Over the past couple of decades, I’ve worked for a couple of great companies and several mediocre to awful ones. Of the business skills I developed during this time, one of the few I feel qualified to write about is the job interview process.
I have lost count of the number of interviews I’ve done. Whether it’s applying to new companies or changing jobs within an organization, I can say with confidence that job interviews are the most unpleasant, stressful, and awkward part of working. At best, they are a necessary evil.
Many job search consultants and books that discuss the “hidden job market” agree that the best way to find a job is to bypass the interview process entirely, usually by finding someone at a company who can hire you directly. Most people, though, have to do a standard interview in order to get their foot in the door. The job interview is a ritual in our society, and as with any ritual there are prescribed behavioral patterns. Interview locations, dress codes, and codes of conduct are all fairly standardized by industry. So are the kinds of questions asked of interviewees.
This article focuses on a particular kind of interview question that gets asked across industries, what I call the “Not Getting Hired” questions. I call it that for two reasons: One, because these questions have become such a routine part of the interview process that the person asking it rarely pays attention to the answer (and for good reason, as I’ll explain later). Two, because no matter how a job applicant answers the question, the answer doesn't address the key issue in any employment search. If anything, the only real function this kind of question serves is to decrease your chances of getting the job you want.
I have lost count of the number of interviews I’ve done. Whether it’s applying to new companies or changing jobs within an organization, I can say with confidence that job interviews are the most unpleasant, stressful, and awkward part of working. At best, they are a necessary evil.
Many job search consultants and books that discuss the “hidden job market” agree that the best way to find a job is to bypass the interview process entirely, usually by finding someone at a company who can hire you directly. Most people, though, have to do a standard interview in order to get their foot in the door. The job interview is a ritual in our society, and as with any ritual there are prescribed behavioral patterns. Interview locations, dress codes, and codes of conduct are all fairly standardized by industry. So are the kinds of questions asked of interviewees.
This article focuses on a particular kind of interview question that gets asked across industries, what I call the “Not Getting Hired” questions. I call it that for two reasons: One, because these questions have become such a routine part of the interview process that the person asking it rarely pays attention to the answer (and for good reason, as I’ll explain later). Two, because no matter how a job applicant answers the question, the answer doesn't address the key issue in any employment search. If anything, the only real function this kind of question serves is to decrease your chances of getting the job you want.
The Questions
“Tell me about yourself.”
This is the vague, open-ended catch-all of interview questions. Supposedly, this is the candidate’s opportunity to “wow” the interviewer with a brilliant opening salvo, convincing them that by hiring you, they will get the Ultimate Employee, someone who will stand by them through thick or thin, hell or high water, putting the love of company above all else as the next chapter of a brilliant career is written.
In most cases, though, this question is just time-filler. It does serve some purpose in that it serves as a general test to see if you can string two or more sentences together in a conversation. If you respond without fainting or vomiting all over yourself, congratulations, you have passed the bare minimum requirements for social interaction. Other than that, this is a question much better suited to a blind date than a job interview.
A variation on this question is the meeting that starts out with the interviewer sitting down with you, reading your resumé for the very first time, and asking “It says here you worked at _______. Can you tell me about that?”
It’s a given that in the vast majority of cases the interviewer and job candidate don’t know each other. If they did, there probably would be no need for a formal interview. And yet, it is often the case that while an applicant may have spent hours (or days) preparing for this conversation, the interviewer will walk into the meeting not having taken five minutes to look at the applicant's paperwork. Knowing that, what are the real chances that interviewer is prepared to make a hiring decision?
This scenario happens a lot in larger companies where the person who makes the decision to hire or reject you is not the person who set up the interview. Often you are one of a conga line of job applicants some middle-manager is obliged to sit down with as part of the daily routine.
It’s safe to say that if the employment decision-maker has nothing to ask you about except vague generalities about your existence, you’re probably not being seriously considered for the job.
Read Full Article Here: 5 Job Interview Questions That Mean You’re Not Getting Hired…And One That Means You Are
