Wouldn’t it be refreshing?

These days job interviews resemble this weird, parallel, Stepford-wives-ish universe in which everyone is perfectly groomed and smiling.  Let’s play a game of interview tennis.

Photo by Brian Liloia

The interviewer serves the ball: “Tell me about yourself.”

The well-prepared candidate slams it the ball just inside the right corner with a well-prepared two minute commercial about all things relevant to the job. The score is love-love

The interviewer serves the ball again:  “What’s your biggest strength?”

The well-prepared candidate slams it down the line again with a concise 60 second answer about her greatest strength as it would relate to the position and how she’s used it in the past to be successful, making sure to weave in a few words from the corporate mission statement or perhaps the job description.  The score is love-love.

The interviewer serves the ball a third time:  “What’s your biggest weakness?”

The well-prepared candidate whiffs at the ball as she names a weakness that has nothing to do with the job at hand.  The interviewer really wanted her to answer the question about a true weakness that she’s striving diligently to improve or something that she’s learned to get around it. The score is fifteen-love…. or is it?  Who’s really winning here?

For the record, the answer to “what is your biggest weakness?” is “chocolate” delivered in the most deadpan of deadpan styles.

Seriously, do interviewers really ask the the questions because they want to know the answers, or is it because some interviewing book or class told them too and because they want to know whether the candidate had the smarts to learn the rules of the game?  The questions that candidates ask can be just as phony. I love the ones that are designed to illustrate how much research the candidate has done on the company.

I asked the question once, “In your experience, do the leadership team’s behaviors embody the shared values of respect, integrity, honesty and results, as they are defined in the corporate values statement?”   I really wanted to know (even though, let’s face it, I already did know, didn’t I?).  The answer should have been an emphatic heck no, not on their best day, never.  But, my interviewer was prepared, too.

What if the beginning of the interview went something like this:

“You know, I know you have a list of questions that you want to ask me, and I have a list of questions prepared to ask you.  I really would like the opportunity to get to know you better, and I’d like for you to get to know me better so that we can both determine together whether this is a good match.  Would it be OK if we made this more of a two way conversation rather than the traditional interview?”

What’s the worst that could happen?  You might stand out in a good way.  You might stand out in a bad way.  It depends on the person, but the “traditional” way usually nets you a weird exchange of half-truths as each of you tries to sell to the other.  Which would you rather have?

Be Your Best You Today,

Carolann

p.s. – Surprise, surprise, our topic for this week’s “Land Your Dream Job: 8 Strategies for Outrageous Success” will be Interview to Triumph.  Register today so that you don’t miss out on the bonuses.