Nice people thread part 4 - sugar and spice and all things

michaels

PN you do sound like the ideal candidate and there have been some good tips on how to make the employer realise that you aren't like the second income applicants with kids/other distractions nor the 'bright young things' who want something for right now but would be off at the drop of a hat if something better came along.

Do you have a technique for making sure you don't make a blooper? I am not sure of the best ones but you need a 'make time to think' method to avoid diving in and regretting - perhaps something like just a pause for thought or a stock phrase 'that is an interesting question' or may be a repeat back of the question to the interviewer before answering just to give you that moment to put your brain in gear before answering?

As a possibly not very helpful aside in my last interview I was asked about a situation where I had worked with different stakeholders with contradictory objectives and how I had pushed through the 'best' solution and I suddenly realised I was beig much to honest and basically saying I had not handled it very well by not being assertive enough - doh. One thing I find very hard about being a consultant is where in the interest of the organisation I should probably be pushing for a radiacl solution but in terms of continuing my employment with them the best answer is to let them carry on doing what they have always done...

purch

in my last interview I was asked about a situation where I had worked with different stakeholders with contradictory objectives and how I had pushed through the 'best' solution

Why do these "highly trained" HR fools think that by asking questions like that will identify the best candidate for the job ?? :mad:

The only people able to answer these questions are those with the most experience of being asked them, so they have a ready answer, which means they have had lots of interviews........ergo they can't hold down a job for long !!!!!

Rant over :eek:

lostinrates

purch wrote: »

Why do these "highly trained" HR fools think that by asking questions like that will identify the best candidate for the job ?? :mad:

The only people able to answer these questions are those with the most experience of being asked them, so they have a ready answer, which means they have had lots of interviews........ergo they can't hold down a job for long !!!!!

Rant over :eek:

A friend of ours was given something described as something like ''intergrated Leadership evaluation'' where they had to work in a team and have the team produce the tallest tower of paper. They were told the recruiters were looking for people who worked within a team but displayed leadership qualities. My friend was told after this exercise he had failed because while his team skills were good he had also shown the best leadership skills, (these included things like, inspiring tem mates, winning confidence of team mates) and they weren't looking for organ grinders, only monkeys. My friend was desperate by this stage for a job and would have happily volunteered to be a monkey, or do whatever employer wanted, and the employer had ASKED for leaderships skills to be shown, specifically so they could weed out people with ambition. It sucks.

While people go around playing stupid games like that, the candidate becomes less and less likely to display a real snapshot of them selves as they are nervous anyway, then also trying to work out if interviewers are double bluffing, or what.

DH HATES the ''which three people dead or alive would you like to have a meal with'' because the obvious answer includes his mother, which isn't appropriate and the question demands a lie for an answer.

still, not likely to be asked that on PN, more like...would you work overtime if there was a big order night

Generali

purch wrote: »

Why do these "highly trained" HR fools think that by asking questions like that will identify the best candidate for the job ?? :mad:

The only people able to answer these questions are those with the most experience of being asked them, so they have a ready answer, which means they have had lots of interviews........ergo they can't hold down a job for long !!!!!

Rant over :eek:

The single best question to ask in an interview? What's 7x8?

1. You can be sure it's not a prepared answer that you get
2. It completely throws people
3. The answer is always interesting and rarely right.

I ask the question. Then when the candidate inevitably stares at me and says, "What?" I repeat the question and smile.

I wait about 20-30 seconds with a blank expression and if there's been no answer I say, "I was just wondering if you knew what the answer to 7 x 8 is. You don't have to answer if you don't want to".

Some people blurt out an answer (usually wrong), others take their time and work it out (7^2 = 49 and add another 7 for example or even 7, 14, 21...56). I have never, thus far, employed someone that just blurted out the wrong answer. One day I probably will if I ever interview people again.

StevieJ

PasturesNew wrote: »

Anyway .... I have a knack of spectacularly crashing and burning by saying the most ridiculous things under interview pressure

Think - I don't want that job Good luck.

vivatifosi

Gen, you're worrying me a bit here. Please tell me that you weren't recruiting merchant bankers, with people coming to interview inumerate. Though that would explain a lot about the world if you didn't employ them so they went to HBOS and RBS...

I don't like trick questions. I ask people what they know about the company (ie have they done their homework), why they want the job (what's their motivation) and why they think I should give them the job and not someone else (what's their self-perception). I also try and find out a bit about them as a person to see how they would fit in. The only time I've been unhappy with the person I've recruited was when they were the only person who turned up and I had to hire someone. Possibly not my finest moment in manager-land. I should have put it back out to the recruiters instead.

Generali

vivatifosi wrote: »

Gen, you're worrying me a bit here. Please tell me that you weren't recruiting merchant bankers, with people coming to interview inumerate. Though that would explain a lot about the world if you didn't employ them so they went to HBOS and RBS...

I don't like trick questions. I ask people what they know about the company (ie have they done their homework), why they want the job (what's their motivation) and why they think I should give them the job and not someone else (what's their self-perception). I also try and find out a bit about them as a person to see how they would fit in. The only time I've been unhappy with the person I've recruited was when they were the only person who turned up and I had to hire someone. Possibly not my finest moment in manager-land. I should have put it back out to the recruiters instead.

It's not a trick question, just a simple piece of multiplication. I've used it to employ reasonably junior people and a couple of more senior ones (including analysts - seriously, I've never had an analyst be able to answer that question).

The trouble is, if you ask someone why they want to work for you they'll bang on about how the company is awesome because of [insert some nonsense from the CSR section of the website].

I also ask normal questions and I save that one for near the end (although not actually the end).

michaels

Ah but people like pn and me who call a spade a spade would probably just answer 56 straight off without thinking - I would then probably try and backtrack as my brain clicked in and tried to work out what the trick was...

vivatifosi

Generali wrote: »

It's not a trick question, just a simple piece of multiplication. I've used it to employ reasonably junior people and a couple of more senior ones (including analysts - seriously, I've never had an analyst be able to answer that question).

The trouble is, if you ask someone why they want to work for you they'll bang on about how the company is awesome because of [insert some nonsense from the CSR section of the website].

I also ask normal questions and I save that one for near the end (although not actually the end).

Sorry, when talking about trick questions, I was more concerned about what michaels said. With the multiplication, well I was more concerned that bankers couldn't do it. I remember a news article many years ago that said that street children in the favelas of Brazil had some of the best mental arithmetic on the planet because to survive they needed to hone their basic maths skills really early, plus they'd never be able to afford a calculator, or even a pen and paper to do sums with. So when hustling people they would be working out complex sums in their heads. It would make an interesting social experiment to train some of them up and let them loose in a bank and see how they get on, particularly given that they've had to live with risk and its consequences all their lives too.

purch

The last interview I had, ended with me falling off my stool in Gow's at around 9:30 in the evening ( we had been there since 11:45 )

Can't remember many of the questions :eek: