Is That a Powerful Interview Question?
A little humor around Behavioral Interviewing…
Last week I was teaching a class to hiring managers on how to ask Behavioral Based Interview Questions: questions that give hiring managers the highest probability of getting useable information from the job candidate. As I was going over the part about – all your questions need to be directly related to the job – not only to stay within legal guidelines, but also to give you directly relatable information (not to mention keeping a professional image of your company), one of my participants raised her hand.
She wanted to share one of her favorite questions, that didn’t fit within this guideline, but strongly felt that it was very effective.
Okay, please share.
I like to ask at the end of the interview, what animal is most like you?
Keeping my composure, I asked, “And what important information do you gain, by asking that question?”
Well, most of the answers feel so canned and contrived, so I want to shake things up and see how they think ‘out of the box’.
Ok, well… if ‘thinking out of the box’ is a key requirement of the job, I can see how this might be of value. BUT… how are you going to evaluate a good response from a poor response? One person might say they are most like a eagle because they like see the big picture before they begin on the details. Another might say I’m like a turtle, because I need to stick my neck out to make things happen. Or I’m like a pig, because I love the color pink and I don’t mind rooting around and getting ‘dirty’ to get things done. What criteria are you going to use to say an answer is good or poor? Hmmm….
I shared this story with my colleague, Mary Schaefer of ReImagine Work. She was reminded of a Time magazine article written by Joel Stein about the ridiculous questions on the application forms for elite pre-schools. One particularly brilliant question was “What’s your word use for bowel movement and urination?” In Stein’s own words… “This should be asked at every job interview, first date and presidential debate. You’d know everything you needed to about someone by the answer to this question.”
When we finally stopped laughing, I said, “I have to pee!” to which Mary replied, “Practical and Direct”.
So as a Behavioral Interviewing expert, I thought I would create and share an answer key to that interview question.
| If the candidate uses…
|
It means… |
| Pee | Practical and direct |
| Take a Piss | Underlying anger issues |
| Go to the head | I’d rather be sailing than working |
| Use the ladies room | Prime and proper |
| Go to the little boy’s room | Still attached to Mommy |
| Wee-wee | Expect immaturity |
| Nature calls | Happy to take a leadership role on your company’s ‘green’ initiatives |
| Take a wiz | Whimsical and carefree |
| See a man about a horse | Hard to follow what they are saying |
| Bio break | Literal and concrete |
What unusual questions do you use when interviewing? How do they directly relate to the job you’re hiring for?
