@jpsays I'd actually go farther and say that self-awareness is the most important thing that I'm looking for in an interview. Nearly everything is teachable if someone is honest about their weaknesses and open to feedback and improvement.
@jacob what? Really? People actually say „I don‘t make mistakes“? I conducted may be 50 interviews or so and I never came across someone as blunt as this person.
@afuerstenau I've not interviewed someone who's been that direct, but I've absolutely talked to people who won't admit to any real mistakes. I often ask about disagreements (https://jacobian.org/2021/feb/11/interview-questions-disagreement/), and often candidates will only bring up issues where the disagreement was that someone else was wrong. I'll push for a situation where they were in the wrong, and they won't have one, or will deflect, etc. This guy is like 20% worse than I've seen but entirely believable.
@jacob reminds me of the question along the lines "isn't it unfair that being rude on public transit may have been the reason I didn't get a job I feel entitled to?"
especially in the update where the writer wishes their university career services had told them not to be rude to janitors, receptionists, etc. at job interviews. Because evidently they needed that lesson and think it's someone else's job to give it.
@jacob I chuckled at the title alone, but oh boy it was a dumpster fire!
“I don’t know if it matters but I’m male and everyone I interviewed with was female.”
Ok buddy… I think ultimately it was probably Taylor Swift’s and the Spice Girls’ fault.
@jacob We're seeing letter from one man but I'm sure the grandboss has seen 100s of the like, and personally that's the infuriating part. This guy's not alone, not the first, and not the last.
@mariatta indeed. My experience is that it's rare to be this ... extreme — but even once is too much. Far more common though is a toned-down version of this attitude. "Tell me about a time when you were wrong" is one of my go-to interview questions for a reason, it's a very strong weed-out question.
@jacob@offby1 I tried reading this three times in a row, and I just cannot manage to read this in a non-satirical tone. "which I aced"? ""since I actually went to school for it"? "explain why her question was wrong"? "clearly some kind of middle manager"? I would struggle to write someone this unsympathetic
@jacob@offby1 I don't think I've ever had an interview like this. I definitely have met people like this in the industry, but I just kinda assumed that they'd have a sense of self-preservation and could keep their lamp under a bushel, so to speak, until they'd entrenched themselves. It is a little eye-opening to see that there are people who really are this non-self-aware all the time
@jacob@offby1
thank you for cluing me in to the comments - I was happily abiding by my "never read the comments" rule, but the comment section here is great
@bengerman yeah, AAM's comments are consistently good. It's one of the few exceptions to "don't read the comments" on the web. Allison does a good job moderating, and has built a strong set of community norms and expectations over the years (decades, almost) she's been writing the column.
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