Career Transitions

QUOTE:
"The interview may not be the place to bring up that you particularly enjoy movies about serial killers"

Or that you saw your interviewer in the theater watching one of those movies.

Jim Purdy

Although I agree that it's important to be prepared and that lots of interviewers use this sort of open-ended question (at the beginning, or sometimes at the end), if you are an interviewer, it is a bad strategy. I've never seen any research that justifies the use of a vague, open-ended question (other questions ask applicants such things as "if you were a car, what kind would you be?" and other nonsense. The issue, just like the inkblot test analogy you use is appropriate. The problem with such projective techniques is that they have notoriously bad reliability and validity, and likely don't help at all in predicting who will be a good employee (nor whether they will be compatible with others, etc.).

The best way to interview is to ask job-related questions that get at the knowledge, skills, abilities, and other factors (KSAOs) that have been demonstrated to actually be predictive of job success.

I think you are correct-- behavioral interview questions that get at the individual's skills, knowledge, etc., are better questions to ask, and carry more reliability/validity.

Sometimes these questions are just conversation-starters-- never intended to be used to make decisions. It's just that they can turn into that if someone gives a particularly strong- or poor- response.

I have heard interviewers argue for them in the case of "fit"-- how will an individual relate to their customers or clients, for example. Some say they like to see how a person answers an unexpected or "creative" question.

In the end, any hiring decision is on some level a leap of faith-- I don't think we have developed the ultimate best system for identifying and retaining new hires because we're dealing with people-- and people complicate any situation. It's hard enough to identify the best computer for an office, much less the best worker.

Rapport, content, subject matter knowledge, poise, and a million other things need to be demonstrated in a face-to-face interview; they don't go very far if delivery and performance skills aren't second nature. There are simple (and easily employed) methods for interview behavior and dialog. VERY FEW people ever really practice how they will deliver their answers. That's too bad because all too frequently, the job goes to the best interviewer and NOT to the best person for the job.

The takeaway from this article seems to be that it's never too early in the interview to have to start doing that bizarre kabuki dance of trying to figure out what the interviewer wants you to say. Just goes to show that interviewing is a terrible way to screen a candiadate.

"What's your favorite movie?"

"What do you want it to be?"

I'm a former educator (+10 years) who moved from industry into teaching and then back to private industry. I've interviewed hundreds of student and job applicants over the years.

I really dislike behavioral interviews, from either side, unless there is some objective apparent. Questions such as "What animal would you be?" are hard to defend (other than just filler, which is as good as some employers can do) while "What is your favorite book/magazine/movie can actually provide some meaningful insight (if the subject is truthful...)

Of course, all questions are important and every part of the experience will be scrutinized. Body language, voice, appearance - all are being evaluated.

The problem is that many employers have no idea what they want in an employee - or, if they do, they have only an incomplete picture, so are unable to balance an applicant's strengths against weaknesses. They've never done task analysis so they don't actually know what their employees do or what skills are necessary for the job.

But, to be honest, what I found disturbing about this post is that the author found it necessary to write "Cameroon, Africa". Which is the equivalent of writing "United Sates, North America" or "France, Europe".

I'm not sure if it says something about the author, or - more likely - the author's experience teaching American students. Depressing.

Interview is annoying, even seems everything is fine, then you can not get this job. Before you got to interview, you had better design a way for marketing youself.

Interview is really annoying, before you go try to learn how to equip youself, search online for interview questions.

This is quite an interesting post. Thanks for sharing.