Do You Ever Feel Like You're Competing With Your Interviewer?
Obviously, during your first year of going through live interviews there are a lot of things you might overthink. One thing I personally noticed is that I felt pressured to stare my interviewer directly in the eyes the entire time and ask them more questions than I was asked. I did alright during interview season, but I'm also wondering if it is seen unfavorably to take a somewhat competitive approach to interviews. I try to be myself, which involves cutting people off during dumb questions or boring stories.
Is this considered a dickhead move or is it something interviewers respect? So I'm interested to hear what the collective genius of WSO thinks matters more in interviews - having balls and being yourself, versus being polite and attempting flattery?
Yeah, brochaski, the only thing people care about is what frat you were in, K??? I don't care how long your eyes inadvertently wander towards my dick, so long as you were in a top tier frat. There is basically a quadratic function that defines the whole question and the optimal amount of time that you can stare at my dick is about 2.5 seconds if you're in a bottom tier frat, 5 seconds if you're in a middle tier frat and you're automatically hired if you're in a top tier frat. Being gay is FaF if you're top tier. Otherwise, not so much, get it???
Fuck off, dude.
how the hell did this not get more SB FratLord
Of course, trolling is a time-honored tradition here at WSO, but FratLord 's post was far under par.
First: Although @LReed 's post was borderline autistic, he was asking for help on his social ineptitude. This barrier to good networking is an important part of this site's existence. The best troll target's have an OP displaying some sort of social ineptitude inadvertently and often with huge ego.
Fratlord punched a blind kid who was asking for help crossing the street
Second: when trolling as a frat boy one be must be very careful. On the one hand, many people in finance and on this site are in fraternities. On the other, many non-traditional and non-target students use this site who are competing and/or have lost jobs to daddy's-little-dick-sucker-frat-bro's. Of course many frat-bro's are fine people, but often one bad apple spoils the bunch. Our would-be troll managed to raise prejudices on both sides of the isle, while managing to not actually offend either side, or say anything funny.
Fratlord pulled an "Amy Schumer"
Third: as an obvious top-tier fratty, Fratlord trolled himself by implying he himself is gay.
Fratlord jumped on a shovel.
Finally: Due to the above as well as his failure to sufficiently execute on WSO's time-honored tradition, Fratlord is worthy of scorn. @Money20 threw a clean knock-out punch, which we all wanted to do.
Just because someone is good at their job it doesn't mean they are a good interviewer.
I'd consider it generally best practice not to "compete" with anyone you are subordinate to unless you have an especially good relationship with them first.
I had an interview with a VP in IBD who wouldn't stop talking about a tech deal they worked on and how much they knew about the engineering behind it.
I don't know why my interviewer chose to inflate and embellish their experience but it is probably a good thing I didn't get an offer because I felt really sorry for them.
I used to work at that tech firm and I don't think I would be able to take this VP seriously as an authority figure after that interview.
Ya, if some kid cuts me off while I'm asking a question or while I'm telling a story to answer his question, I'd end the interview right there. Especially coming out of school, your goal is to be likable and to show that you have some ability to get the job done. Acting like you are running the show is going to get you dinged and depending how big of a dick you were would probably result in me making a few calls to other guys around town.
My best interview advice would be to find any connection possible. If you can talk about any sporting league in the US plus some Euro soccer then you can likely connect with most of your interviewers.
^^ This.
Not only would I not hire you, you seem like the kind of person I'd steer clear of on a personal level as well. It's not "attempting flattery", its called not being an asshole.
You cut your interviewers off while they're talking?
Bro...you're so alpha.
Jk. You're a dickhead and have no grasp on social cues.
Cutting off an interviewer shows that you're either not interested in what they're saying, don't have much of an attention span or don't have the maturity to wait your turn to speak. In no way does it display the intellectual curiosity, respect and professionalism they are looking for.
Best strategy for interviewing is being humble and answering all the questions well.
Keep in mind that you can either get the job, or compete with your interviewer, not both. I tried to think of a funny analogy to compare it to, but there is nothing funnier (or remotely related) than an inexperienced monkey shoving his ego in the face of someone 4 years his senior while competing with spoon-fed Daddy's boys from rinky-dink Ivy League schools.
Don't forget to mention that you are a transblack and that your transblack ancestors were so oppressed by white supremacy to take their own people as slaves.
This sounds like a Target School problem.
Unless you got the job, why did you even post this?
I know WSO doesn't have the most socially competent people, but I didn't realize people ALSO lacked basic manners.
It's got to be between a dead duck and a bulldog, and it depends on which types are in the team/firm/industry you're interviewing for. Imagine if you have a team of bulldogs in IB or PE, and you are like a dead duck, it just won't cut it. Reversely, in a corporate culture of dead ducks or nice people, having a bulldog is a disaster.
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