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I'm not talking about questions like "Why should we hire you?"
I'm talking about questions like "If you have to drive a forklift to a hospital to save a coworker, would you do it?"
I'm not talking about questions like "Why should we hire you?"
I'm talking about questions like "If you have to drive a forklift to a hospital to save a coworker, would you do it?"
I've been on many interview panels, and can say I have never seen or asked a trick question. Managers have more important things to do with their time than to play gotcha. EVERY question has a purpose. the purpose, although not always evident is to determine whether this candidate would be a god fit for the organization. The best thing candidates can do is to view the interview as a first date rather than an audition. Try to find out as. Much about the other party as you can possibly can, that's what they are trying to do. It doesn't serve ANYONE'S interest to fluff the answers. Many a candidate has g en the answer they thought the employer wanted to hear, only to be miserable in the job, just being yourself is the best recipe to finding your dream job.
I was in college interviewing for an internship. The interviewer saw that I worked at McDonald's and commented he had also worked for a McDonald's. At one point he asked this "trick" question (the job was for a finance/systems internship.)
Quote:
If you knew how to make a cheeseburger, but the manager told you to start making it a different way that you thought was wrong, would you make it the way the manager told you to do it?
That's a very loaded question. On the one hand, refusing to do something the way your manger tells you to do it when you're applying for an intership makes you sound arrogant and like you'll be a challenge to work with.
On the other hand, following the manager's instructions despite knowing the "right" way to do something is how fraud happens in the accounting world.
Blindly obeying was wrong. Blindly disobeying was wrong. Yes and No were both wrong. Seems like a "trick."
That said, he seemed to be pretty happy with my response of "I'd express my hesitation and explain how normally it was done the other way. I would be open to the idea that maybe the manager was presenting me with a new way to make a cheeseburger that was more efficient or simply the new way, but would be sure to understand why we were doing it the new way before I actually did it myself."
It wasn't that "Yes, I'd do it" was right, and it wasn't that "No, I'd disobey my boss" was right. It was a question designed to figure out how I thought and where I drew lines.
That's what "trick" questions are usually looking for.
The problem with silly trick questions - how many pianos are there in New York, how many marbles with fit in a school bus, and so on - is often in how the employer approaches the problem.
Those aren't really trick questions. They're questions that nobody in their right mind would expect others to know. A "trick" question would be something like which President is on the face of the $100 bill. I used to ask candidates I interviewed if they could tell me a formula for calculating the octane rating of gasoline or where the World Dryer Corporation is located. The job I was trying to fill required a person who is observant and anybody who is observant AND has put gas in his car or washed their hands in a public restroom would know the answer to those questions.
Still, I was surprised by how many people knew the answer.
Those aren't really trick questions. They're questions that nobody in their right mind would expect others to know. A "trick" question would be something like which President is on the face of the $100 bill. I used to ask candidates I interviewed if they could tell me a formula for calculating the octane rating of gasoline or where the World Dryer Corporation is located. The job I was trying to fill required a person who is observant and anybody who is observant AND has put gas in his car or washed their hands in a public restroom would know the answer to those questions.
Still, I was surprised by how many people knew the answer.
I have never heard of World Dryer Corporation. I don't typically use public restrooms.
What's the point of "Trick questions" on an interview?
As with any other question in an interview - to help the interviewer assess you.
So the question is - does it really work? If I've hired some great people using this method, then in my mind it's an effective tool. However, if I tried this and ended up with super incompetent people, then the tool is worthless.
Bottom line, interviews are first and foremost subjective. Thus, there really is no real formula for this. What works for me may be worthless for others. Take the Google example, they like structured questions. IMO - anyone can study these structured questions and spout out the answer. This is why my interviews are conversational. But I'm sure people can rip my methods for its inconsistency. And they wouldn't be wrong. But that's how I hire people, and it's worked for me.
Some employers have toxic, ineffective H.R. departments, and they no doubt are into stupid tactics.
Quite a few actually and I've had the displeasure of being interviewed by quite a few of them. To the original question a lot of interviewers come to the interview and proceed to try and trick, interrogate, and rip apart candidates then give themselves a pat on the back with the delusion they are doing a good job saving the company from a bad hire when in fact they are acting like sociopaths. Such people who act that way would probably behave similarly if you were to be hired so I would mark them as prefer not to work there.
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