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Posted

Anyone got a bucket? (I feel slightly ill after the fork answer - oh boy!)

Sounds similar to the "if you were a salad, what kind of salad would you be?" This was an infamous 70's interview question.

thanks becksdad - These questions are to you to get you thinking on your feet in an interview. Not sure if they are based upo a real case but it was tossed at some students by a Team Leader during a recent event at Paramedic HQ.

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Posted

The toughest question I have received is when they ask you about your former employer. I don't mean when they ask why you left or that sort of thing. I mean when they ask about the quality of the organisation and its people and how it is run.

Do you tell the truth about what a crap-hole the place is and get points for honesty?

Do you lie and tell them it was a good place, but you were just ready for a change?

Do you fudge it and make a bunch of non-committal statements that don't really say anything at all, letting them read between the lines?

I'm sure there is a "by the book" answer according to HR experts, but in reality, you really don't know what your interviewer is looking for. You have to hope that your ability to judge your interviewers is accurate or you will fail this test.

Posted

The classic "What is your greatest weakness?" might still be the toughest. ("Who owns all that cash you slipped out of Dust's pockets while he was sleeping?" is one I'm still working on, so I can't yet say how tough it is.)

Thank you for the cutlery cwestion, AK. Made me realize that the answer to the question "Which are you?" is not the same as "Which do you think is best?" I'm afraid to confess that I'm just a lowly spoon, which is of course not always the best tool for the job, though sometimes is; try eating Jello with chopsticks.

Spoon because my response to meeting a new situation is to try to slide under the alien perspective, tip it toward me so I can see it, embrace it, and try to push it closer toward me in order to assimilate it. That doesn't mean I think it's the best way, rather that it's how I'm cut out this time around. The virtue of spoon-feeding is that it leaves the "otherness" intact, and if that otherness really doesn't want to deal, it can return from whence it came minimally violated; I approve of freedom. But effective spooning requires a tender object, which is why tines, prongs, points, and edges have their uses. Only very maladaptive types are unable when called upon to slice with the edge of a fork, scoop with a knife, or clock a problem on the head with the bowl of a spoon, poor spoon. I also play a pretty good napkin.

If I were the one asking this question, I would be on the lookout for the candidate whose answer is out of joint with how s/he appears to be, because self-knowledge is awfully useful for any job. Though it's very hard to assess in a short or even long interview how the packaging conceals the goods, I'd be alert to someone insisting on having qualities that are invisible, as well as someone who seems unduly proud of one-sided virtues, since there's more to life than, for example, cutting it up. When hiring, I'm looking for balance, but that might just be my spoonerism speaking.

What's for lunch? Now there's a question to ask a candidate.

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