Jade's weblog

But today I want to talk about interviewing. I used to think I was an effective interviewee. I had some experience interviewing before, which gave me perspective on the other side of the table. So I thought I knew what was involved, and generally thought I understood the terrain.

But then I failed an interview I really cared about. I completely bombed it, after multiple interviews with the company. It shook me up, and made me reconsider. Maybe I wasn't that good at interviewing.

I talked with my friend Dana, who is one of the most savvy people I know at this sort of thing. I was impressed with how strategic her approach to interviewing was. She gave me some ideas of how to approach interviewing, and suggested I read up on interviewing.

So I spent some time learning about how to approach interviews, and the more I read, the more I became convinced that I had a lot to learn about interviewing. In fact, I sucked at interviewing.

One of the most important things I learned was that you have to have a plan going into an interview.

Here's my formula:

A) Find out what they want from the position. The best way to find out the answer to this is to ask, but you can also infer. Try to have three things you know they're looking for. So, for example, maybe they are looking for someone:

1) with Rails experience
2) who can help with scaling their backend system
3) and who has experience with developing social networks

B) Your main point during the interview is to make sure you cover those three points. You should have stories prepared that tell the story to SHOW that you have those areas covered. And if you know that you're weak in that area, examples of ways that you have overcome similar weaknesses in the past.

You can be absolutely sure they will ask about your current job, and maybe the job before that. People remember and respond well to narratives. Tell a story they'll remember, about one of those three points.

That's what I learned. Of course, I still messed up some of these points in my interviews, but I know I got better at it. I got four job offers within a month of focusing on improving my interviewing skills.