HACKER Q&A
📣 emthrowaway

Are you supposed to appear dumb during interviews?


Hello HN,

It might appear as a strange question, but after failing so many interviews with Goog, FB, Aws and few more similar companies - It's what I'm about to conclude. Now, I've a pool of interview questions. So, when I ask them those questions, they really don't have credible answers. So, not sure, how they are judging me.

I'm starting to believe - if as an interviewee, you come across as smarter, the interviewer might feel threatened and may fear that - if they select you - then you might progress faster than them. So, it's better for them to reject you.


  👤 toast0 Accepted Answer ✓
If you're asking questions and not getting useful answers, you need to ask different questions (or maybe different people). Same thing happens on the other side of the interview, it's not useful to ask questions that nobody answers well, because it doesn't provide information that helps you decide about the candidate.

If you're interviewing at pooled hiring places like at least FB and Google, asking questions about a particular manager's style is not going to be useful anyway; chances are, if hired, you won't work with anyone you interviewed. If that's an issue for you (and it's fine if it is), then you should clarify that before interviewing.


👤 ssss11
I don’t think it’s a case of needing to act dumb to get a job. It’s probably a case of asking difficult questions that make the interviewer dislike you.

I definitely think you should ask questions, just carefully select which questions. I usually try to ask about company culture, the team and the expectations of the role itself.


👤 axy
First, you chose bad companies, as I can see from your list. Second, same here. I'm feeling myself a dumb, stupid numskull. If all those companies raise money with their crappy products, what's wrong with me?

👤 mapster
Are your questions intentionally or not trying to make you look smart and them foolish with a half answer? That would not work in your favor.

👤 PaulHoule
You fed the questions back to the interviewers?