With the "dressing up as a dinosaur makes for a challenging interview" post yesterday, I thought it would be kind of interesting to hear what other odd or creative interview techniques are out there.
I know for myself, when I hire undergrad or grad students for my various science education projects, I often need to hire a few at a time, as in hire a team. This generally is about 3 to 10 students hired to work together. Because of this, I think my interview technique is a little different, in that I intersperse pertinent questions, with less pertinent questions. I guess, just to see how they react in the social context, since teamwork is a big driver behind the success of any project I launch.
Anyway, these questions usually take the form of cue cards, such as the one above.
By the way, readers who are potential future student hires, I change these questions all the time, and if your curious about how I would answer the above question, it would be Star Wars all the way, baby.
Anyhow, curious to hear about other ideas. Know of any interesting (good or bad) interview techniques?
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I remember some of my one on one med school interviews were pretty brutal. One in particular was definitely in the "make me sweat" department in that although we were speaking, I was basically being ignored (she would be on the phone talking to someone else, and yet waved to keep me talking). I thought this was maybe just me, but it sounded like it was done to everyone. Don't know how effective it was, or what it was trying to measure exactly, but it was definitely very unnerving.
In another lifetime, when I worked for a Fortune 100 company, I went through a training course on How To Interview, and Rule #1, was to not be rude, and not get interrupted. I have since walked out on interviews where the interviewer displayed a lack of professionlism as you described. I would also write / call the interivewers boss - everyone has one - and pass on my thoughts about the lack of professionalism exhibited by the interviewer.
Look at it this way... if they are rude to you now, what would it be like to work for them?
I see someone like Buffalo Bill Dembski being so full of himself as to ignore people in his office, or taking calls while interviewing, in a pathetic attempt to shout out how important he is! I don't care if they are playing a role, there is no excuse for rudeness. My $.02
I got asked to juggle once. The job itself didn't involve that type of skill, but it happened to be in my resume (working with kids, etc), and maybe the interviewee just wanted to make sure I wasn't lying?
No interesting interview stories, but if I had to answer that cue card question, the answer would so have to do with one of those Jane Austen flicks
yeah, no interview questions to comment about, but if it's the cue card "what movie to be an extra in" question, then i'm going with either Groundhog Day or one of them Altman movies (like McCabe and Mrs. Miller or Nashville or such). He always has a slew of extras anyway, so why not me?
I can't say I've ever been asked any truly off the wall questions in an interview. As for what movie I'd like to be an extra in, that would be Hero. Granted, I'd look terribly, terribly out of place, but I'd also look fantastic. I hope you don't mind, but I also posted the question on my own site.
I actually got interviewed by someone dressed as a zebra once. Not really a dinosaur, and there was no wrestling (not becoming for a Zebra). Anyway, it's not as strange as it sounds, since this was for something in community theatre.