Getting many requests regarding how to “game” in interviews from my last post. So here you are.

There is no TLDR, all of content here are useful, especially for IT people. You can skip 1 or 2 paragraphs if you read it like it is non-English to you. Else, read them all. I sincerely hope all of you could land on your dream job. This post costs me 7 hours to complete, if you have better methods, I’m glad to hear them in the comments, don’t rent. Declaimers, I am a software developer, I can only make examples out of IT related job titles, not sure if all these below applied for other professionals. If not, welcome to add them in the comment section.

1. Know your shit

You should know what to focus on the interviews. Let me explain, in the IT industry, for the last 2 decades, the common sense was to the applicant should be good at the Algorithm, on the white board, (not Math, Algorithm!!!). Think about your daily job, of how many trees, graph traversals are you using right now? Not that much (At least in my past experience in the last 6 years, 4 years in flag ship companies). So, you should focus on only a part of the shits learned in college.

HOW:

Get your Syllabus:

For the newly graduates: Search Glassdoor, not just the companies you are interested in, but all of them in your industry. Practice all the answers. This one is helpful when you are new-grads with not much of interview opportunities.

For experienced: Go interview with all the companies that would give you a chance (this one helps a lot with your Abandonment mentality), don’t worries if you know nothing about the answer, all the interviewers are not looking for your perfection of answer, they are looking for someone they could work with. So try your best, and discuss with them, specifically when you have no idea how to solve the problem. After the interview, note down your question, Google it for answers, memorize them, recite yourself.

Don’t get intimidated by the interviewers, they are your plates to practice game. You can walk away with absolute nothing to be afraid of. If you are gaming girls, they might humiliate you by saying stuff mean in the public. But from what I experienced, interviewers, (not Chinese one, they are as mean as a girl could be, if not worse), normally wouldn’t say anything that will mentally fuck you for longer than a day, they are in their working mentality, they subconsciously keep it professional. Drop the plate, next if you have to, but learn your questions, do the FR yourself.

Easter egg: For Chinese people out there in Northern America (though I don’t think there are going to be a lot here), 1piont3acres forum, newest interview questions for every Top companies in North America can be found. Pay the membership if you have to.

A follow up question

You may still ask “But General Tsao, I am an IT student, just graduated, I do not have a class regarding what I want to do in. (Gaming, Big Data, Machine learning, BA, or HR, Finance, you get the idea) I really want to work in those areas and already got an interview next week. What should I do?” Well, you are in luck.

Solution

I had the same problem when I came back to China, even Microsoft’s interview questions are entirely different in China than in U.S. I got confused after I read a load of books about Microsoft interviews regarding Algorithm questions (which I did not memorized much well) while all they want to know is if I know the differences between PUT and GET requests.

I found an awesome solution. Don’t read books, you won’t have time (at least for me, I read professional books slowly as fuck and couldn’t remember shit, even in Chinese). Instead, use online Video class.

All professions:

For general concepts, Udacity, Youtube or even non-English if you’re a non-English native person like me. Better yet, everyone will know when you just reciting a book’s definition, but no one will realize when you just rephrase/quote from an online video.

Programmers:

For Algorithms, Lintcode and Leetcode are your best friends, if you have time, try all the questions yourself and then learn Time and space complexity, then, Youtube them, learn their thoughts and Time Complexity. There are only countable categories. If your time schedule is really tight, memorize the easiest/stupidest solution, and go through better solutions (no need to memorize). You can always work with your interviewer for better answers which to me works even better in an interview than those of the times which I could just write down all the solutions with no hesitation.

As I said before, not much of what you prepare when applying jobs will be useful after you are hired in a place where you could access Google. All the problems you found in a work place, there always somebody who have already solved it.

Note

I am a self-taught programmer with a Non-IT related Master degree in a College from a Northern State of America no one heard of. I used less than 6 months to land my first programming job after getting my degree. Started in a shit hole, but switch every year at first, every 1.5 now. If I could do it, everyone could do it. Not much of a brain required to a proper programming job.

2. Abandonment mentality

It is not the companies choosing you, rather, you are the prize, after mastering your shit, you now have the right to choose them. Have options, and imply it, (never exploit it). Just like how you do with women. The one who have options have powers.

What if you don’t have other options? Fake it till you make it? No!!! If you don’t have other options, still, show you have the courage to walk out. Because if you apply my method above, you know you will be in the top 10% eventually, even if you yourself don’t know it yet, I know so for you, that is how much confidence I have in my methods. Get up, walk out, go home, apply it, improve, until when you find yourself answering all the questions in a flagship companies’ interview and they are begging you to come onboard.

Like girls, interviewers do have their good days and bad days, sometimes it is just their “period”, don’t take it personal. It is too bad they cannot have you, be sorry for them too when they are “sorry to inform you that they’ve found a better suit”.

The Abandonment mentality is especially helpful in 2 ways. Firstly, it releases your level of pressure, when you want the company to prove they are worthy for your entering, you won’t be nervous. Secondly, you will notice they are starting giving you IOIs, they will try to explain a lot on how good their company is to you. This will suddenly turn the conversation into a casual talk easily which brings down the barrier between you and your future boss.

HOW:

Really simple, to start, give a hard question (with follow-up questions if you are not getting what you want), to each of your interviewers. This should be something you care a lot without mentioning money. Most of times, salaries are ranged by interviewers but need arguing with HRs, if you do this one correctly now, and your interviewers like you a lot, you won’t have to put a lot effort with HR, they will be notified you are worth of the top cut of the salary range.

This is a list of mine, welcome to add yours:

  • Tell me more about the project I will be working on. (Ask 3 details following this one to see if they can explain clear enough for me to start coding)

  • Tell me about the future manager. Are they (you) the type of person who do micro-management?

  • Is my manager (Are you) an angry person?

  • How many people are new in my project?

  • Do I have someone will guide me during my probation with the company? (Believe me, there are quite some companies which requires you learn on the job, fast)

  • How many people got promoted last year in our (your) team?

  • I searched on glassdoor, and found that your company has a bad reputation of work-life balance. Can you give me some examples?

This rule also comply with the TRP rule “Always put yourself first”. Think about it, now you are requested to shit test the HR, Interviewers, and probably your boss. Do it, let them know that you care about your own future and think of them as your resource to have a proper career path, not the person who controls your money. They will appreciate when you give them the opportunities to prove themselves.

3. Dressing code

Dress as the best version of you. For me, I go as formal as possible, even when they overtly saying no formal needed. A suit (fit/slim cut always), watch, belt match the color of the leather shoes. Sometimes open collar for start-up companies, but most of the time with a tie.

As a TRP in-taker, you should know that male is more visually-oriented animals. So, in an industry where male is the dominate gender, it is more likely that men will be promoted to higher position, so, most likely who have a hiring decision is a man, at least you want to work under a female manager, suit yourself.

If you are hitting gym regularly, you will be looking sharp in a suit. Don’t make excuse that IT nerds don’t appreciate suits. You will thank me when you are standing out in a crowd of jeans and hoodies.

  • By dressing formally, you will stand out in a crowd, as you are a male yourself, so you will be firstly attracted to yourself, be in that mood once you dressed up, it will give you a healthy boost in being confidence.

  • By dressing formally, you show the interviewers that it was not just another of your normal days, you did not take them for granted. And they will do the same.

What behind this is also link with TRP. People do not get a sense of others based on what they say, but what they present. I heard that in a good presentation, there are only 20% of information can be delivered by words (so don’t negotiate your attraction), 80% by others (don’t quote me on this statistics, I heard it in a Toastmaster meeting, but 20-80 rule is ironically everywhere, doesn’t it?). People won’t remember you based on the excellent answer you wrote on a white board (which at least 35% people could give) if you are “just another guy”.

People interact with each other using all their senses. Give them all the treatment to remember you. I sometimes even use a little cologne (Don’t overdo it though).

4. Behavior question

Now my favorite parts of interview. Why they ask questions with no standard answers? They want to know if you are a strong/weak person. They are shit-testing you, all of their questions/behaviors non-related to technical are behavior questions (like pressure coding test, or group interview against one candidate). If 2 equally skilled applicants applying, stronger one get the job As your boss, he wants to know you are not happy when you are not, and wants you to stand out (do a presentation, ask to clarify the requirement) when he needs someone who knows the project or cover him up when he is on vacation. This makes not only you stand out, but the whole project to stand out.

METHOD:

Story-telling. I found the ultimate ways to get people attracted to you is by telling stories, not just in interviews, but with girls, friends, and I did it in my IELTS oral exams (I used to force myself to come up with a story with all the questions there in the oral exam) for cry out loud, and they loved it, and will generally forgot what they asked in the first place.

Now, you cannot tell any story to a girl, like how you were a virgin until you are 45 years old, but you definitely can tell any story to a girl, like, you were a virgin for 45 years. It all depends on how you organized your storyline, paused, gestures, and tones.

This is a PUA skill, and there are tons of other posts back in the days regarding this, go read them, I won’t go in too deep.

Storyline: basically all human kinds love emotion roller coaster (not just women), in TRP, we learned to be the rock, but we do love them don’t we, that’s why Game of Thrones is so addictive.

For interview stories, you want to start at a low point (mundane stuff, or negative stuffs like there is a requirement changes) and ended on a high note (I solved the problem, or I saved xxx billion dollars for company, or like in my case, meet the deadline, prevent blocking issue from our site in the release process). You want the stories that have multiple emotional spikes in the middle. You need to take your listeners ups and downs. Here downs, lows means the bad shit that happens all the times (uncooperative colleagues, issue created by others who left the company) and the highs and ups means you take the challenge and succeed (fix with no extra hours, communication skills that you learned on the job). Don’t just give your story one obstacle to conquer. Mix and match all your experiences. So that after one story, they will run out of question to ask, because your story covers them all!!! I was once in this situation, and it feels sick. The interviewer has to check his list of questions on his cheat sheet and told me that I have answered all the questions he prepared.

HOW:

Write down what you did in general, identify the highs and lows, mix and match. Telling them to everyone who would listen or help. Ask how they feel. Rephrase. 3 stories at least when you go into next interview. If no one helps you, simply approach a lot of HRs, they won’t bite, since they cannot use the power of pussy.

Google “Amazon leadership principles”. All your stories should cover these points, if so, you are gold.

Why behavior questions are so important:

Below is a story of why I think behavior question is more important than the technical ones. By which you can get a sense of how I tell a story.

I attended this very high-end company’s hiring event in a fancy hotel in another city. They setup the process to let you feel the pressure, despite that they keep emphasizing “their company is focus on the candidates’ best feeling throughout the process”. They put all the candidates in a room with no one for half an hour, before HRs and some of the interviewers came in to introduction. But what interested me was that, after the interview, while one of the candidates taking the elevator with me getting into chatter. I was shocked that he was given a lot of hard Algorithms in all his rounds while all of my interviewers gave me the easy ones although both of us are applying for the same position. I was able to grab another interviewee later who confirmed the formal one’s story.

I figured out the reason quite after I got the offer from them, I googled this company and found out they are well-known for hard BQs, they asked BQs before the Tech ones. So if you did not pass the shit-tests at first, you will be given more shit in the Technical section to prove yourself. I remember in the last round of my interview, I was quite exhausted and hungry, but the interviewer started the interview by pushing me saying that I made mistake here, then there. I directly told him to shut up (in better phrase of cause), and give me 5 minutes to go through my own logic. I corrected all the coding in 2, and from where was able to handle all his challenges in my coding.

5.Personalities

You will build your personalities during the practice of your story telling and behavior questions. Don’t worry too much about this.

In the end:

I want to share some insights of interviewers. I heard it first-hand. “When I do interview, I do not want someone who always get me the right answers, but those who I am willing to clean up for after they made a mistake in my team.”

What’s left now are only your actions.

“Losers always complain about their ‘bests’, winners go home, and fuck the prom queen.” – <The Rock>, Sean Connery

Didn’t realize I didn’t write too much, I thought I wrote 15000, then realized it was 15000 characters and 2500 words LOL, had prepared how to write resume but got tired of writing. Recommend book “the Google Resume”, Chapter 4-6 accordingly.

P.S, address your interviewers by name as most as you possibly can.