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+---
+.title = "What I've learned after one year of interviewing",
+.date = @date("2026-07-03T00:00:00"),
+.author = "Alexander Goussas",
+.layout = "post.shtml",
+.draft = false,
+---
+
+At Thoughtworks, we developers are tasked with running interviews for potential
+candidates as part of our contributions to the company. I myself am a
+particularly prolific interviewer. I enjoy interviewing, and by now I must have
+run around 40 interviews between the last and this year. In this post I will
+talk about what patterns I have noticed generally in candidates, what are the
+most common mistakes and then about what the interviewing experience has been
+like for me.
+
+## What are most candidates like
+
+What I am about to say is true for at least 90% of the people I have
+interviewed: candidates come to interviews wildly unprepared.
+
+The amount of technical expertise I expect from candidates depends on what role
+they're applying to. For Associate, if their neurons can synapse, then it's
+likely a pass (iff they don't commit the mistakes in the next section). The
+story changes for Consultants and upward.
+
+Since I myself joined the company as a Consultant, I am the bar by which I
+measure Consultant candidates. At the same time, I have since realized that when
+I was hired I was exceptionally technically overqualified for the position. I
+did lack the work experience, though. This is to say, I tend to be _quite_
+lenient on the technical side.
+
+The problem is, most Consultant, and even Senior candidates, do not seem to know
+how to program at all. Hell, I even interviewed a Lead once that was the same.
+Either they do not really know the programming language for which they applied,
+know it superficially, or lack the knowledge and skill to build decoupled and
+scalable systems.
+
+This happens so often that I many times wonder if I should be expecting less. I
+remember an instance where I interviewed a Consultant candidate that clearly
+knew what they were doing, so I _know_ there is actually qualified people out
+there. And I think it is my job as an interviewer to make sure the company can
+hire the best possible talent. We are a consulting company offering a product,
+which in our case is human talent. It would not be fair for our clients to pay
+for a service they expect a certain quality from, only to be given a subpar
+one.
+
+So, in my experience, most candidates are severely underqualified for the
+positions they're applying to, and commit many of the mistakes detailed in the
+next section.
+
+## Common mistakes candidates make
+
+### Coming to the interview unprepared
+
+I've had candidates interviewing for a Java position that do not know the
+language. In these cases, there is simply nothing I can do. We state at the
+beginning what the candidate is interviewing for and ask if they are comfortable
+continuing with the interview. Even so, so I've candidates not knowing how to
+declare a variable or write a method, because they are clearly not acquainted
+with the language. In these cases, if the candidate shows good reasoning skills
+and expresses having proficiency with other tools, then I would reject them but
+suggest they be interviewed for another position.
+
+### Not speaking while pairing
+
+The pairing exercise's goal is twofold: to assess the technical skills of the
+candidate, as well as their thought process and team work while working on a
+given task. The latter is always emphasized at the beginning of interviews, and
+yet, many candidates just start coding in absolute silence. This by itself is
+not a direct disqualifier, but compounded with the fact that many times these
+same candidates present poor technical skills, they're just not helping
+themselves. I always tell people, during these kinds of interviews, it's better
+to speak too much than too little. And mind you, I don't mean you need to become
+my friend during the interview. Being introverted is not an excuse. I literally
+just need to hear out loud what you are thinking.
+
+### Being overconfident and arrogant
+
+I don't why, but there is many people that overestimate their knowledge. The
+reason that would make the most sense to me is that they have always been in a
+bubble and have never had to get out of their confort zone, so they literally do
+not know how little they know. These candidates often show themselves
+overconfident and even arrogant, but when I start to ask basic architecture and
+design questions, they don't even understand what I'm asking because they've
+never heard the terminology I use. In this case it's not so much their lack of
+knowledge that is the problem, which it is, but rather their being unaware of
+it. A lack of humility, if you may.
+
+### Concealing use of AI tools
+
+This, along with the next point, is one of the most things infuriating
+candidates do for me as an interviewer. They would not share their whole screen
+and glance furtively and repeatedly to the side before writing any piece of
+code. I've even had candidates using sunglasses during the interview, claiming
+that they need them for some reason, and others blatantly copy-pasting code from
+a concealed screen. Thoughtworks has an AI-first policy, and as such we
+interviewers let the candidate know that use of AI tools is permitted during the
+interview, so I don't understand this behaviour. Again, what takes points away
+from candidates doing this is their lack of honesty rather than something
+technical.
+
+### Trying to bullshit the interviewer
+
+If I ask a question to a candidate, it's because I have complete command over
+the subject. So, if said candidate starts giving a bullshit answer because they
+don't actually know, I will notice immediately. I remember on one ocasion in an
+Organic Chemistry class me and some comrades had to present a paper. One of my
+classmates was completely lost, and started bullshitting the professor, who
+called him out on that right away. I remember thinking how does one even attempt
+that, and I think the same when it happens to me during interviews. Honestly,
+the most infuriating thing is that it just makes both the candidate and the
+interviewer waste their times. If said candidate had been honest and said "I don't
+know", that would actually score positive points with me, because it shows
+honesty and integrity, and technical knowledge can always be acquired.
+
+## What the ideal candidate looks like
+
+This section is, of course, entirely subjective and based on my own experience.
+To me, the ideal candidate is communicative and honest. They are skilled, but
+also have no trouble recognizing when their skill has reached a limit. They are
+not necessarily passionate, but they care to do things well, and it shows in how
+prepared they are for the interview and their technical expertise. As simple as
+that.
+
+## What has interviewing been like for me
+
+I don't exactly why, but I always look forward to interviewing. At the same
+time, when candidates behave in the way I describe in the previous section, I
+hate it because it's a waste of time. If it were on me, I would end the
+interview at the first instance of one such mistake. But alas, I am a hopeful
+man and believe in second chances. 
+
+Also, I believe interviewing let's me get a look into what the current market
+looks like and what kind of people is entering the company.
+
+Another aspect is that my decision as an interviewer has an impact on whether a
+person gets a job or not. When I got into Thoughtworks, I cried because I
+thought I was doomed to working in a technically mediocre environment forever,
+so I know very well what a lifechanger a job like this can be. That's why I take
+my responsiblity as an interviewer very seriously and consider the human being
+that just spent an hour with me when making the final decision.
+
+In the end, one of the core tenets at Thoughtworks is "hiring for potential",
+something I wholeheartedly believe in. I am firm believer that anyone can learn
+the technical stuff, so I usually only reject candidates when their knowledge is
+way below what is required for the job, or when they commit multiple of the
+aforementioned mistakes.
+
+I hope this post is of help to you, dear reader, if you are actively seeking for
+a job, and I wish you very good luck in your endeavor. If you have any questions
+or would like me to elaborate on anything I expressed here, please feel free to
+reach out.