Talking to the recruiting manager on the phone, I basically did not extrude an aura of confidence and independence.
I second guessed myself too much.
The ironic part about this is that *normally* I do not do this. On a normal basis, I am an independent thinker who backs up his assertions.
But during the interviews, for some stupid reason, I keep second guessing myself.
Examples:
When asked to design the relationships between tables (one to one, many to one, etc), I was shown a syntax that I was not familiar with. Rather than spending the 30 minutes muddling through the explanation constantly checking if I had the syntax correctly, I should have just shoved my solution onto the board right away, shown that I knew how to do the problem, and then translated it over to the syntax afterwards if requested.
When coding on the board, instead of asking "can I use this data structure?" I should say "I am assuming this data structure".
Edit: Everything below is wrong, so, umm, ignore it. For the most part.
I just got word that I did not get the job at Redfin. Redfin is providing feedback as to my performance during the interview, something which is much appreciated, and an action that leaves a good impression on me. (I'll still likely be buying a house through them in a few years! :) )
The feedback still has not arrived in my inbox, but here are some guesses as to my problems:
- Technical Performance: I was worried about the interview the night before, and was not able to sleep that well. The end result of this was that my first interview (and part of my second one) where not up to par. Indeed, I would say that even the remainder of my interview was at 80% or so efficiency. I was able to answer the questions, but not at the lightening quick rate that people who know me are used to.
- - Behavior: While my social nicities have improved to a great extent, I still am a bit rough around the edges. I am afraid that to gain my technical skills, I sacrificed a great deal of human interaction, and as such do not pick up on non-verbal clues as well, nor do I always understand social norms.
One example that Rosia was yelling at me this morning for was a situation involving writing thank you letters. I had gathered some of the interviewer's email addresses, but was so focused on the interview process, that I did not gather them all. I wrote an email to the Office Manager requesting the email contact information of my interviewers. When Rosia saw that I sent this email, she yelled at me, saying it was a stupid request that no one should follow, and that I should send my thank you letter to the recruiting manager whom I was in contact with, and that she would forward my thanks on to the team.
I am confused here, since advice in books and online says that when interviewed by multiple people, write each one an individual thank you letter. Very confusing. *sigh* In retrospect, I should have written thank you letters to the people for whom I did have contact information and who had interviewed me, the CEO, the CTO, and a thank you letter to the hiring manager as well. Of course it only took me 5 days and a half hour long argument to figure out...
Rosia says that I came off as desparate for the job, saying that she knows me and knows I am not desparate, but that the attitude I conveyed was that way.
The first mistake was arriving too early. There was ice on the roads, so I left to the interview early expecting the typical Seattle traffic problems. I did not encounter any, much to my surprise, and ended up arriving at 8:00 for an 8:30 interview. :( Of course being super focused on the interview, I went in to wait, rather than walking around the area for 15 minutes first, and then going in. Indeed I received immediate negative feedback from my recruitment manager when she saw that I had arrived so early. :(
This particular aspect of American business culture strikes me as strange. In my logical/mathematical mind, a person who is able to show up early for a meeting is a person who is able to properly run and order their life in such a way as to be able to complete their daily goals and activities in a flexible and efficient enough manner to accomplish an early arrival.
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- Worrying: This is the strangest part. People who know me know that in general I am extremely cool under pressure. When my mother attempted to commit suicide, the first thing I did (after calling 911) was to pull up online medical references and find out the effects of taking X amount of Y medicine. My entire manner was calm, cool, and collected. Was I worried? Yes of course, but my mind takes control of my emotions, and gets things done.
I am the person who always goes to sleep at 10:00pm the night before a test. I argue that a good nights sleep is more important than a few extra hours of studying.
I should have taken my own advice.
The thing is, this is actually a job that I *cared* about. I think that is what made the difference. I really love the work that Redfin is doing, and I strongly believe that it is going to have a huge impact on how American's buy and sell houses.
During typical job applications (especially at big companies), I have no clue what sort of a position I am applying to. Indeed, typically until at least the first two rounds of phone screens are over, there is not really an actual "position" being applied to. It is hard to get excited about a job that I know no details about. Tell me I am applying to a job at Microsoft to work on Tablet PC development, hey, awesomeness! Tell me I am applying to a job to develop software for possibly any of the projects at Microsoft, and sure, I am hyped about the Microsoft opportunity, but, I cannot really get into a feel for the job.
(Of course Microsoft's methodology is to take candidates onto their campus and see what group's work excites the candidate, which has its benefits as well!)
The kicker is, I am a smart. Any company that hires me is going to see some damn good work turned out at an impressive pace. I work well with groups, and I do a great job representing my team's interests in meetings, while at the same time understanding and acknowledging the compromises and agreements that need to be made between groups in order to get work done.
I just can't get past in person interviews. :`(
Note to any future potential employeer reading this: Take it as an example of my ability to do project postmortems. :)
