[markburns]

> Does anybody believe you when you say those things in a job interview, though? I wouldn't. A job interview is fundamentally a competition against other candidates.

I think you are being a bit negative. Why not believe the interviewer? It seems pointless to trick candidates by suggesting they are safe to look things up, then secretly judging them worse than other candidates. I would judge more harshly someone who didn't ask if they could look something up, or assumed they couldn't. Particularly so if they had been told they could but then proceeded to struggle and not look something up or ask the interviewer. I'd rather someone I may work with have a relaxed attitude and inherent curiosity rather than a paralyzing fear of failure.

Also viewing it as fundamentally a competition is focusing a lot on the negative perspective from your side. An interview is about finding a good match between a company and an employee. It can be just as much about you finding somewhere you want to work as it can about them comparing you to other candidates.

There may not even be other candidates, and they could be trying to make you comfortable and give you an idea of what it would be like to work together. Maybe suggesting that they do understand the cognitive dissonance and they do understand that interviews are stressful and hence no need to add additional pressure.