Friday, April 23, 2010

Confessions of a Summer Intern interviewer

I am currently interviewing students for a summer internship on my team at Yahoo! Interviewing these "youngsters" always makes me think back to my days when I was just getting started. I also think about how dumb I was in interviewing back then.

Having interviewed many people over the years patterns have emerged for those interviewees that are likely to move on and those that are not. Here are a few pointers for those interviewing for positions:

Don't be over eager!

I just interviewed an undergrad student who ends most of his sentences with exclamation points! And who confided in me that Yahoo! is his absolute dream job. Engineers are pretty sober people. "Just the facts Mame". We are also pretty sincere people. Nothing expresses insincerity more that being too eager.

Don't BS

Another fellow insisted on spending the entire phone screen spouting every buzzword surrounding web application development that there is. However he never said any thing concrete. Don't talk about technology, talk about what you have done with technology. What problems have you solved? What problems have you run into? Be concrete.

Don't talk too much

This is related to the BS recommendation. One of the key skills of an engineer is the ability to listen. If your talking too much, then you are not listening.

Don't interrupt your interviewer

Even if you know exactly what your interviewer is about to say, don't interrupt him. Find an opening and politely inform him or her of your familiarity with the topic. Or better yet don't say anything at all. This is a pet peeve of mine.

Be prepared

You have certainly done one or two projects that have interested you. Be prepared to describe your project succinctly. What technologies did you use? Why? What mistakes did you make?

Remember why you love your field

There are things about your work that you thought were really cool. Bring that out. This doesn't conflict with the "over eagerness" warning since this is sincere.

Be yourself

This is so hackneyed that I won't go into it. You know what I mean. Be a geek.

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