I have an interview coming up next week. Should I call and find out who's interviewing me so I can prepare some specific questions?
Or is it frowned upon?
If it makes you feel more prepared (and thus calmer) go ahead and call the secretary/coordinator person. And very politely ask whether you can find out who you'll be interviewing. If they say no once, then you're done asking. Surprisingly these people usually are VERY good with names and have bomb memories, especially for potential eye-brow raisers.
At the worst, you stick out as a neurotic type, and at best, you get no reaction.
But honestly, there isn't too much you can prepare even if you know who the interviewers are. They fall sick sometimes, and get subs. So there goes all your careful plans and google background checks.
Besides, if anyone googled me (although rarely do ad-coms give out student interviewers' names as we have volatile schedules and you probably don't care as much about checking out my background) and started talking to me about stuff I'm into or have done without me knowing them... I'd probably be able to figure out that you googled me and might be kind of creeped out.
Even if you do a really good job of concealing your stalking, it's not going to be as natural as going in and actually just MEETING the person face-to-face.
All that googling of specific people just sounds like too much work in the end.
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If you want to prepare your answers....There should be lists of common interview questions floating around on SDN and elsewhere.
So that would probably be a much better use of your interview prep time.
