Interviews are uncomfortable. That said, I think rehearsing and sort of reverse engineering the logic of an interview will help you prepare for one.

Game out why the company is acting like they do. Hiring an employee is a big deal to a company because if someone doesn’t work out, they’ll have put their operations at risk by bringing in a new unknown individual, and they’ll lose x amount of time before they can reset. It puts the hiring individual at risk because they may be seen as making a poor hire choice.

Why does that matter? I think it helps as the lens for why the process is how it is, why they ask the questions they do, and what sort of answers I should give.

I have verbally rehearsed answers to questions I think I might get. It’s different to say it out loud. In your head you might think you know a good answer, but you don’t want the first time you say those words to be during the real thing. (This is also why it helps to take interviews even if you’re not sure you’d want or be good for the job, it’s practice)

For “eye contact” I look at someone’s face but just below their eyes. Not sure if it’s convincing but have seemed to have a good track record in interviews.

I’ve been in charge of hiring a few jobs now and I make sure to not care about any of the typical signals when interviewing. I tell recruiters and candidates alike that I’d “hire three raccoons in a trenchcoat if they could turn requirements into working code”.

I’ve hired quite a few folks who didn’t fit the typical mold, because they could write some sweet code. Who cares about eye contact, I want honest, hard working problem-solvers.

The biggest thing my less social folks struggle with (for anyone curious) is requirements gathering. That often takes interviews and repeated interactions with customers. But it’s a skill like any other. Practice brings improvement!

Also, role playing helped me. I got a friend that works in HR and does some interviews. He helped me by letting me play out an interview. I think it would have been better if we also reversed the roles and let him be the interviewee, just so I can mimic his behavior, but I didn’t think of this that time. Might help someone else though.