I still get surprised by how bad some people are at interviewing

[Ns1]

You need to tell me why I would want to work for you. If you can do that, I'll be a great employee.

 

[purbeast0]

There are lots and lots of people in here who have never owned a business or had to hire someone. Case in point, the candidate badly answering an obvious question saved the OP the trouble of wasting more time on the interview.

I posted an administrative assistant position and got hundreds of responses. When you get that many people, you have to be picky. It amuses me slightly that most of you who think the question is THAT stupid are probably bad employees, or at least somewhat lazy and entitled. That type of mentality is exactly the type that fails the annoying questions such as the one posed in the OP. No interview is perfect and people are often good at lying, but if you can catch some of them when a silly question, why not? From my POV, it saves me time and money to have you fall flat on your face during the interview instead of 3 months later.

Hiring someone costs a significant amount of time, money, and energy. Hiring someone who can't separate their personal and mostly unjustified feelings about a simple question usually ends badly for the company. When I've been asked questions that sounded pointless, I gave a clear and concise answer so we could move on to the meat of the interview. Not having that skill or thinking you're too good for the question is telling.

it is a stupid question and asking it to a smart person will immediately be a red flag.

i have a very specific list of questions i ask in an interview. usually the first one i ask is what is the typical work week entail.

if they tell me it is over 40 hours of work that they expect, then i immediately know i will not be working there.

this type of stupid interview question will give me the same feeling about the place that expects people to work for 50 hours a week but getting paid for 40 hours.

ie, a poorly ran company with stupid policies and policies in place.

and i'm far from being a bad employee. i get more work done than the majority of people i work with, which is probably why i get compensated in a very nice manner.

 

[purbeast0]

^^ My takeaway:
When sorting through a pile of applicants I first eliminate as many people as possible, THEN I sort through what's left to find any good ones. People that take issue with playing my games would never work out anyway, so it's win win.

you are going to lose a lot of good/smart people by asking stupid questions in an interview. so sure, have fun weeding out the only candidates that might be worth a damn.

 

[purbeast0]

Then some of us get lucky enough that we don't interview for jobs anymore. We interview jobs for us.

You need to tell me why I would want to work for you. If you can do that, I'll be a great employee.

yep. this is truly the mentality that people need when working a job. it took me a good 6-7 years in my career field to get this mentality. it took me quite a bit of experience and ass kicking to gain the confidence needed to be in this situation.

now i'm of the mentality that you aren't doing me a favor for hiring me - i'm doing you a favor for working for you. many people dont' think this way, which is why you see so many people "bragging" about working 50+ hours a week as if it's a badge of honor when they are getting paid for 40 hours. the reality is you are a moron if you are doing that.

 

[Ns1]

yep. this is truly the mentality that people need when working a job. it took me a good 6-7 years in my career field to get this mentality. it took me quite a bit of experience and ass kicking to gain the confidence needed to be in this situation.

now i'm of the mentality that you aren't doing me a favor for hiring me - i'm doing you a favor for working for you. many people dont' think this way, which is why you see so many people "bragging" about working 50+ hours a week as if it's a badge of honor when they are getting paid for 40 hours. the reality is you are a moron if you are doing that.

This is true if you're exceptional. If you're a dime a dozen candidate...

 

[glenn1]

Then some of us get lucky enough that we don't interview for jobs anymore. We interview jobs for us.

You need to tell me why I would want to work for you. If you can do that, I'll be a great employee.

Yeah. Here's the most recent pile of word salad "job description" I got from a recruiter. It's painful watching them try to string the handful of buzzwords they managed to capture during the hiring manager interview into an actual sentence in English. It's like a random word generator just spewed some crap onto the page.

On this team, you would be instrumental in creating a new "Analytics Enclave" - a sandbox for development of analytics and models for Big Data as well as deliver new data consumption capabilities inclusive of the build out of a multi-year roadmap with focus on data usage patterns and business specific use cases.

Oh cool, it's a place where they even have a roadmap for their use cases. I've always wanted one of those.

 

[Ruptga]

This is true if you're exceptional. If you're a dime a dozen candidate...

Unfortunately true. Most people entering the professional workforce have no real bargaining power, it's only after you've been in it for 6-7 years that you're able to make petty tyrants pay any attention to anyone but themselves.

 

[purbeast0]

Unfortunately true. Most people entering the professional workforce have no real bargaining power, it's only after you've been in it for 6-7 years that you're able to make petty tyrants pay any attention to anyone but themselves.

why is it "unfortunate" that it's true? the people who are exceptional should be able to have more options and make more money than the dime a dozen people who are just doing enough to get by.

 

[glenn1]

This is true if you're exceptional. If you're a dime a dozen candidate...

Does the OPs workplace sound "exceptional"? Shit, they can't even organize their own fucking lines of business who can't work together to handle simple tasks. Like having multiple teams doing the same work but unable to do rework for the other teams or even share common passwords. What a screwed up miserable place to work that would be.

 

[Bob the Coder]

why is it "unfortunate" that it's true? the people who are exceptional should be able to have more options and make more money than the dime a dozen people who are just doing enough to get by.

You seem like an angry person.

 

[sourceninja]

...

 

[Ns1]

It's also about picking your market. Could I make more money in a big city? Sure, but I'd have to work twice as hard and I'd be competing with twice as many PHD kids.

Instead I live in an area where IT is in high demand but there is very little supply. You want a VCP, CCNA, with 10+ years redhat linux? Well you get to pick between the 3 guys in this area who are already working for great companies and making high end salary (for the area). So you can try to offer us a better deal, or you can try to convince someone from the big city that moving to a manufacturing/farming community is exciting and urban and that pay cut won't be bad because of the cost of living.

Or you can hire a fresh faced kid with no experience from the local college.

Which is why I still think it's funny when I see the jobs posted for months on end in this area. They should already know the 3 guys who even come close to having the required experience and they should realize they haven't gotten any applications because their offer just isn't what it needs to be.

so uh, where do you live/work? lol

 

[mrjminer]

I'm starting a new job for a school in a week in a half that is going to be over 40 hours a week salary. My guess is average somewhere around 42-45, but it is going to depend largely on how much I can do during normal working hours. I have a pretty strong work ethic, so I don't think I will have many issues. After the first month, I am expecting to have a system down to make it 40 a week, or less then I can just go around helping other people out and learn some stuff in the process. Entry-level, though, since I am switching careers ATM for stability, so it is expected.

Then, my free time is going to be gathering some certs, or programming some shit. Just happy I will have a stable income that gives me the freedom to not have to worry about what I choose to pursue in my free time.

But yea, interviews are pretty easy for me for these entry level jobs where they ask no technological questions. Lack the experience, but have plenty of knowledge making shit extremely easy to pick up if there's something I actually don't know that is related to the job. I feel bad for the people that interview for the same positions I do most of the time, because I know they are just wasting their time.

The only times I don't get a job when I get an interview is when I tell the interviewer that the way they are doing things currently is wrong and the general steps they need to take to correct what they are doing. Funny shit. I interviewed for this web development position 6 months ago and told them their current sites looked horrible, and that their mentality that just using templates that weren't even mobile-friendly because they didn't want to have to "argue with others" and it was just easier to let them pick some HORRIBLE template (seriously, it was ridiculously bad). Also that their choice of Joomla as a CMS was subpar compared to even a quickly-made custom solution for their organization. Then pointed out some basic cross site forgery request holes they had, and advised them they might want to consider ASP over PHP anyways since they were already using WCF.

Didn't get that job, though it paid like 60k for just "managing" 3-4 sites using these pre-made templates... on a team of 3 people that were obviously going to be clueless.

 

[Ruptga]

why is it "unfortunate" that it's true? the people who are exceptional should be able to have more options and make more money than the dime a dozen people who are just doing enough to get by.

I'm fine with that part, what's unfortunate is that those entering the workforce (barring some unusual circumstances and/or luck) have no choice but to take it up the butt for several years before they have a hope of being treated like a person. Even an internship, OURE, etc., is no guarantee, since every year there are more applicants with those same experiences.

I'm not sure what it's called in this context, but if this were happening in a game I'd call it power creep. We're given hoops to jump through to prove that we "aren't doing just enough to get by", but the more time that passes the more people realize how to play the game, so new hoops are added "to make sure we're getting the right people", but people keep on adapting. After a few generations of that cycle we have four-year degrees that are valueless and candidates that would have been a shoo-in twenty or even ten years ago are flipping burgers.

 

[CountZero]

Ahh the greatest weakness question. Interview shorthand for "I have no clue how to ask pointed question relevant to the work, so I'll just throw this out there." If you are not HR and you ask this question you need to look at what it is you are trying to do. If you actually know what the position is supposed to do you should be asking questions related to that not canned questions.

Interviews are essentially sales meetings. Employer wants to buy your time and get the greatest return on that investment. Employee wants to sell their time and get the best possible "price" (including things beyond salary). In what sales call would you ask the seller what the greatest weakness is and not assume that it was total BS?

There are three possible answers:
1. The truth which will likely get you penalized.
2. An actual weakness (though not your greatest weakness) that is very minor and you can claim you are working on.
3. The total BS weakness as a strength.

This question asked early in an interview might as well throw up a sign that says "Please lie to me, I expect and want it". It also implies you don't know what is required to actually do the job you are hiring for, you are just firing blindly and hoping they weed themselves out.

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

Kind of a shit question if you ask me. Borders along the lines of "what is your biggest fault?". I mean, yeah good that you found out he wasn't the right match, but those kinds of questions in which you demand a person tell you something negative about themselves or a job position, is not productive IMO.

Agreed. Basically, to anyone that actually WANTS the job I'll paraphrase that question: "Tell me a lie in which you try to halfway say it in a negative connotation but then make it come out in a positive way". Deeeeeeeeeerp

It's questions like that that piss me off and make interviews so uncomfortable. You MUST lie. You MUST bullshit. You have to hope the answers you are bullshitting with are the bullshit they want in order to toot the interviewers horn. Thank the fuck god I'm done with a lot of interviewing BS in my life.

 

[who?]

How could this be relevant?

I want to know if this person fits a particular stereotype.

 

[disappoint]

Agreed. Basically, to anyone that actually WANTS the job I'll paraphrase that question: "Tell me a lie in which you try to halfway say it in a negative connotation but then make it come out in a positive way". Deeeeeeeeeerp

It's questions like that that piss me off and make interviews so uncomfortable. You MUST lie. You MUST bullshit. You have to hope the answers you are bullshitting with are the bullshit they want in order to toot the interviewers horn. Thank the fuck god I'm done with a lot of interviewing BS in my life.

Well I've always wanted to work for a company of professional liars as I'm sure none of you will stab me in the back the first chance you get to do so. This is a great opportunity for me to hone my skills of deception, dishonesty and other such shenanigans as I'm seeking a career in politics one day which will give me a very good chance at running for public office. If one day I am Governor or even President of the United States after honing in my persuasive abilities I promise not to forget your company where you'll be able to delegate one of your employees to lobby my office for special treatment.

*drops mic.*

 

[PliotronX]

You should have a follow-up with him and ask him his thoughts and why he interviewed. Then tell him he sucks.

I like it.

 

[TheSlamma]

I'm guessing the reason he's got a job with your company already is whoever hired him to start with only did Yes or No questions. So that supervisor needs to be let go.