Job Interview: What questions cause you the most anxiety?

[Mr Janny]

I would always say make your greatest weakness and actual strength. Don't use this but for example. My greatest weakness is "I generally care to much about what I am doing", "Sometimes I just need to get over the fact that not everything can be perfect". That way your greatest weakness is actually a strength instead of a weakness.

My greatest strength is "I don't like to fail, but when I do, I learn from it and never make that same mistake.

The problem with this is that most interviewers have heard this type of thing again and again. "I'm a perfectionist." "I care too much." You can usually spot these as insincere a mile away. They don't necessarily hurt you, but you're not really setting yourself apart.

 

[CycloneErik]

Interviewer: Have you ever been convicted of a felony?

Me: Convicted? No...No never convicted.

Not a felony, but this almost backfired on me once for a promotion.
Following my interview and ovation from the interview committee, the company did another background check. The committee they hired screwed it up, then attached my SSN to it, and I got to come in and answer questions about an assault charge and failure to appear in another state.

My explanation was simple and sound, but it was clear that I was a few seconds from termination when I walked in to explain that surprise. Now I cringe whenever someone asks if they can run a background check.

 

[Cybyassociation]

Describe a time when you had to deal with confrontation. Or, What are your strategies for dealing with confrontation.

 

[cowgirl836]

It totally does, but HR departments pay big bucks to third party vendors to come up with those questions. Lots of times if a place makes you do some kind of pre-employment assessment, how you answer will determine which canned questions you get during the interview. There's money to be made selling Interview content creation software to companies.

Where I work, we get the canned questions, that we have to ask, but luckily aren't limited to just those. My goal in an interview is to just get the candidate talking conversationally.

I interviewed a guy who was working for Best Buy in their geek squad, doing field work. I started asking him about the weirdest calls he'd ever gone out on. He opened right up and we had a conversation about it. We ended up laughing a ton at some of the stuff he'd encountered. I found out more about him from that conversation than any of the other questions that were asked.

The canned ones are lame, imo. At least what I've seen. I'll pick out a couple to have ready but most of the time I get my list from reading their resume and seeing things I want to know more about.

I get a lot of feedback from interviewers and here's a few often heard comments:

If a candidate cannot identify a weakness in themselves it can show either arrogance or unwillingness to engage in self improvement.

Behavior based ( tell me about a time....) are designed to separate that while you may know how to do something but you have actually done it . ie. walk the walk vs talk the talk.

Lastly when I prep my candidates for an interview I encourage them to bring a minimum of 10 questions to ask the interviewer. This could be about the company, how the position is trained or evaluated, or could be about the hiring manager. It shows you are prepared and have done your research.

I've literally have had candidates lost jobs in an interview because they did not have questions to ask. Especially true if you are interviewing for a managerial, marketing, or sales role.


One last thought. Some interview questions are asked only to put pressure on a candidate and see how they respond.

On not having questions for the interviewer......the one time I've seen someone hired who was like that (And I was not in favor of the choice) I've seen that lack of curiosity and belief that they already know what they need to know in their work. So now I'm super biased against people who have no questions.

And people who list detail oriented as a quality on their resume and then misspell a self given title that's in giant bold font.

 

[cowgirl836]

Describe a time when you had to deal with confrontation. Or, What are your strategies for dealing with confrontation.

"Sending a passive aggressive email and copying on their manager".....no??

 

[BCClone]

I went into one interview during college that I had basically no interest in but they were an early interview and I wanted practice hitting random questions. That guy just said, you have 30 minutes to tell me about yourself so the floor is yours and let me know what I should. I nearly left, but didn't want to tick of the placement guy so I talked for about 15 minutes, then asked if he had any questions which was a no and it was done.

I like to ask a few basic questions that I expect the canned answers to in order to get the typical roll going, then about a third through hit them with some irrelevant odd ball ones. What is your favorite color, where do you like to eat in your town and what do you typically order type stuff. Then pop the questions I want. It typically rattles the canned interview people. They don't know what to do. I generally only have about a handful of questions I ever cared about but if you drill them with goofy questions for a chunk you will get a better taste of their personality and if they fit.

 

[CycloneErik]

A questionnaire at a company I looked at last summer included a question asking me to rate my ability to defend myself.

But my current and all-time favorite with different degrees is "I see from your degree that you don't want to be here. How do I know you want to be here?" There's no answer for that one.

 

[Walden4Prez]

Not a felony, but this almost backfired on me once for a promotion.
Following my interview and ovation from the interview committee, the company did another background check. The committee they hired screwed it up, then attached my SSN to it, and I got to come in and answer questions about an assault charge and failure to appear in another state.

My explanation was simple and sound, but it was clear that I was a few seconds from termination when I walked in to explain that surprise. Now I cringe whenever someone asks if they can run a background check.

YIPES!

Not nearly the same, but reminded me of something. I was going to trade my truck for a new vehicle. They asked for my VIN number, so I went to my insurance card and gave them the number on it.

They came back with a REALLY low number for my trade and I essentially laughed at them.

The guy says, well the truck has been wrecked and on a salvage title.

HUH? My truck had never been wrecked.

Turns out, my insurance company put the wrong VIN on my insurance card. The VIN that was there was for a truck similar to mine, but obviously not mine.

To convince the guy, I had to take him out to my truck, hold up my insurance card and show him the VIN on the actual truck.

Next was asking the insurance company WTF?

 

[Sigmapolis]

I basically do three things when interviewing...

(1.) Ask them the, "Tell me about yourself/walk me through your CV" question. Mostly let them narrate to see if they have prepared their talking points for this or not... if they have, great, if they have not, that is not the best of sign to start things off.

THEN

Intentionally interrupt them to screw them up. See if they can think on their feet. Do not entirely let them narrate what amounts to a planned, practiced speech.

This really murders some people coming out of business school, where preparing that canned speech is a thing. I want to make sure they did it but, once it is done, or at least clear they did it and did it well, I want to see how they take a rogue wave.

(2.) After that, I am usually done asking about work stuff. Just try to get to know the personality, the likes and dislikes, and see if they would fit in with people.

This oftentimes comes down to college sports.

(3.) If they promise particularly quantitative skills, then I'll stick them in front of a computer and make them demonstrate it for me. Write me the particularly Excel formula, the particular macro, or the particular R script that I want. Prove it or do not.

...then we are done.

 

[Mr Janny]

I always like when the person asks about longevity. "Do people make careers here?". "What do you think is the best quality that this company offers to its employees?" "Why do people stay?"

Also, one of the all time best answers I got to the question "Why do you want this job?" was "I don't want a job. I've had lots of jobs. I want a career. And from what I've learned today, this is the place where I want to do that." He said it completely sincerely. It didn't sound forced, which would have ruined it. He seemed totally genuine. Absolutely nailed it.

 

[CycloneErik]

YIPES!

Not nearly the same, but reminded me of something. I was going to trade my truck for a new vehicle. They asked for my VIN number, so I went to my insurance card and gave them the number on it.

They came back with a REALLY low number for my trade and I essentially laughed at them.

The guy says, well the truck has been wrecked and on a salvage title.

HUH? My truck had never been wrecked.

Turns out, my insurance company put the wrong VIN on my insurance card. The VIN that was there was for a truck similar to mine, but obviously not mine.

To convince the guy, I had to take him out to my truck, hold up my insurance card and show him the VIN on the actual truck.

Next was asking the insurance company WTF?

I hate stupid mistakes that can damage people.
This background check firm apparently searched by name rather than SSN. They misspelled my first and last name, got the hot hit, and attached my SSN to it.

None of this seems complicated, but someone wasn't hiring the best people.

 

[Entropy]

During grad school big firms used to come to campus and interview 12-15 people for maybe one open internship/job. They'd usually be at other schools too. So I always just chalked them up as good experience and never really expected anything to come of it.

There was one instance where I had about 4 in one week and by the fourth one I was sick of them. My last one was a big firm in Chicago. I get in there and within about 30 seconds I knew I had no shot. I could just tell. So I decided then and there I was just going to completely mail it in. Brutally honest and smug answers to their questions. I remember at one point them asking me if I had any experience in a certain area and I said "honestly I don't even know what that word means."

So you'd like to think this story ends with them appreciating my refreshingly honest approach. But not so much. They hired someone way smarter and better qualified. But I'll be damned if it wasn't kind of fun.

Most of my interviews have gone well (I got a job offer) but one did not, and I missed the signs that it was going to go poorly. Had I known, I might have done what you did.

Part of an interview in my field requires a teaching demonstration. You're given a topic and you have to do a 20 minute presentation like you would in class. I had a PowerPoint, handouts, an activity, etc.
What tipped me off (upon reflection) that things were not going well.
1. Someone brought grading with them to the presentation. The amount of inattention during the presentation was very off putting.
2. No one was available to give me a tour afterwards. I wandered around on my own until I found someone to guide me.
3. They scheduled the presentation in the middle of when most classes are in session (10 AM) which minimizes attendance.
4. When I asked about a potential schedule for me in the Fall, none was available.

It was fairly obvious that I was the necessary external candidate to make it a viable search.

 

[BCClone]

Most of my interviews have gone well (I got a job offer) but one did not, and I missed the signs that it was going to go poorly. Had I known, I might have done what you did.

Part of an interview in my filed requires a teaching demonstration. You're given a topic and you have to do a 20 minute presentation like you would in class. I had a PowerPoint, handouts, an activity, etc.
What tipped me off (upon reflection) that things were not going well.
1. Someone brought grading with them to the presentation. The amount of inattention during the presentation was very off putting.
2. No one was available to give me a tour afterwards. I wandered around on my own until I found someone to guide me.
3. They scheduled the presentation in the middle of when most classes are in session (10 AM) which minimizes attendance.
4. When I asked about a potential schedule for me in the Fall, none was available.

It was fairly obvious that I was the necessary external candidate to make it a viable search.

This would have set me off to the point that I would have treated it like class and said, if you aren't respecting my time and the rest of the groups' please find a different place to do that. It would either catch some attention, or in your case just put the nail in the coffin and saved time for all of us.

 

[throwittoblythe]

A buddy of mine was a comp sci major. He went to the Google booth at the career fair one year. Dude from Google kicks it off with "tell me why I should waste the next 30 seconds of my life listening to you drone on." My buddy was tempted to walk away in that moment, but decided to be gracious and play along. He had no interest in Google after that.

 

[Tailg8er]

Also, one of the all time best answers I got to the question "Why do you want this job?" was "I don't want a job. I've had lots of jobs. I want a career. And from what I've learned today, this is the place where I want to do that." He said it completely sincerely. It didn't sound forced, which would have ruined it. He seemed totally genuine. Absolutely nailed it.

Is he still there?

 

[stateofmind]

Most of my interviews have gone well (I got a job offer) but one did not, and I missed the signs that it was going to go poorly. Had I known, I might have done what you did.

Part of an interview in my filed requires a teaching demonstration.

Hopefully not teaching spelling.

It's no wonder my wife doesn't want to start looking for a new job after being a stay at home Mom for years. She might encounter some of you jerk interviewers. I get that many of us work in different areas and need to look for specific skill sets, but some of you seem to take your power to the extreme.

As an interviewer I have more of a conversation to see about how I will get along with this candidate. I'm not interviewing people that don't have the skill set I need, but we need to collaborate, so I'm looking for personality in the interview. Unfortunately some don't have compatible personalities, but hopefully they can land in a place that doesn't care about personality as much. I hate rejection, on either end of the interview.

 

[Entropy]

This would have set me off to the point that I would have treated it like class and said, if you aren't respecting my time and the rest of the groups' please find a different place to do that. It would either catch some attention, or in your case just put the nail in the coffin and saved time for all of us.

I was too early in my career to make that kind of bold move, but it would have been epic.
I really wanted to work there and didn't want to offend anyone on the committee.
Overall, it was a very valuable lesson for me as I have been on hiring committees for the last 4 years. I want to make sure that any candidates leave feeling that they were respected.

 

[1100011CS]

I am getting anxious just reading this thread. I hate interviews and it is probably why I've been with my current employer for 20 years and have no intention of leaving until I retire.

 

[Knownothing]

The problem with this is that most interviewers have heard this type of thing again and again. "I'm a perfectionist." "I care too much." You can usually spot these as insincere a mile away. They don't necessarily hurt you, but you're not really setting yourself apart.

I think it might be how you say it also. As a Marine I come across pretty serious in my interviews and normally do a good job. If you say it very passive I could see how you are right. I have noticed most interviews are about reading the person doing it and satisfying his or her questions. So I get your point.

 

[chuckd4735]

Wait, that was a weakness? I'd think his weakness would be more that he didn't let his employer know that positive reinforcement and recognition helps him do his job better and more productively/efficiently. And as you said, those actions often aren't a part of our everyday work culture, unfortunately.

The weakness was more that he thought he was doing a bad job if he didn't not get the positive reinforcement on a regular basis.