<story><title>Unpacking Interview Questions</title><url>https://jacobian.org/series/unpacking-interview-questions/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>obviouslynotme</author><text>Explain a Topic At Multiple Levels - This is an excellent question. Communication is an underrated skill in most tech teams. They just complain that others &amp;quot;don&amp;#x27;t get it.&amp;quot; The ability to understand others&amp;#x27; points of view and interests and communicate with those in mind is important.&lt;p&gt;Tell Me About a Project You Led - This is another good one. A good related question would be, &amp;quot;What leaders have you had in the past that you admired?&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion - I don&amp;#x27;t like it. I support all three, even without the business bonuses. However, the jargon in that community is vast and quickly changing. There&amp;#x27;s also potential for unintentional landmines. Worse, no sane person on Earth today is going to walk into an interview and tell you they hate those things.&lt;p&gt;Tell Me About a Disagreement - This is another good one. Conflict is present anywhere two or more people do anything. Conflict resolution is a big part of the workplace and how well you do in it. For leaders, you should also add followups on how they help mediate conflict.&lt;p&gt;The Weakness Question - This question is famously poor. In a frictionless vacuum where no one is swayed by concretions, it seems like an excellent question. Everyone has weaknesses that they have to work on. It is the central mechanism of improvement. In practice, you are going to pull in unconscious biases that shouldn&amp;#x27;t but will effect your decision. Worse, you will lose strong candidates that will see you even asking this question as a red flag. I strongly recommend never asking any version of this question in an interview.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>frongpik</author><text>DEI questions is a good way to select people that can lie with a straight face. Not disclosing your cards is a valuable skill for managers and to some line employees. Weak candidates bluntly speak their mind and tell more than you ask for. Average candidates conceal their true podition in a cringy way. Strong candidates can smooth talk on the plain speech level and crack impolite jokes in such a way that only few would understand.</text></comment>
<story><title>Unpacking Interview Questions</title><url>https://jacobian.org/series/unpacking-interview-questions/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>obviouslynotme</author><text>Explain a Topic At Multiple Levels - This is an excellent question. Communication is an underrated skill in most tech teams. They just complain that others &amp;quot;don&amp;#x27;t get it.&amp;quot; The ability to understand others&amp;#x27; points of view and interests and communicate with those in mind is important.&lt;p&gt;Tell Me About a Project You Led - This is another good one. A good related question would be, &amp;quot;What leaders have you had in the past that you admired?&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion - I don&amp;#x27;t like it. I support all three, even without the business bonuses. However, the jargon in that community is vast and quickly changing. There&amp;#x27;s also potential for unintentional landmines. Worse, no sane person on Earth today is going to walk into an interview and tell you they hate those things.&lt;p&gt;Tell Me About a Disagreement - This is another good one. Conflict is present anywhere two or more people do anything. Conflict resolution is a big part of the workplace and how well you do in it. For leaders, you should also add followups on how they help mediate conflict.&lt;p&gt;The Weakness Question - This question is famously poor. In a frictionless vacuum where no one is swayed by concretions, it seems like an excellent question. Everyone has weaknesses that they have to work on. It is the central mechanism of improvement. In practice, you are going to pull in unconscious biases that shouldn&amp;#x27;t but will effect your decision. Worse, you will lose strong candidates that will see you even asking this question as a red flag. I strongly recommend never asking any version of this question in an interview.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>LordHumungous</author><text>&amp;quot;Tell me about an experience mentoring someone.&amp;quot; would probably get better responses. Ask about DEI directly and people will just recite the woke handbook, whether they believe it or not.</text></comment>