Pushing Their Buttons
September 25th, 2007I haven’t even been interviewed all that many times in my life, but I’ve met with each and every one of the interview creatures Rands describes in his latest article, The Button.
He elaborates on several stereotypes you’re liable to meet in the interview room while you’re searching for your next job, and tries to put some logic behind their behavior, while giving you tips for dealing with them.
I particularly like the presumption that the utmost goal of the interview is to get more information out of your interviewer than they get out of you. Essentially he suggests that people who are influential enough to do something meaningful with information about you will also be directed enough to make sure they get it. Everybody else, you might as well use them for your own purposes, to get more information about the job and whether you actually want to take it.
September 27th, 2007 at 6:54 pm
Who are you and what have you done with Daniel Jalkut?
You make interviews sound like alpha male dominance competitions.
September 27th, 2007 at 7:09 pm
Sorry if it doesn’t sound like me to you, but I think interviews, if anywhere, are a place to understand the psychology of both sides as well as you possibly can.
September 29th, 2007 at 8:28 pm
I agree wholeheartedly with your response. I have a history of job hopping, so I’ve some awareness of interviewing. It’s a two way street, and the person you and and the people you meet make that easier or harder.
My favorite candidate story is the guy who came in soaked to the gills in some drug or other, and was pretty much unresponsive to questions. At age 23 I must have become someone’s favorite candidate story at G.E.; the guy wanted to know why I wasn’t wearing a tie to the interview (they were all in suits). (“I don’t wear ties,” was my answer.)