[sesuximo]

I’ve done a lot of interviews and I want to add a few points about nervousness (As discussed in the beginning of the post):

1. 99.99% of candidates sound extremely nervous for the first few minutes. That’s fine. I think most interviewers expect it. Both the interviewer and the interviewee want to calm down, and a few min of introductory chat seems to help most people.

2. If I notice a candidate is nervous in the middle of a technical question, I try to say something to calm them down. Often people seem super nervous while doing well/sometimes people confidently do badly — Point is that nerves are not a sign that the candidate is bad, but rather a sign the candidate might be able to do better/be happier if they were calmer.

3. At least if you were interviewing with me, I’d hope candidates who feel too nervous tell me they are nervous. Maybe other interviewers wouldn’t take kindly to this, but if it leads to better/happier hiring then I’m all for it. FWIW this has only happened a handful of times in my career.

[peterangular]

Also done a ton of interviewing on both sides of the table. On 3:

There's a ton of interviewers who are on a power-trip would would potentially take an admission of something like that as a yellow or red flag. In engineering/business there's a ton of folks who have huge egos and love to rip into candidates for stuff that's small to insignificant.

Then there's the legitimate "that may just weed you out" thing. I have had to hire engineers who I know can deal with tough social situations with grace. Someone admitting openly that they're nervous in an interview isn't necessarily someone who I'd trust going glove-to-glove with execs who will bend your arm to get their way.

Anywho - maybe my reasons aren't the right ones (and they're surely not universally applicable)... but I'd absolutely not give someone the advice to show that card on the interviewee side of the table.

[Kaze404]

As much as I can agree to this, for me personally it wouldn't be worth it to work at a place where clearly defining your feelings and letting your coworkers know is seen as a weakness. In many of my interviews I've had no problem asking for a minute or two to recompose myself due to nervousness, and even though it might have led to me being rejected, at the end of the day it just means I wouldn't enjoy working there anyways.

[maps7]

For 3, I assume most people would not say they were nervous. It's seen as a negative thing and a thing to try to hide.

A lot of nerves come from the unknown. In an interview you could be asked pretty much anything. In my opinion, interviews should be about relevant experience and talking through a problem that was given to the interviewee before hand. I really wish I knew which companies did interviews like that near me.