You’ll begin the interview and the questions won’t feel right. They’ll be extremely technical border lining on absurd or they’ll be edge cases, in either case, specialized knowledge is required to answer correctly. The questions are a setup for failure and an opportunity for the interviewer to stroke their ego. In fact, the entire interview has little or nothing to do with the position. It’s all about the interviewer taking a hit off the validation crack-pipe.

Similar needy behavior will occur on the job. The Ego Interviewer will not hire someone who is smarter than them. They can’t have someone proving them wrong. They desire to be the smartest guy, the “go to guy” (an anti-pattern) of the group. Once they’ve decided they are smart and you are not, The Ego Interviewer will insist on explaining everything to you in the minutest detail. Again this is another strategy to display their intelligence and superiority.

The Ego Interviewer does not create a cohesive work environment, most developers in these environments will be on edge. The developers are secretly hoping the Ego Interviewer will be sick today.

The Ego Interviewer will continue to passively step on you to stroke their ego. If you challenge them they’ll stop at nothing to quell your defiance. They only way out is get them replaced or move to a different team.