ET CONTRIBUTORS|Jul 03, 2017, 12.59 PM IST
By Devashish Chakravarty
(The writer is Director, Executive Search at QuezX.com.)
By Devashish Chakravarty
Most people report having faced awkward, unusual, offensive, unrelated or goofball questions while interviewing for a role. Why do employers ask questions that are seemingly unconnected to the job profile? Some interviewers are inexperienced and ill trained and thus inadvertently ask questions that are irrelevant or rude.
Other interviewers deliberately pursue challenging or unexpected questions to push you beyond your prepared answers, test your reactions and figure out whether you will fit in the team and whether they want to work with you. Expect and prepare for kinds of questions to avoid being rattled and to make the most of the opportunity.
Do you smoke?
Have you ever faced personal questions like tell me about your girlfriend or when are you planning to have kids or do you drink alcohol? Probes like these are considered inappropriate and unprofessional but prevalent amongst lazy interviewers who believe them to be a proxy of commitment to a job.
You may not face these in international roles where such questions may be illegal under local laws. You can refuse to answer with a polite “I prefer not to discuss my private life”. However, you can also choose responses like “I am presently focused on building my career and have no current family commitments”, or “I am aware of company policies regarding smoking and I respect them”.
Not all questions arise from wrong intentions. Often questions about one’s family are to break the ice and find common ground. If the questions seem unreasonable, they may reflect a poor working culture.
How many sparrows are there in India?
Guesstimates are questions like, “How many cricket balls will fill up this room?” These questions are common for roles requiring analytical and problem-solving skills. The interviewer will evaluate how you react to a non-standard problem, break it into parts, structure an approach and then use basic maths or general knowledge to arrive at an estimate.
The interviewer does not want you to pop out a random number but wants you to vocalise your thought process. So, you could possibly start by saying that you will estimate the volume of the room and the volume of a ball to arrive at the answer and then work out each component. You are permitted to ask questions, make intelligent guesses and request a pen and paper. Find similar questions and answers online and practice guesstimating aloud.
What did the elephant say?
Some interviewers like to see your reactions to whacky questions like, “If an elephant walked into this room, what would it say?” There is no right/ wrong answer to this one. The interviewer is looking for quick thinking, an ability to handle unprepared situations, a calm demeanour and even a sense of humour. Don’t go overboard on the humour or sarcasm though. Avoid statements that convey negativity or desperation.
Why did you quit?
Watch out for the minefield questions and prepare well to explain your job changes and interest in the current profile. Answered wrongly these can scuttle your interview right away. Why are you leaving your current job? How long do you want to work here? What could make us fire you? What’s your weakness? Why do you have a gap in your career?
While answering such questions, never abuse or disparage your past employers or focus on differences of opinion If you are leaving for a higher salary, talk about growth prospects. While discussing a period of employment discuss learnings and contributions during that phase. Display enthusiasm for the role you are interviewing for and know the reasons why it works for you.
Do you lie?
When an interviewer asks you “What did you tell your boss to come here”? or “What kind of people can’t you tolerate working with”? he is testing you for integrity and honest communication.
“Have you stolen a pen from your office?” requires a straight but gentle response like “My office provides us with diaries and pens and knows we will carry them home and to office and maybe lose a couple. However, I haven’t intentionally stolen or misused office property”. Likewise, an answer like “I never lie” may sound unbelievable.
Three words that describe you?
Neutral questions are blank pages that let you fill your own story. The interviewer evaluates your attitude or mental framework and checks for a fit with what he is looking for If it is a team position, you may want to describe your strengths using words like communicator, extraverted etc. “What’s a recent book you have read”? Talk about a book that you like, what you got from it and possibly how your learning relates to the role. “Do you have a question for me?” Do not ignore this with a blunt no. Use this opportunity to engage the interviewer.
BE A S.T.A.R. INTERVIEWEE
Star questions
Many employers like large MNCs, prefer an unbiased interview where they ask every interviewee the same questions. For instance, in customer service, a manager is asked: “Describe a time where you handled a conflict between two individuals.” Use the S.T.A.R. framework to prepare for such competency-based questions pulled from the job profile.
Situation
Build a context for the story you will narrate. Like a good movie, the context builds excitement in your audience and provides the who, when and where. This is your chance to describe the huge challenge in the background. For example, “Sales were down by 15% in 2016 and my sales team of 5 people needed a big client in the last quarter.”
Task
This is where you describe what was expected from you specifically and not from the team. For example, “While my team of 4 consultants where carrying out due diligence on the target company, I was tasked with checking if audit objections of the last 3 years had been resolved and with reporting the risk to my manager.”
Actions
This is the main part of the story where you explain the what and why of your actions. Use the pronoun ‘I’ and not ‘We’. Avoid jargon, share a lot of detail and explain how you made your choices. For example, “I took the angry customer aside, apologised and gave him a full refund because his complaint was genuine and the issue was holding up the sales queue.”
Results
The outcome must be positive and relevant to the job profile you are applying to. Share specific measurable results for maximum impact and add what you learnt from it. For example, “Because of my monthly meetings, the client renewed our service contract for 2 years with a 15% annual increase and my team implemented monthly meetings with all clients.”
(The writer is Director, Executive Search at QuezX.com.)
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