I have worked as CTO and some other leadership positions and done my handful of interviews. In those cases, I have always tried to strike a conversation with the person, see what he likes about the software world and try to make him feel at ease (taking into account that it is an interview). If the person is especially anxious, going out to have a friendly coffee works too because it's a more neutral ground.
Not a direct answer to your question, but maybe this can lead to some meaningful conversation.
Before I switched to becoming full time developer, I used to be a musician. One thing I never quite got over from HS was stage fright. After years of dealing with this, I noticed a couple of trends that would trigger my stage fright. Often times I feel like it was brought on or enhanced by a lack of preparedness on my part. Knowing that, I was able to lessen the effects of stage fright but over time I learned, it never really goes away.
The stage fright is always there. The thing is, you get comfortable with being uncomfortable. You learn to sort of work around it. From my experience, the only way you can develop this level of comfortability is by putting yourself in the "spotlight" often.
Practice interviewing with other people. Try to change it up and maybe schedule an interview with someone you're not so familiar with. Give yourself some real stakes. Make it as close a simulation to the real thing as possible. I exposed myself to situations like that often enough that I knew exactly how I was going to feel and how I should counteract it or at least minimize my stage fright.
Trouble maker and Problem solver ⚙️🔧
Loves simplicity, hates bullshit 💩.
Productivity obsessed, avid learner 🖥🚀
Sport and outdoor freak 🧗⛰
Metalhead 🎸🤘 Father of 2 👨👩👦👦
Opinions are my own
The stage fright is always there. The thing is, you get comfortable with being uncomfortable. The only way you can develop this level of comfortability is by putting yourself in the "spotlight" often.
very well said: i guess i will print and frame it :-)
Not to be contrary, but for some folks with social anxiety, no amount of practice is going to fix that. What I would frame from these responses is the complete lack of empathy that a person could be a badass but have a genuine disorder, which makes them worthy of rejection.
I think even people with severe social anxiety can improve their ability to deal with interviews, although in some cases it may not be a good idea to do it alone. For some, it may be wise to get some professional help from a psychologist who specializes in that area.
Not everyone has to be thoroughly extroverted, but in many professional environments it's important to be able to interact effectively with other people.
I try to create an environment to minimize interview stress, and I think I'm an okay judge of character. However, that said, there are two, rather cold, views on this.
A) There's enough candidates that you don't have to worry about failing somebody incorrectly. It's better to accidentally reject qualified people than to occassionally accept unqualified people. The quantity of applications makes it harder for individual applicants.
B) It's part of the job. The skills you use during the interview will be required again while you are working. If the pressure, or anxiety, hurts your performance in the interview, should I not assume it might also hurt your performance in a job? I know the interview tends to exacerbate issues, but I don't think it fundamentally creates them.
As an interviewer you try your best to see through interview stress, but you won't be perfect. The unfortunate truth is that interviews aren't merely an assessment of your abilities, they are a competition. And you have to train to win at them. I'd prefer this weren't the case, and I try to minimize it, but it's still the reality we face now. :(
For further actions, you may consider blocking this person and/or reporting abuse
We're a place where coders share, stay up-to-date and grow their careers.
How do you deal with false positives? Where a programmer has these issues only in the moment because of social anxiety?
I have worked as CTO and some other leadership positions and done my handful of interviews. In those cases, I have always tried to strike a conversation with the person, see what he likes about the software world and try to make him feel at ease (taking into account that it is an interview). If the person is especially anxious, going out to have a friendly coffee works too because it's a more neutral ground.
Not a direct answer to your question, but maybe this can lead to some meaningful conversation.
Before I switched to becoming full time developer, I used to be a musician. One thing I never quite got over from HS was stage fright. After years of dealing with this, I noticed a couple of trends that would trigger my stage fright. Often times I feel like it was brought on or enhanced by a lack of preparedness on my part. Knowing that, I was able to lessen the effects of stage fright but over time I learned, it never really goes away.
The stage fright is always there. The thing is, you get comfortable with being uncomfortable. You learn to sort of work around it. From my experience, the only way you can develop this level of comfortability is by putting yourself in the "spotlight" often.
Practice interviewing with other people. Try to change it up and maybe schedule an interview with someone you're not so familiar with. Give yourself some real stakes. Make it as close a simulation to the real thing as possible. I exposed myself to situations like that often enough that I knew exactly how I was going to feel and how I should counteract it or at least minimize my stage fright.
very well said: i guess i will print and frame it :-)
Not to be contrary, but for some folks with social anxiety, no amount of practice is going to fix that. What I would frame from these responses is the complete lack of empathy that a person could be a badass but have a genuine disorder, which makes them worthy of rejection.
I think even people with severe social anxiety can improve their ability to deal with interviews, although in some cases it may not be a good idea to do it alone. For some, it may be wise to get some professional help from a psychologist who specializes in that area.
Not everyone has to be thoroughly extroverted, but in many professional environments it's important to be able to interact effectively with other people.
I try to create an environment to minimize interview stress, and I think I'm an okay judge of character. However, that said, there are two, rather cold, views on this.
A) There's enough candidates that you don't have to worry about failing somebody incorrectly. It's better to accidentally reject qualified people than to occassionally accept unqualified people. The quantity of applications makes it harder for individual applicants.
B) It's part of the job. The skills you use during the interview will be required again while you are working. If the pressure, or anxiety, hurts your performance in the interview, should I not assume it might also hurt your performance in a job? I know the interview tends to exacerbate issues, but I don't think it fundamentally creates them.
As an interviewer you try your best to see through interview stress, but you won't be perfect. The unfortunate truth is that interviews aren't merely an assessment of your abilities, they are a competition. And you have to train to win at them. I'd prefer this weren't the case, and I try to minimize it, but it's still the reality we face now. :(