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chit chat and small talk is sometimes a lot better for that than all kinds of contrived interview queries

*nod* My favorite tactic as an interviewee is to get them to talk about themselves and what they do. EVERYONE likes talking about what they do when the listener seems interested. If I can get them talking (and me with rapt attention) on some project they usually see me in a very favorable light. After all I had to know something to be interested in what they were talking about, right? It is a great interpersonal skill that works in many situations. Boss wants a status update on something not done? Get make your excuse short and deflect it into something that get's HIM talking and not you. Asking for advice or opinion works well. In an interview it is asking those leading questions that get them to talk about their company. Basically the reverse of the kind of questions they ask you. Benefits are great and all but instead ask their opinion on the corporate culture or how efficient they think their management structure is. Don't make it sound canned like their questions and they will fall for it easily. Things like what projects they interviewer has worked on or what things they did for those projects are just about sure bets. Asking what they did when they first got hired also works well because they are very distracted by the process or remembering all that. Naturally you need to tell them enough about yourself. But what questions you ask is a good way to so that. I consider it a victory if the time is filled up mainly with them talking. Two way chatting also works and of course any dead air is bad. Ah! Now I have given up Talon's Tactical interviewing secrets! I am afraid I can't leave any witnesses alive...