Navigating the New Age of Interviews: A Data Scientist’s Experience

As interviews increasingly move online, the whole concept of interviewing has changed over the past couple of years, and you have probably felt this change as well. Most interviewers and interviewees have noticed this “new era” of interviewing, especially in the digital industries.

The most significant change is that interviews are considerably more complex than they used to be.

In this article, we want to share how one of our members, an experienced data scientist from San Jose State University with a master’s degree in statistics, had trouble handling these increasingly complex interviews but, with Interview Query’s services, finally managed to find the right approach to this new interview style.

We’ll also discuss why interviews are becoming more complex and discuss whether this change is a good thing or an alarming trend.

Let’s take a look!

It’s apparent the pattern for interviewing (for certain industries) has seen some big changes and will continue to evolve. The cause for these changes is unknown, but the likeliest is that there are a lot more candidates for job positions, especially in growing technology fields like programming, data analysis, machine learning, and AI.

Because of this, interviewers are not only focused on how well a candidate can handle their technical tests/tasks but also on how well they can prepare for an interview.

So, nowadays, interviewers want answers to questions like:

• “How much will this candidate know about our company?”
• “How well will they handle the stress of the interview?”
• “Which questions will they prepare for us/the company?”

We asked one of our customers at Interview Query, a data scientist, about their thoughts on these changes, and this is what they had to say:

I think I used Interview Query a couple of years ago after I had a layoff, and then I had another layoff this year, so I used it again. But, what I identified was that in the interview I gave a couple of years ago, the interviewers would be like, “Okay, you’re great because you know things and you know how to do things great.” Now, the interviewers (probably) have so many more candidates, so now it’s more about how well you can do the interview. It’s how well you can do your job versus how well you can do the interview.

We can’t give a general answer to whether these changes are good or bad, as there are different approaches to interviews, and of course, some will be better, some worse.

We also have to consider both positions. For companies, these new types of interviews might be more efficient for hunting down the right candidate. At the same time, they’re worse for interviewees because they raise the bar (requirements), which considerably increases the prep time.

This is why job candidates must use mock interviews or practice sessions similar to those offered by Interview Query. It helps shake off that before-interview stress while testing your preparedness and company knowledge. Here’s what the data scientist had to say about their experience with Interview Query’s Mock Interview feature:

Mock interviews, I wouldn’t say they were useful in teaching me technical detail. However, they were really helpful because I matched up with younger and fresher people. I would do the interview for them, and I could identify the good and the bad. You finally get to see how it looks from the other (interviewer’s) side, and I would make notes for myself and be like, “Oh, I have to make sure I don’t do this, or maybe do it.”

We also have huge question banks of various companies to make the preparation process just a bit easier for interviews. It’s a way of leveling the playing field. If companies up their demand, interviewees should get some kind of advantage, such as knowing the potential questions or tasks they may face.

Here’s that same data scientist on their favorite Interview Query features:

So for me, I think I used a bunch of your features. So, first I input my interview details and got access to the company’s question bank. So, like, the question bank came up. So, that felt very good because I was able to prepare in a customized manner, even though some questions had a very low chance of appearing. But I still solved those because there’s a column showing how often these may appear. The solution gave me confidence that if I get a question on this topic, I can solve that.

As time passes with this new style of interviews, companies may notice that focusing on more important factors such as technical skills, communication, adaptability, and integrity is the better route.

But, until then, interviewees must adapt to these changes or suffer more failed interviews.

Always Be Prepared

So, while interviewees can utilize solutions such as mock interviews or question banks to better prepare for an interview, another thing that can help with adapting to the modern interview is continuous learning.

People often get into a comfort zone after landing a job. Then, whenever they need to switch to a different job, the prep time before the interview is too short, especially for interviews with more requirements.

This leads to a lot of stress, which can severely affect the person’s performance at an interview.

The best way to adapt to this new interview pattern is to be prepared long before the interview. Do this by following what’s going on in the industry, tracking new discoveries or technologies, and testing yourself on commonly used interview tactics and questions in your industry.

Again, we asked our user about what they think is the best way to prepare for this new style of interviews, and here are their thoughts:

When it’s high time, you’re like, “Oh, I have to have an interview.” And then, it gets super stressful because you’re trying to cram everything in that short span of time. So, what I want to do is keep myself updated with what’s going on. Like, what’s the question pattern

AI interviews can also be an excellent way to quickly get a feel for how certain companies handle their interviewing process.

The interview process is changing, and whether we like it or not, companies prefer this modern approach, so we need to adapt.

Fortunately, this new pattern has been deciphered, so there are ways to make the interview a bit less stressful, as we already see success among our customers, especially those in the data analysis sector.

By consistently staying updated with your industry surroundings, utilizing mock interviews, AI interviews, question banks, and other solutions we offer at Interview Query, you can be among the top 1% of candidates when hunting for your next job.