One of the enduring mysteries in my professional life is how we never seem to run out of goofy interview stories. I thought by now that everyone would have gotten the memo: Don’t act out a “Star Trek” role in your next interview. Don’t pop out your teeth when the employer mentions the dental plan. And no, don’t ask the interviewer for a hug.
These, and dozens of other blunders, were noted recently in an online poll of 2,201 interviewers conducted by Harris Interactive and published by CareerBuilder (www.careerbuilder.com).
Sadly, the poll captured more than just the oddball behavior of some strange applicants. It also provided a snapshot of candidates acting bored or arrogant, slouching in their chairs, failing to make eye contact and worse.
As a workshop leader, I worry that job seekers will feel patronized when I tell them to look interested in the job. But since apparently 55 percent of candidates act disinterested in their interviews … I guess I’ll just keep telling people to lean forward in their seats.
In defense of job seekers, they’re not the only ones acting strangely in these meetings. Interviewers have taken to asking some pretty wacko questions, leading me to wonder if they’re not also bored, and just trying to amuse themselves at the expense of job seekers.
Some of these questions were captured by Glassdoor Talent Solutions on their website (www.glassdoor.com), where they've been asking candidates for years to share their interview experiences. Among Glassdoor's Top 25 Oddball Interview Questions for 2014 are these wonders: "Do you believe in Bigfoot?" and "If you were a pizza deliveryman, how would you benefit from scissors?"
I heard an entertaining story from a woman whose answer to an offbeat question secured the job offer. Janelle Miller of Minneapolis was interviewing a few years ago at a bank branch specializing in second mortgages. Here’s how she tells it:
“The interviewer was the manager of the small branch of five people. We sat in his office and the question was, ‘If you and I were stranded in a boat surrounded by sharks and there were no oars, no food or water and the only way to survive was for one of us to be thrown overboard, what would you do?’
“I paused for a minute and he waited while staring at me fairly intensely and I looked at him and smiled and said, ‘I don’t know you and I have my son to think about, so to get back to him, I would throw you overboard.’
“That was the last question of the interview and he offered me the job right then. He said I was the only person that he had interviewed that gave an honest answer. What he was looking for was ‘Someone to make the hard decisions no matter the cost.’”
Although I can’t argue with success, I have to admit it wouldn’t have occurred to me that the winning interview answer would be to toss the boss overboard.
I’d like to close this article by offering you advice about handling odd questions, but I think I’ll send you off with two book recommendations instead. Both are by longtime careers author Martin Yate, creator of the Knock ‘em Dead series of books, and both are available as e-books as well as softcover.
You probably already know about my first recommendation, “Knock ‘em Dead Job Interview: How to Turn Job Interviews Into Job Offers” (Adams Media, 2012, $14.95). But unless you’re in the business of hiring, you may have missed this one: “Hiring the Best: Proven Tactics for Successful Employee Selection (6th edition),” (Adams Media, 2014, $14.99).
Unlike the first title, this book was developed for employers, making it an excellent resource for job seekers who want to see things from the other side of the desk. For interviewers and hiring managers, reading this book is a cheap investment in a hugely important process. For candidates, it’s a rare peek behind the curtain at how interviews are constructed.
Maybe if more people read Yate this year, we’ll have fewer lists of goofy candidates and goofier interview questions come next January. I can only hope.
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