Posted on 06/10/2011 11:37:53 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
There are a couple questions that everyone dreads in an interview.
"What is your greatest weakness?" "Where do you see yourself in five years?" and "Tell me about yourself." It's the default question (and the first) in most interviews, and to many candidates, it can feel like a trap.
So we spoke with executive headhunters and career coaches about how best to answer this question. "They want to gauge how the person thinks," says Eileen Finn, president of executive search firm Eileen Finn & Associates in New York.
Even though there is no one right answer, focusing on the past, the negative, or the too personal can hurt your chances of making it through.
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(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Very creepy...guaranteed for a no call! Funny....
Thanks for posting this. It made me realize the utter inappropriateness and unprofessionalism of such questions.
Such a question has ZERO to do with any skill, ability, professional training, job or project. Like “socialization”, meaning indoctrination and group-think has replaced education, this is also Marxist social leveling.
Hiring has been taken over by HR people wholly trained in Marxism socialism.
Do you have any questions for me?
What’s the company policy on shooting supervisors?
Do you have any questions for me?
Yeah. Who’s got the best tasting ass? You little ass kisser.
Is there anything else you’d like to tell me?
I’m really sorry about that getting on my knees thing. I really need this job and I thought when you said “I’m from HRO” that you really said “I’m a homo”.
You won’t get this job, but I am looking for a Personal Assistant.
If they say 50, I'm good with that, as that is the mathematical number. If they give a really high number, that indicates to me people who are clueless. I also avoid the, "maybe 40, I'm not very lucky." I don't want those "woe is me" type people.
1. They don't really care that much about your personal life, your dog, your cat, your personality, where you were born and raised, where you grew up, etc. etc. etc. They are only interested in whether or not you can do the job.
2. Before you even go into the interview you should already have an answer to this question based upon the qualifications listed for he job. For example, if the ad says "Need a strong self starter" you're going to talk about a job situation where you were a strong self starter. If the ad says "Database experience required" you're going to talk about your database experience at jobs.
3. In your answer try to hit as many of the requirements for the job as possible. And practice your answer. Make a script and practice. Practice. Practice. But become a good actor too. Make it sound like you've JUST thought of this. Throw in some ummms and ahhhs.
4. ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS maintain eye contact during ANY answer you give. Looking away for any reason other than to look at someone else in the interview makes it look like you're lying.
5. The most important thing I've ever learned: Nobody likes an asshole (sorry about the language but it's the most appropriate word). Nobody likes to work with an asshole. Nobody likes to hire an asshole. This applies even if they're assholes. So whatever you do BE friendly. Be nice. Be personable. Don't do or say ANYTHING that makes you look like an asshole.
“You also don’t want to tell an interviewer you’re divorced; you want to tell them something positive, like you’re a big believer in giving back to the community.”
Are you divorced?
Yes. My ex-wife believed in giving back to the community in motel room after motel room. So I gave her back to the community.
Are you divorced?
I believe in giving back to the community. You’re a good-looking babe, how about if we get up on your desk and I’ll show you how much I have to give back.
Are you involved in any charities?
I take young girls off the street...and put them in the back seat of my car. Does that count?
What are you proudest of?
I’ve never been convicted.
I’ve interviewed many candidates. As an employer, we are subject to a myriad of off-limit questions imposed on us by the damn lawyers and federal labor laws. I am going to invest a lot of time and money into hiring, training and ultimately employing this person. I have to make sure he or she is qualified.
By asking these ‘mundane and senseless’ questions, the employer is able to gauge the candidate’s communication skills, hints at what their personality and work style is, and where their head is at. Someone who cannot speak extemporaneously about themself when they are given that five minutes to shine is generally not someone I want to work for me.
I usually respond by asking “Why? What have you heard?”
Marxism crept in the back window and took over the good sensibility of many. Don’t go making excuses for it.
You sound confused. What about these questions qualifies ANYONE for a particular job? The questions the Feds and your legal department prevent you asking have nothing to do with it either.
Performance-oriented companies like Amazon and Google and such ask questions like "How much would you charge to clean every window in Seattle?" That indicates analytical and verbal reasoning. It's a general question.
Stick to a conversation about the work to be done.
If you want a Psych screen use a MMPA-type test, and use or hire a psychologist to do his/her interview of subject. Stop with the group-think PC-ism feels-really-smart but meaningless questions already. Questions like: "What will you picture yourself doing in five years?" Or "What was your greatest accomplishment/failure?"
Late fix: “MMPI”, see http://psychology.about.com/od/psychologicaltesting/a/mmpi_2.htm
Just say you’re pleading the 5th. Chances are the Constitution is not in their library.
My greatest weakness?
A long cool woman in a [short] black dress. Toss in some 4” stilettos, and I’m hers. Say, what time do you get off?
A while back I interviewed with the Federal Reserve and spent almost three hours in a group interview where I was asked questions like "describe a time when you were not able to finish a work assignment because of a conflicting priority that arose, and what you did about it."
“What would you say are the experiences that most shaped who you are today?”
Electro shock therapy.
“Describe a time when you were not able to finish a work assignment because of a conflicting priority that arose, and what you did about it.”
I was working on a presentation for The Board of Directors that needed to be ready in an hour. Our attorney came in and asked if I could head up a team for a charity fundraiser. I threw him out the window. It’s called “defenestration”. Look it up. Well, I can see by the looks on your faces that you’re prejudiced against people who throw lawyers out of windows. It was only nine stories. He bounced like a half-inflated basketball. Do you need someone with fundraising experience?
I’ve never gotten hired when the interview questions were such cliches. Is it me, or is it the interviewer?
The only times I’ve gotten hired has been when the interview is a relaxed chat and the hiring decision had been apparently made ahead of time, if only tentatively.
did he get the job?
LOL
I hate that stoopid question.
Here is my question to those I interview:
Two things:
Why do you want this job?
Why should I hire you?
What makes you unique, separate and distinct from anyone else who wants this job?
Demonstrate.....
I usually wait to here “That was more than two thing!”
For the R&D positions, usually PhD chemists, they will ask me to schedule dinner the night before, sometimes breakfast the morning of, an interview day of 9-2 or 3 that includes a 45 minute presentation.
Just the other day I heard that one of the questions asked is, "What would it take to keep you here at 7PM on a Friday night?"
Here is the question I am dying to ask..."Did you go to school forever because you want to live in your workplace OR did you go to school forever so that you DON'T have to live in your workplace?"
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