Stupid Interview Questions : By: Liz Ryan
Where do you see yourself in five years?
Here's why it's dumb. No company will guarantee you a job for five years, much less a career path. To construct such a plan for yourself, you'd have
to make predictions about industries, companies, and your likes and dislikes that could only serve to constrain your choices.
So when you get asked this question, you can say: "I intend to be happy and productive five years from now, working at a job I love in a company that
values my talents" and leave it at that. Or you can say: "I hope to own this company," just to shake things up.
What are your weaknesses?
This is a job interview, not a psychological exam. It's one thing for an interviewer to ask you what you do particularly well. It's another thing to
ask what you don't do well and expect to get a forthright answer -- in a context where it's clear to both parties that you're being weeded in or out.
The most honest answer might be this: "That's for me to know and you to find out." But that won't help your chances.
What would your past managers say about you?
This is a fine question, but it's not a true interview question. It's an intelligence question.
The trick here is to say something sufficiently witty or pithy to make you stand out from the crowd, because the standard answers are so tired: My
managers would say that I'm hard-working, loyal, reliable, and a great team player. Snoozeville.
Why not try: My past managers would say that I was an outstanding individual contributor who also supported the team 100%. Or: My managers would say
that I came up with breakthrough solutions while never losing track of the bottom line. You can probably dream up something better.
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The secret of good job interviewers is that they never ask traditional, dorky interview questions. They don't need to. They jump into a business
conversation that does three powerful things in a one-hour chat:
a) Gets you excited about this opportunity (or, as valuably, makes it clear that you and this job are not a good fit)
b) Reveals to the interviewer how you'll fit into the role and the company, based on your background, perspective, temperament, and ideas
c) Gives you a ton of new information about the job, the management, the goals, the culture, and what life at this joint would be like.
If any of this doesn't happen, it's a problem. If you're lukewarm on the job when you leave the interview, or if you don't feel you've had a chance
to show what you know and how you think, or -- worst of all -- if the interviewer used your time together to satisfy his need for more information
about you while sharing almost nothing about the job, that's an enormous red flag.
Excerpts from http://www.businessweek.com/careers/content/sep2005/ca20050921_1099_ca009.htm
Liz Ryan, an at-work expert, speaker, and writer, and CEO of online networking organization WorldWIT
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Avanade is the leading technology integrator specializing in the Microsoft enterprise platform.
Microsoft and Accenture saw demand for deep technical expertise on the Microsoft platform. Given Microsoft's business model, they preferred to build
this technical capacity outside their own consulting organization. Likewise, Accenture wanted to retain their primary focus on business and
industry-based consulting. The best way to address the demand and the business models was to create a joint venture company, Avanade.
Although Avanade is an independent company, our objectives are closely aligned with those of our parent organizations. As such, Accenture supports
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resources, specific product expertise, deep access to Microsoft's enterprise technologies, and other intellectual capital.
Chris Richmond,
Staffing, Avanade.
www.avanade.com
chrisri@avanade.com
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