People who like these kinds of questions on an interview are perfectly matched with employers who like to ask them. I have no problems with this. Myself, I’ve been happily employed in a technical role in companies where some of the interview questions were fairly challenging but none required me to think fast in the presence of the interviewer.
H says when he interviews, after looking over the resume, he looks at how the person projects him/her self, how well they follow the question and volunteer a bit beyond but still related.
Interviewing well is a skill and most college career placement offices will help their students polish skills.
Many if not most questions are now canned and the interviewers must stick to the list of questions - which have all been approved by legal.
I know as a law student I was asked a lot of illegal questions. I was surprised and not sure what they were trying to do. I just either changed the subject or gave a humorous answer but was never called back and didn’t want to work for any of those firms.
I was asked by a judge how old I was. I could tell she was just surprised that I looked young and had a resume with actual experience. I was thinking “Hey, you can’t ask that!” as I was answering “23”.
That’s why the legal department usually has a set of questions that are approved and all being interviewed get asked the same questions.
I interviewed for a position about 14 months ago. One of those 6-hour marathons. I was the token female interviewee whom they totally did not intend to hire, but I guess it looked good on the hiring reports. When I left, I walked across the parking lot thinking “That’s the last time I ever have to do one of these, ever.” What a liberating thought!
@sylvan8798 …did you retire?
^No, I adjunct at a different college. The interview was for a lectureship, but it’s not like I actually need to find a full time job.
Especially now that D and S are launched!
I’d rather raise kids other people want to work for, we’re an entrepreneurial family and the goal is not to work for someone else.
It’s the same old “book smart vs. street smart”. I take resourceful to mean think on your feet, figure things out, being bale to work without a lot of instruction, etc. In a word, clever. Big difference between intelligence and clever although I would say clever folks are pretty intelligent. Not necessarily the same in reverse.
I have two kids, one very intelligent, one very clever (and scrappy). If you met them, you would immediately recognize that the scrappy one has it “figured out”, at least she thinks she does. That creates a lot of confidence. Projecting oneself with confidence (not cockiness) is king.
@eyemamom, I love your post! I agree. D is already thinking about how she can run her own business. We would NEVER go back to working for anyone else. We’ve been working for ourselves for 19 years now. 