History of one interview. life hack

After a response from the employer, I spoke with the HR, which was very pleasant. The next step was a technical interview with the Senior Principal Engineer. It went very smoothly, questions from the category:

– Do you know “this”?

– Yes!

– How well do you know about this?

Oh, I’m an expert on this!

…

– Well, I’m quite satisfied, you still have an interview with the Architect ahead of you.

This beginning relaxed me a little, but I was still a little worried, because the Architects had not yet interviewed me. And he did the right thing.
The interview was terrible.
After a short introductory part, the Architect began the “interrogation”.
The questions were from diametrically opposed areas, none about what constitutes the core skills for a worker in a given position.
When, after another question, I thought for a second, the Architect said literally: “Don’t think, answer right away!”.
Many questions were purely on the horizon. You can completely know nothing about it, and do your job well.
Purely by chance, I answered most of his questions. On one question I answered a fierce nonsense. It’s still embarrassing. He also suggested that I mentally calculate in a binary system, “considering that two bits cannot change at the same time.” Seeing how my face was distorted when I began to count, he graciously offered me to take a piece of paper. By pure chance, I had a piece of paper, and at the very least I calculated on the piece of paper.
The architect said: “In general, I liked it, you know something.”
Clarified once again my salary requirements. He said that he needed to try to solve certain corporate issues in order for me to be hired, and that he would contact me within two weeks.
I rejoiced despite the fact that I seem to have developed a phobia of Architects.

But a few days later, HR wrote to me and offered to talk to Architect #2.
“What, they have 2 architects?!…”, “Oh God, one more time?!”, “Oh, how embarrassing it would be to disgrace yourself” etc.

And today I finished the working day, there was an hour left before the interview, just to get home. Naturally, I started thinking about the interview.
I imagined how he would greet me and ask: “how are you?” It is considered to be accepted to answer this question formally. And I thought that if I answer “as is” – “It’s okay, just a little tired after a hard day.” I thought this was a good start. I worked, I was tired… And my next thought was: “who do you have to be, so that in this case you don’t ask me what I actually worked on today.” And today was a fruitful day, we did original and advanced things. And best of all, we got positive results.
I remembered a list of what I did today, what preceded it and what is now in the plans. And it became almost clear what questions might arise and how to answer them.

– Hi, how are you?
— Okay, a little tired after a hard day’s work. How about yours?
– I understand you very much! – a second pause – well, what challenges did you face today?
…
And the whole conversation was absolutely about the case. What a thrill at an interview to discuss normal work questions, and not try to painfully grab ten-year-old knowledge from memory or count on a piece of paper!
Thanks, I’m very pleased. Wait. I heard goodbye.

life hack

Try to chat after work. Honestly answer the question “how are you?” that everything is fine, just a little tired after work. And be prepared to tell something worthy of attention and answer clarifying questions.

Of course, people are unpredictable, but I think this is a good attempt to steer the interview in a direction that suits you.