Are Job Interview's getting worse!!!

xkariex

I had an interview the other day, and the questions where from Forbes most difficult questions (I looked them up afterwards).

Anyway, the interviewer told me he didn't know the answers to the questions! To be honest the interview was a joke!! The questions had nothing to do with the job and they didn't tie in together..

Are they all gone this bad?

starlit

I have never had an interview with questions like them though!

I get the impression that they are competency/dilemma/behavioural type questions. Maybe assessing your personality, how you think on your feet and how you are suited to the role and the company. A lot about it is marketing and selling yourself and your unique points. Its not just how you answer them but it been your attitude and your approach to the questions being asked, what you answer wouldn't have mattered much but depended on the questions being asked, the interviewer could have been looking for specific things in your answer.

Difficult to fathom why they even bother asking such difficult questions its like they go out of their way to catch people out in an interview, silly really.

RacoonQueen

These? - http://www.forbes.com/sites/meghancasserly/2011/07/27/the-10-toughest-interview-questions/

Have been asked some serious crap in interviews, who hasn't?
Remember being asked how my friends would describe me. My response was

edit: I'm really bad at interviews. I get tongue tied, one of thos people who is really not good at talking about themselves. Those sort of questions always throw me.

Mervin J Minky

I had at least half of those questions fired at me in a recent interview for an IT position that I was retrained for.

The interview lasted around 45 minutes and I really struggled throughout as I thought that it was going to be getting more technical type questions.

Overall it was a horrible experience I have to say.

Boom_Bap

They are actually handy when doing interviews. I've asked a few and they catch people off guard, it's all about how people recover from that situation.

For example, who is the better candidate. When asked a question that required a number as the answer, do you think more highly of the interviewee who blurts out the first number that comes to mind, or the one who actually ask for a pen and paper to work it out.

Mrs OBumble

RacoonQueen wrote: »

These? - http://www.forbes.com/sites/meghancasserly/2011/07/27/the-10-toughest-interview-questions/

A few in that list are new to me.

But I'd always think about answers to 1, 5, 6, 9 and 10 before any job interview, just in case they're asked.

Nody

I've asked and been asked several of those and I'd expect a candidate (with a few years experience on their belt) to be able to handle most if not all of them.

Personally though the biggest thing anyone can do to fail an interview with me is to not answer the question and just keep on talking and talking and talking with out a point hoping they might get it right. I rather have a person say "I don't know" or spend 20s thinking then starting to praddle on while they think and pray they will get the answer in there somewhere.

Madame K

These do not some particularly unusual. It appears that line of questioning to be prevalent in larger firms. From my personal experience a lot of riff-raff gets through this process. They interview well, get along with others swimmingly but cannot do the job. As too many times it had been uncovered a person had falsified their credentials.

I found if interviewing with a smaller employer, like a start-up company, the questioning is more direct focused--on your skills and your ability to communicate during the interview.

starlit

I looked at the link on forbes on this thread and most of those questions aren't too bad, they would be expected to be asked I would imagine!? It will differentiate candidates based on their answers. Whittles down on the most likely to be hired based on the answers by those type of questions being asked.

They are hard no doubt about that but you really do need to think about your answers. One person could answer a question a certain way and the interviewer may or may not like it and could be a difference in how a question being answered can differentiate candidates from others. The one that is hired will be the one whose answers appealed to the interviewer(s) the most. Especially if they are looking for specific things in your answer but I guess its on not just your approach and how its answered and what you did answer but does the answer you have given appeal and tick all the boxes.

There is a difference though between being asked questions based on transferable/job skills/qualities and competency type questions. Some gear towards dilemma, behavioural, technical, business, specific type of questions, and not just experience, qualifications, skills, personality related ones. Often enough its not just about qualifications and experience but its a lot about what you can bring to the organisation. What makes you stand out and its those tricky questions will highlight areas of yourself that make you stand out or not.

You kind of have to show and demonstrate your skills and experience through hard earned examples from work/college/projects/extra curricular activities. (The STAR approach is the best way going about examples) If they are weak employers are convinced you have the skill, if your example is strong enough and backed up it will prove to them and they will believe you have such and such a skill and quality.

Have as many, possible and most likely, unlikely and most outrageous or impossible questions prepared!

Mr. Loverman

xkariex wrote: »

Are they all gone this bad?

I think you just had a bad interview.

Reminds me of when I interviewed at Microsoft. Total mess and generally really weird. I got the job.

Remember many interviewers have made up their mind about you within the first few seconds, so get the start right and you'll probably be OK, assuming you don't do anything insane.

MrTsSnickers

RacoonQueen wrote: »

Remember being asked how my friends would describe me. My response was

I got this one. It's a terrible question, they don't know my friends..my friends could think I'm a right spanner and describe me as such frequently. But to you good interviewer, my friends would describe me as every really good attribute that looks good to potential employers.

christmas2012

some of them can be really smarmy about you being on the dole

Irish_Elect_Eng

Not the worst or weirdest questions by a long shot.

One interview that I did many years ago started with a simple but very agressive...

"What are you late, this interview was scheduled for 1:00 PM?"

I consulted my notes in my personal planner (It was the Eighties :-) )
and respectfully disagreed, when he insisted that I was wrong, I stayed calm and suggested that we wait for the HR Manager to arrive as she had scheduled the interview.

The manager arrived and asked how I had responded to the stress question...

While you can argue with the effectiveness of such questions in finding the right candidate, they certainly weed out some of the weaker candidates.

A common enough type of question is

"What were your previous manager's biggest weaknesses?

What they are really asking is

"If I hire you, will you be loyal to me when I am not around?

So before you spill the dirt on your previous manager, remember that the hiring manager will one day be your ex manager and would like to be spoken of kindly,despite hos flaws.

InReality

Irish_Elect_Eng wrote: »

Not the worst or weirdest questions by a long shot.

One interview that I did many years ago started with a simple but very agressive...

"What are you late, this interview was scheduled for 1:00 PM?"

I consulted my notes in my personal planner (It was the Eighties :-) )
and respectfully disagreed, when he insisted that I was wrong, I stayed calm and suggested that we wait for the HR Manager to arrive as she had scheduled the interview.

The manager arrived and asked how I had responded to the stress question...

While you can argue with the effectiveness of such questions in finding the right candidate, they certainly weed out some of the weaker candidates.

A common enough type of question is

"What were your previous manager's biggest weaknesses?

What they are really asking is

"If I hire you, will you be loyal to me when I am not around?

So before you spill the dirt on your previous manager, remember that the hiring manager will one day be your ex manager and would like to be spoken of kindly,despite hos flaws.

I had a guy give out to me for having the education section before employment history in my cv.

thankfully I spotted he was doing a version of "stress questioning"

The ex-manager question is very clever.

Yeboah

was at an internal public sector job interview last week. Just went for experience really as cant see myself getting it with the amount going in current climate.If anything it was too basic. I had learned a lot of facts, figures and mission statements which they ususally ask in those type of interviews but it was just the ususal teamwork, innovation etc from start to finish. I was almost getting caught out with simple questions, was likebeing back in secondary school business class when the teacher is doing mock interviews. Couldnt really get the opportuinity to sell myself.

rememberthis

christmas2012 wrote: »

some of them can be really smarmy about you being on the dole

As an interviewer myself, I'm shocked to think another interviewer would be smarmy about that. I prefer the interviewee to just be honest when asked a question. I can smell a fib a mile away (the biggest sign is them waffling but never getting to the answer)... If you don't know, and say so, you will be more respected. Those questions in the forbes link seem very reasonable to me - and not that difficult, as someone else said, if you have industry experience, you would be expected to be able to deal with those sorts of questions. My biggest tip though, don't lie on your CV - we find 80% of interviewees do that, and it just wastes everyone's time when you sit there for 45 minutes and they lie to you.

NewsMeQuick

xkariex wrote: »

I had an interview the other day, and the questions where from Forbes most difficult questions (I looked them up afterwards).

Anyway, the interviewer told me he didn't know the answers to the questions! To be honest the interview was a joke!! The questions had nothing to do with the job and they didn't tie in together..

Are they all gone this bad?

That interviewer and that firm are really stupid. That's ridiculous. Is it sadism? That is a joke, I agree.

cricketfan

Yeboah wrote: »

was at an internal public sector job interview last week. Just went for experience really as cant see myself getting it with the amount going in current climate.If anything it was too basic. I had learned a lot of facts, figures and mission statements which they ususally ask in those type of interviews but it was just the ususal teamwork, innovation etc from start to finish. I was almost getting caught out with simple questions, was likebeing back in secondary school business class when the teacher is doing mock interviews. Couldnt really get the opportuinity to sell myself.

I've had something similar and have felt it was so comfortable that they were just going through the motions, and I was a mere pawn in their process. They have to be seen to go through their EOP rules. I've had worse - at least one of the interviewers didn't seem very keen or interested in me, from the start of the interview.

Phat Cat

I love on the rare occasion where employers are so blown away by your CV they seem to be trying to sell you the job instead the other way around.

Lately I've been getting lots of phone interviews with fairly tricky questions like on that Forbes list. I think that I do okay and ask them interesting yet valid questions at the end to show my enthusiasm but I rarely get an offer for some reason.

I've very good at my job but I find interviews very uncomfortable and I never feel that I sell myself as well as somebody far more confident but probably not as good at the job as me.

InReality

cricketfan wrote: »

I've had something similar and have felt it was so comfortable that they were just going through the motions, and I was a mere pawn in their process. They have to be seen to go through their EOP rules. I've had worse - at least one of the interviewers didn't seem very keen or interested in me, from the start of the interview.

It often is a form filling exercise for the interviewers as the whole process is very scripted and timed , and they have a lot of people doing the interviews who just have the minimum qualifications needed .

Had the exact same experience myself , my middle interviewer ( of 3 people ) spent a lot of time looking out the window

BC322

Hey xkariex,

The answer to your question is a simple enough one. Employers use these types of questions more as a test of your competency and behaviour and to see how you will react under pressure.
However in recent times it has become obvious that certain employers seem to be taking these questions out of context and using more and more of them throughout interviews whereas originally only a couple would be thrown in the see your reaction...
I think that employers should learn how to use these questions properly before implementing them in an interview situation.
Hope this helped

nasirma

I dont think so
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