Re: vague interview opener questions are irksome

On May 5, 2004, at 2:57 PM, Steve Leibel wrote:

> but I've NEVER been asked, "Are you a hard worker?" or, "Will you help 
> us succeed?" Why is that?

Because the answer to those questions are painfully predictable.  
Really Not Useful.

When you get asked "tell me a little bit about what you've been doing" 
you can weave into what you tell that you are a hard worker and you 
help the organizations you work for to succeed in this and that way.

Most resumes are very vague as to technical skills, hence the "make a 
regular expression to match this data" questions.  All the ones I've 
seen have been Really Incredibly Easy; in particular for the people 
claiming years and years of "Advanced Perl Programming" experience.   
(Yet they fail = efficient filter so we can get to the better 
candidates).

Other questions are to see if, as Adam put it, if you have a pulse.   
Or rather, if you can be passionate about something.  Preferably 
something related to your work or the business you'll be in.   If you 
can't be passionate about something you have been doing in the past, 
well, why would you be in the future?   You don't have to live and die 
for your work, but you have to care.

Terrence Brannon wrote:

> My desired answer to both of these is "RTFR" - read the $#expletive 
> resume

"Can't communicate well" gets my thumbs down faster than anything else.

Technical skills not quite there, but eager, listening, learning fast?  
Sure, that'll work.

"Can't work well with others"?   I really would like to think that 
technical skills sometimes trumps anyway, but experience has shown 
again and again that hiring someone you are not 100% sure is good to 
work with is a mistake.


  - ask

-- 
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