Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by peterangular 2188 days ago
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.

1 comments

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.