time in the interview and doesn't generally matter since we are not hiring your company but how you helped is very relevant.

I will slightly demerit people if I have to resort to asking what they individually did as opposed to the team and a lot if I still don't get a good feel for it. I realize at large companies it can be hard since you might be the guy that maintains a small section of a website but I prefer upfront honesty to having to sort it out with more questions.

[Klathmon]

I feel I do great during the interview, it's just getting to that point is where I'm struggling. Writing that out seems to really bring out a part of my brain that makes it always feel braggy. (I really think it's the fact that during a conversation I have realtime feedback on what the interviewer wants and what parts I should focus on)

I'm "full time" looking for a job at the moment, and it's rough with how much of "nothing" you get back. A lot of no responses, no way to gauge how i'm doing, and even when rejections come in there's no information along with them to help me understand why or how to improve.

I'm trying to learn to write about myself more and feel more confident in writing about what i've done and that I really feel I was an integral part of the success of the things i've been a part of, but without any kind of feedback I'm constantly second (and third!) guessing literally every word.

[devonkim]

A recruiter I respect said that the interview process is the most egotistical, selfish thing we do as professionals and it does the process a disservice if you do not follow it as such. Selling yourself to your peers and to those that want to hire you is important for the accuracy and precision of the hiring process if your contributions are not self-evident.

Getting good feedback is definitely one of the hardest parts though and thus makes getting better at interviews tough without good mentorship / network. Heard of a guy that was one of the top n TopCoder engineers and was having trouble landing a solid gig. Turns out he’d just zoom through the whiteboard problems, hardly talk, and interviewers were just weirded out. When he started slowing down and explaining his thoughts better to the panels he finally got the offers he deserved.

[lugg]

> A lot of no responses, no way to gauge how i'm doing, and even when rejections come in there's no information along with them to help me understand why or how to improve

If you don't come out of an interview and know you have an offer coming your way: assume you have no offer coming your way. It's usually very obvious and both parties are trying to say your hired without actually showing your cards. It's kind of a funny dance.

Your problem, where you feel you have no feedback is a problem but it's most likely a problem with you.

You need to be asking for feedback if you're not getting it. Get blatant if you have to.

What do I need to show you to get an offer today? What are you looking for? Your job ad didn't clarify on this this and this, can you spell out exactly what you're looking for in me today?

You're not really responding to my answers, is there something I'm not explaining well enough? Feel free to interrupt and get me to clarify, this point is important to me because it illustrates this skill which I think is important as a developer, do you agree, disagree or don't believe me? Why? What facts do you need me to spell out?

If you think it's on them to figure out how to be good at interviewing, you're right, it is, but that doesn't help you get a job offer today.

[Klathmon]

I just wanted to follow up and let you know that I really took this advice to heart while applying to a few companies after reading it.

I just accepted an offer at a great company, and I do think that it was in part because of the advice you gave me here, so I wanted to say thank you.

[tbomb]

One of my go-to closing questions in interviews is to ask them if they have any concerns/doubts about hiring me for the role.

So far I've gotten pretty good and honest feedback from it. It also gives me an opportunity to explain myself and/or try to turn around any doubts.

[Klathmon]

I appreciate the advice, and i'm going to try taking this to heart.

It's funny how i've been on the other side of the interview many times, and all the advice I'm hearing here rings true, and I know it is, but I just seem to have this blocker where I'm judging myself too harshly in all the wrong areas.

Regardless, I really do appreciate it, and i'm going to try and be more blatant and firm in this process.

[blattimwind]

> You need to be asking for feedback if you're not getting it. Get blatant if you have to.

Also consider that at that point it's completely risk-free. If you just leave, you're not hired anyway, so regardless their response, you can only win from there.