Both Sides of Interviewing: “How effective is this interview”

The interview is a necessary evil. You need to get to know the potential candidate, but the process can be dreadful — for both the candidates and the interviewer(s).

AS A CANDIDATE

If you’ve gone through many interviews, the need for preparation becomes less and less. This is because they are often predictable: “What are your strengths/weaknesses,” “Could you tell me about yourself?” and “Why [insert company name]?”

Just as you’ve got your thirty-second elevator speech perfected, you’ve probably got several variations of the answers to the above questions down to a T.

But what if you interview for Apple and they ask you:

“If you were a pizza delivery man, how would you benefit from scissors?”

You would have to think about this and in the process, you’d admire (and maybe be upset at) Apple’s unique interview question. Many companies are developing unique interview questions and processes to attract and hire the best candidates.

If you are a job seeker, HR Manager or an aspiring/seasoned entrepreneur it is a good idea to stay on top of the new interview trends.

An interviewer wants to find out how you are different from other interviewees. As a result, they will often ask you questions to test your creativity — but one wonders what they deduce from such questions. After all, as a candidate the first thought is usually how silly and useless these questions can be.

“How many palm trees can you find on the streets of Beverly Hills?”

Of course, the actual answer does not matter. The interviewer wants to hear you say “Well there’s a bunch of trees in front of [insert celebrity name’s] house, then the sidewalks usually have fourteen trees…”

They want to see how creative you are, how analytical you are — how you think.

As a potential candidate, try to answer the questions in a manner that showcases your skills and qualifications for the role. This way you can get your point across even if asked a ‘brain teaser’ type question.

And if you interview with Google, you may have to come up with the questions yourself.

ON THE OTHER SIDE

Now, if you are or will be involved in the hiring process, be sure to ask questions that will give you meaningful answers — having stylish yet unsubstantial answers are a waste of your time and the interviewees. Also, don’t have employees work without paying them. It sounds obvious, but it bears repeating.

Writing for Inc., David Walker, CEO, and Co-Founder of Triplemint discusses their most important interview questions:

1. How did the culture at your last company empower or disempower you?
2. What were the characteristics of the best boss you’ve ever had?
3. Describe how you handled a conflict with one of your co-workers.
4. What kind of feedback do you expect to receive in this role and how often do you expect to receive it?

As we can see, these four questions are related to the culture of the company. As we have discussed, company culture is of the utmost importance for forward-thinking businesses.

Think about what means the most to the success of your company and develop the questions that correspond with this idea.