What do you / don't you want to hear from a candidate in an interview?

[TLO]

As I've moved up in my company, I'm less involved in the hiring process for new employees.

I kind of miss it though. The good interviews. The bad ones. The absolute train wrecks.

Anyway, what are things you like to hear from candidates? What don't you want to hear people talk about?

[Spott]

I hate the inane behavioral interview questions that are completely irrelevant to the job. Describe a time when you did this, how did it make you feel, etc.

[-King-]

Originally Posted by Vladimir_Kyrilytch

For technical accounting positions I ask "what is your favorite FASB pronouncement and why?" A decent accountant should know plenty of those and have opinions on them. If they can't even name one, that's such an easy way to weed out shitty applicants.

Generally I like "describe a time you had a disagreement with a coworker and how you resolved it". All kinds of tells come out of that.

Then of course "do you have any questions for me?". If they say no, that's not a good answer. That's someone that hasn't even really contemplated the job. If they ask about pay/vacation/benefits/etc, that's even worse.

No offense but you seem like a HR managers wet dream of an interviewer.

[PunkinDrublic]

I used to work a lot of overnight security in college. Onetime I was interviewing for this job and the guy had a really thick accent and at one point asked me if I minded working security outside the whorehouse. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing and it sounded like the dream job until i figured out he was trying to say courthouse.

[displacedinMN]

Originally Posted by lewdog

I will be brutally honest.

I don't want to hear them bring up being a single parent. A person who uses that in an interview, without being questioned about their personal life, is telling you they are going to have problems getting to work.

Again, I don't care if you are a single parent. But it's a red flag in an interview if you throw that out there unprovoked. I've seen it too many times. If you're leading with that, it means you're struggling as a single parent and this will have a huge impact on the business I'm trying to run.

Agreed.

We are not allowed to ask about personal information, yet, the candidate wants to make you feel sorry for them to try to get the job.



We had someone show up for an interview that looked like she just got out of the garden. Didnt hire her. She also was WAY unqualified.

I wish I had more stories, but forgot many of them. My old assistant principal was golden with stories.



Our HR would create questions and so would some AP's.
We were interviewing for a long term sub, and my AP asked "What is the cause of the achievement gap and how would you fix it?

HOLY SHIT-that is a lot to lay on a long term sub, especially for someone that has never had a full time job in a classroom.

[Buehler445]

Being full of shit and trying to tell me what I want to hear.

If you bullshit me in the interview you will bullshit me in the job.

The guy I have now didn't say much at all during the interview. He didn't have a ton of production ag experience and I spent a lot of time describing the job to him and what the various types of workdays would look like because I'm trying to be as up front as I can be.

He was pretty clear about what his prior job was like but didn't sell me as the greatest thing since sliced bread. And we talked a fair bit about his responsibilities on the fire department and what kind of compensation he'd be comfortable with, and while he was pretty quiet, he didn't ever give me bullshit. And to my knowledge he hasn't bullshitted me on the job either.

[Buehler445]

Originally Posted by lewdog

I will be brutally honest.

I don't want to hear them bring up being a single parent. A person who uses that in an interview, without being questioned about their personal life, is telling you they are going to have problems getting to work.

Again, I don't care if you are a single parent. But it's a red flag in an interview if you throw that out there unprovoked. I've seen it too many times. If you're leading with that, it means you're struggling as a single parent and this will have a huge impact on the business I'm trying to run.

Yeah, that's kind of bullshit because you can't legally ask about it. But if their self made identity is "My life is harder than yours because I'm a stay at home mom" that will be a tough out for me.

[Mosbonian]

Originally Posted by displacedinMN

Agreed.

We are not allowed to ask about personal information, yet, the candidate wants to make you feel sorry for them to try to get the job.



We had someone show up for an interview that looked like she just got out of the garden. Didnt hire her. She also was WAY unqualified.

I wish I had more stories, but forgot many of them. My old assistant principal was golden with stories.



Our HR would create questions and so would some AP's.
We were interviewing for a long term sub, and my AP asked "What is the cause of the achievement gap and how would you fix it?

HOLY SHIT-that is a lot to lay on a long term sub, especially for someone that has never had a full time job in a classroom.

I hate any kind of response that is meant to elicit sympathy from me in regards to the interviewees personal situation.....

[Buehler445]

One of the better answers I ever got was,

"What are you looking for out of this job"

"I wasn't ever good in school. I figured out I needed to make a living with my hands, and that's what I'm here for."

He wasn't a good employee, but it was a good answer.

[Mosbonian]

Originally Posted by Buehler445

Yeah, that's kind of bullshit because you can't legally ask about it. But if their self made identity is "My life is harder than yours because I'm a stay at home mom" that will be a tough out for me.

Oddly enough, one of the best candidate to work on my team was a stay at home mom" who was getting back into the workplace after 8 years at home with her kids.

What impressed me most was how organized she seemed to be.....and I never heard one peep about the struggles of being a stay at home mom, even after I hired her.

A month after we hired her she was running circles around my best team members...I would give her a portfolio to work that others struggled with and she was marching thru it like it was melted butter. She kept her work life and her personal life completely separate and honestly that was refreshing considering how many of my team members spent time complaining about how rough life was at home. I didn't even know until she had been there for 9 months that the reason she went back to work was that her husband left her.

When I left 2 years after hiring her, my boss asked me if I had any internal candidates that could replaces me. Half of the team was trying to suck up to me in hopes I would recommend one of them.....again not a peep from her, just kept her head down and worked.

When they offered her the job just before I left, I got a simple thank you email for the recommendation and the mentoring I had provided.

When I retired recently, one of the first emails I got was from her.

[luv]

To me, if an interview feels more like a conversation versus a Q&A, then I take that as a good sign. The only downfalls would be if you can't start on their timeline, or they have an expectation that you might not be comfortable with.

What I try to keep in mind is to keep all answers job related. If they ask you what your strengths and weaknesses are, only choose things that are associated with the job you're hoping to get. That kind of thing.

[LoneWolf]

I end every interview with 2 questions:

1. Tell me about the best leader you have ever worked for and what in your opinion made them a great leader?

2. What is the best book you have ever read and what about that book made it great?

I'm looking for 2 things with these questions:

1. Can the person articulate their thoughts well and is their communication style engaging.

2. What interests/motivates them.

[CatinKS]

Interviewee "I'm pregnant"
HR Rep at the top of her lungs..."We don't need to know that"

Bragging how they accomplished a feat illegally, just to get the job done.

Had one supervisor that would make up his mind in the first minute of the interview and give us interviewers a signal to hurry up and ask a few can questions so we can kick this interviewee out the door.

[Boxer_Chief]

Had an interview last week where there were three interviewers on the call and there continued to be long periods of silence. They all seemed like they were waiting on the other one to ask a question and the main interviewer who would be my manager kept asking them to chime in at any time then they would ask me some question about tell me a time when this happened… it was so awkward and made me feel bad

[BigRedChief]

My interviews were highly technical. I've always first just asked, tell me about yourself.... Then go down the path they chose. How they explain the issue, their understanding of the tech involved, how they came up with the solution. Everything I needed was in those answers. You cant fake that.

[BigRedChief]

Originally Posted by CatinKS

Had one supervisor that would make up his mind in the first minute of the interview and give us interviewers a signal to hurry up and ask a few can questions so we can kick this interviewee out the door.

I could tell within 2 minutes if we were wasting our time with this interview.