Re^2: On Interviewing and Interview Questions

What's one thing you're proud of accomplishing in the past year?

"Not strangling the living **** out of marketing, product management, and others who have been obviously promoted past their competencies. Why do you think I'm looking for another job?"

(Hmmm ... maybe I should be posting this anonymously.)

Translation: there can be valid reasons not to have accomplished anything in the past year. Yes, it can be a red flag, but it has to be taken in context and may not actually be a bad thing. But that's why interviewing is an artform still, and not a science. :-)

Comment on Re^2: On Interviewing and Interview Questions

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Re^3: On Interviewing and Interview Questions by radiantmatrix (Parson) on Aug 26, 2005 at 20:14 UTC
I take your point. However, I didn't say "professional accomplishments." I've hired a guy who answered "I bought my first house", as well as one who said "it may not seem like much, but I managed to finish Moby Dick". See, what I'm interested in is twofold: first, whether the candidate actually gets things done; but, more importantly, that the candidate actually realizes their own accomplishments and feels pride in them. I'd imagine it's pretty rare for people to really have accomplished nothing in the past 12 months -- but it's very common for people to think they've accomplished nothing. <-radiant.matrix-> Larry Wall is Yoda: there is no `try{}` (ok, except in Perl6; way to ruin a joke, Larry! ;P) The Code that can be seen is not the true Code "In any sufficiently large group of people, most are idiots" - Kaa's Law	[reply]
Re^4: On Interviewing and Interview Questions by Anonymous Monk on Aug 29, 2005 at 13:03 UTC
See, what I'm interested in is twofold: first, whether the candidate actually gets things done; but, more importantly, that the candidate actually realizes their own accomplishments and feels pride in them. Yes, after all, self-agrandizing jerks is exactly what I look for in co-wokers, it's true. ;-) If you haven't done anything new, unique, or well beyond what the rest of the world could have accomplished, then any pride you feel is misplaced at best, and arrogance at worst. Einstein had reason to be proud of his accomplishments. Gauss had reason to be proud. Newton had reason to be proud. Joe Coder has no reason to be proud, because he hasn't done anything to be proud of. He's just configuring a pre-existing machine with a few instructions to make it do some marginally useful tasks for a corporate chasing a few bucks for it's shareholders. When he creates an AI from scratch, then sure, go be proud of him. Until then, tell him to lose the ego, and get back to work!!!	[reply]


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