undefined | Better HN

0 points3170701y ago0 comments

Yeah, it's an English thing. A literal translation in Dutch would mean "explain yourself here", and if you'd change tack because of the question alone, it would seem like you really lack self-confidence.

But after living in the UK for a bit, in the UK that is most likely an order.

0 comments

hardlianotion1y ago

In the UK, it’s not at all cut and dried - depends more on the personality of the person saying it. Could be lazy assertion of control, an attempt to help or an implied challenge.

I also think the interview setup and management were poor.

vkou1y ago

> and if you'd change tack because of the question alone, it would seem like you really lack self-confidence.

Or because the candidate realized that they've messed up, and by dropping the issue can at least salvage the next XY minutes of the interview by not going down the wrong rabbit hole.

"Could you tell me more about this?" and "Are you sure about this?" are invitations for providing the rationalization for your answers. "I'm not sure that's a good idea" is a very unsubtle, but polite way of hinting that the you have gone way off the map.

As an interviewer, I want my candidates to succeed. I want them to put their best foot forward. I've asked my question over a hundred times, and I've seen many ways that people have solved it, correctly or no. If I'm giving them this suggestion, it means that I know that they are going down one of the many, many wrong garden paths.

317070OP1y ago

I know, I have now spent enough time in the Anglosphere to understand this cultural code. But I do want to emphasize that, yes, if you only know English as a language, that that subcontext is not obvious.

In France, professors would literally say "You are wrong." as an invitation to explain yourself better. There are only 500km between London and Paris, but the culture behind these words is the complete opposite.

throwaway1737381y ago

That phrase in English has a strong connotation of the recipient screwing up somehow though, so I’d probably say “that’s not what I was looking for in this case. Try something else.”

jorvi1y ago

> Yeah, it's an English thing. A literal translation in Dutch would mean "explain yourself here",

That's just patently untrue. The literal translation is "ik denk niet dat dat een goed idee is" and the better translation would be "dat is niet de bedoeling".

If I got told in an interview "dat is niet de bedoeling" I'd be damn sure to rework my solution because they're clearly trying to coax me towards whatever they're looking for. And in a way it is actually a nice thing of them, because they could just say nothing and fail me out of that round of interviews.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse