The JobSync Blog
The Worst Interview Questions
October 25, 2011
One of the not-so-secret secrets of hiring managers is that you rarely hire based on experience and skills alone. You are clearly looking for a candidate with that extra passion and commitment that sets this individual apart from his or her peers. In fact, someone with a stronger background on paper often loses a job to someone with less experience and weaker skills simply because this person feels like a better match.
Given this reality, it becomes ever more important for hiring managers to ace the interview just as candidates must. The interview is your chance to see if someone truly is a good fit in your company’s environment. When interviewing finalists, hiring managers intuitively sense among the remaining candidates who would jump right in and immediately feel like they’re part of the team, so this window of opportunity cannot be missed. Just as job interviewers do themselves no favors when they come off with clichéd answers, so too does the hiring manager who poses any of these questions:
1. What made you decide to apply to our company? While some hiring managers feel this question gauges a candidate’s interest and preparation for an interview, isn’t this really just a chance for a company to have its ego stroked?
2. Can you work under pressure? No candidates in their right mind are going to answer “No.” And every candidate probably has a stock answer to this question if prodded for an example of grace under fire from past work experience. Which brings us to…
3. What is your biggest weakness? You’re pretty much begging to hear that someone thinks of oneself as a perfectionist. Again, most candidates come in with a canned answer that you’ve probably started hearing in your sleep.
4. Where do you see yourself in five years? Hopefully not on an upcoming episode of Fox’s long-running series Cops. This question is also overdone and will spark no spontaneous revelations from an interview candidate.
5. This job pays $XX,XXX a year – are you comfortable with that? There’s a time and a place for discussing things like salary, but probably not in a job interview.
Remember, you are trying to find a good match for your company, not make someone spit out well-rehearsed answers to tired, aimless questions. After all, the working world demands focus, creativity, and resourcefulness – shouldn’t your interviewing reveal these same traits in a candidate?
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