Why personnel officers asked for interviews

If you are asked in the interview: "How to sell an Eskimo a refrigerator?", This does not mean that the employer is crazy. These questions have been the norm in many companies.





What would you do if someone shoots you in the head with a toy gun? Not everyone will find just what to say. But it's one of those weird questions asked today in the western employers interview. It is this question was to interview candidates for the American company web hosting Rackspace, says career site Glassdoor, who made a list of the most unusual and intricate issues of British and American recruiters.

According to the website, during the interview you may be asked, for example, how the character would you like to be if suddenly hit the Disney cartoon (question was in the company Trend Micro), or do you know what the Jaffa Cake, cookies or cake (question was set in the Kerry Group).
They do not know

Joe Wiggins, senior manager of the community Glassdoor, said today in an interview the candidates should be ready for the unusual and difficult issues. Answers can help them stand out from the crowd.

Gained a special reputation in this field, young high-tech companies. They believe that the cunning questions help understand how a creative person is a candidate. However, no one knows at what scale to evaluate the answers, said Claire McCartney, a counselor in the field of search and attraction of talent in the British Royal Institute of Certified Personnel (CIPD). "It turns out that employers are asking these questions just like that, not knowing what should be the perfect answer," - she adds. Perhaps that is why in the last year, Google openly admitted that queer issues in the interview totally meaningless.

"We are often asked how many golf balls can fit in an airplane or how many gas stations located in Manhattan? And then we came to the conclusion that the puzzle for the competitors - a stupid waste of time, "- throws up his hands Laszlo Bock, senior vice president of human resources management Google.

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Financiers tasted

However, McCartney continues, recruiters continue to ask seemingly senseless questions to find out the values ​​of life and views of the candidate. It is important to understand whether they fit into the corporate culture of the company.

Wiggins from Glassdoor says that if the high-tech companies have recently reduced the number of strange questions in the interview, the traditional companies from the financial and consulting sectors, on the contrary, the number of issues raised. However, they do it with a different purpose. They want to see how a candidate to build a logical chain, and for that asked such questions as, for example, "How many balls ping-pong table can carry the Boeing 747?". "In response, recruiters want to Applicant, thinking aloud, he showed them how he thinks and whether he knows how to think unconventionally," - says Wiggins. The best defense - attack

Jane Klerk, director of the company in the field of business psychology Nicholson McBride, sees some benefit to these issues. "So you can check anything: how a person thinks, deep in his mind whether, if he could to think on the fly and much, much more," - she explains. Klerk said that when the candidate asked catchy question, it is better to respond to it sincerely, without pose. "For example, if you man is by nature a shy, the question" Do you consider yourself a wonderful employee? "You can embarrass. If you do not feel the desire to engage in self-praise, you can tell us about how others spoke about your work in the past, "- she explains. The expert also recommends that the interlocutors to ask some additional questions if the answer is not found soon.

Depending on how the interview proceeds, and how confident you feel, you can gradually check why you asked about it. Claire advises to ask a stupid question, who will lead the interlocutors to clean water. Let it be a ridiculous question. And so you imagine what an unusual question you can fill employer Claire advises to turn to the list of already assembled puzzles, suggested in an interview.

FT, 9.06.2014, Maria Podtserob