Transcript - Episode 002 - Sucky Interview Questions

Episode 002
Interview questions that suck & what to do about them

Warning: If there is any podcast that is likely to step on toes, this is it. But rest assured, when I talk about a terrible interview question, I’ll give you something to turn it on its ear, and make a great interview question. 

Hi, I’m Daava Mills, the Rebellious Recruiter. I’ve been in the trenches of finding people for over 20 years. I’ve sat on both sides of the table, I’ve been asked terrible questions, I’ve asked terrible questions, I’ve witnessed hiring managers ask terrible questions. I’ve changed my mind on what makes a good question.

Today we’re going to talk about some common interview questions, and why they don’t work.

So pull up a seat. Let’s chat.

(Intro Music)

On Instagram I had a series called #TerribleTuesday. I’ve been building out a catalog of Terrible Interview questions. I thought when I built out my initial list of 30 bad questions that would be it, then the series would be over. But I often hang out in master-mind forums, and I see people suggest bad interview questions all the time, and the library is filling back up. 

Let’s start with a common riddle questions or sometimes called a stressed based question, there are several versions of this question, you’ll likely recognize it. 

“How many gum-balls fit on a 747?”

I often hear interviewers say that asking questions like this helps them to understand how the potential employee problem solves. All I can say is stop, just stop. There is nothing real world about stuffing a jumbo jet full of gum-balls, or a room full of tennis balls, or any other empty space with cylindrical objects. Just because your applicant is good at math and spatial ability, doesn’t mean that the same method applied to filling up a fictitious jet is the same as trouble shooting a programming error in an ERP, or developing a new customer service process. Not remotely similar. Also, tech giants like Google, who started this trend, have moved away from these types of questions, because they learned it did not predict future performance. You see, they are a data company, they studied the data of how these answers stacked up against performance. The data and the performance didn’t line up on these types of questions. So let that sink in, fictitious problem solving does not predict future performance.

I recommend you start here, and use a series of follow-up questions. The secret is in the deep dive, not the first response. 

“What is the most recent project you led?” Or “What is the most recent project you worked on?”

“What was the most difficult thing you encountered on the project?”

“Was that problem anticipated or a surprise?”

“How did you work through that?”

“Did you work with someone to solve the issue? If so, who was that and what was their role?”

“Did you have a specific strategic method you implemented?”

“Did someone teach you that method?” or “Where did you learn that method?”

“Have you seen an issue like this before?”

“Did you deal with this particular problem the same, or differently than previous similar problems?”

One of the issues that this line of questioning can help uncover is how candidates tend to oversell themselves on their resumes. When you take the time to dive in to who does what on team projects, you can quicky deduce what a person is capable of, and what they aren’t capable of. 

That will tell you more about how the candidate thinks, works on a team, if they take praise when it’s not deserved, and how they respond to challenges and you can cross reference the information to see if it will work in your environment.

Okay, next question type. This question is in what I call the “gotcha category.” As in you don’t answer right, and “gotcha!”

“Would you ever work at Starbucks?”

OMG, this one caught me completely by surprise. The interview was going well, and the this question came up. I don’t remember why, but it did. After the candidate said “no, I would never work at Starbucks” the interviewer ended the interview.

Later the interviewing manager told me that the candidate was not qualified for an insides sales manufacturing position because of the answer. You see, customer service was really important, and the manager said that anyone that doesn’t want to work at Starbucks, doesn’t believe in good customer service. I was dumbfounded. Now days I would push back. There’s a million reasons a person doesn’t want to work at Starbucks. And the manager never found out why, they just assumed what it meant. 

If customer service is really important to a position, then ask about customer service. And do a deep dive, asking a series of questions to get multiple stories and experiences from the candidate. Here is a good series of questions to ask.

“What is your philosophy on customer service?”

“Where did you learn that philosophy?”

“What did customer service at your last job look like? What were the expectations there?”

“What happened if you couldn’t give the customer the service you wanted?”

“Did you ever make a mistake when providing customer service? What happened? What did you learn from that experience?”

“What happened when a customer wasn’t satisfied with your resolution? What did you do to solve the issue?”

“What was your AHA! moment as it relates to customer service?”

Be sure to follow up each of these questions with a question asking about specific events and experiences. You want to make sure their philosophy matches up with what they actually do, how they’ve learned, and how they’ve improved. Don’t just ask one question on the subject and move on. Dig, and dig some more.

Third type of questions that are not recommended. I see variations of these in forums all the time, and I cringe each time. I call these the “Clever Questions.” They have nothing to do with skills, just the candidates’ quick wit. And last time I checked, quick wit is not necessarily a required skill. 

The clever questions look something like this.

“If you were a color, what color would you be?”

“If you were a tool in a tool box, what tool would you be?”

“If you were an animal, what animal would you be?”

You get the picture.

These type of questions rely on two things. One, the candidate has to have a quick wit, clever response, and make themselves look versatile. The interviewer makes an assumption based on that answer that is somehow magically tells them how the candidate does their job, and how they will fit into an environment. 

Let’s think about this for a second and use an example of how I would answer. My color would be emerald green for its calming effect. Sounds good right? But I am not a calm person, I’m rather high-strung. The emerald calming green could be terribly misconstrued by the interviewer that I am calm, or have the ability to calm people. Or whatever assumptions they have about the position. Same thing with the tool and animal. And who cares if I like green or would be green. Who cares if I am a pipe wrench. Why does it matter that I like sharks and squirrels? How does that relate to the job at hand?

If you want to find out how the person performs, ask them this:

“In your last performance review, what areas did your manager say you excelled in?”

“What are you doing to improve your ability to do (insert a specific skill set here)?”

“What was your favorite task or project at your last job?”

“Why was it your favorite?”

“What did you learn from that project?”

“How did you sharpen your skills working on that?”

“If you had to do it all over, what would you change?”

You’ll notice I spend a lot of examples reinforcing what the candidate learned. This is critical, as it tells you if they are capable of learning and implementing new ideas. It also tells you if they disagreed with the accepted processes at their last job. That doesn’t mean that disagreeing makes them a bad employee, just you learn their opinion. 

Okay, last terrible question for today. I have a boat load of these, and you will definitely see more in the future.

This is the Grand Poobah of all terrible interview questions, not because it’s a terrible question mind you. But because the interviewer and interviewee alike are out to be clever with the response and use of response. 

“What is your weakness?”

I know, I know. If I am going to ruffle feather over any question, this is the question. 

Let’s talk about why it doesn’t work. And then we’ll talk about how to make it work.

First it doesn’t work because the interviewer always says “I want someone who is self-actualized.” Second, it doesn’t work because candidates read blogs about how to answer the question, and they are told to give an answer that is not a fatal response. So candidates say things like “I work too hard” or “I’m a perfectionist.” It’s a disaster in the making. 

Here’s my suggestion. First, if you absolutely need to ask this question, consider your management style, and explain to the candidate why you need an honest, but not clever response. This is why. Managers that manage to strengths get further with their employees, than managers that try to rebuild weaknesses. And there is a lot of supporting evidence for this. If you are the type that manages with strengths, say it like this.

“My philosophy on strengths and weaknesses is that it’s better to bolster strengths and put you in situations where your weakness won’t be apparent. Keeping this management style in mind, what is your weakness as it relates to the job you are interviewing for? Keep in mind, this is more about keeping you operating from your strengths.”

Now, the candidate is not used to having the question asked like this, their first attempt is likely to give you information that is not real. If they come up with the “I’m a perfectionist” or “I work too hard” category of answers, say this “How has that affected your ability to do a good job?” They’ll say it hasn’t, and you need to ask again. 

Even using this method is not fool proof, and you are still likely to get wimpy answers. Which is why I don’t recommend this as a question, or a line of questions. 

Now, here’s a much better way to get to an honest answer about weaknesses. This is taking the assumption that our strengths are also are weaknesses. Remember, interviews are conversations. Don’t take the first answer, list, deep dive, and keep deep diving. You’ll get information that is usable and specific.

“What are your strengths as they relate to this position, or your current position?”

“When has your strength not served you well?”

“What are you doing to actively improve your strengths?”
“Why do you think that is necessary?”

“In a perfect world, what would that look like?”

“How do you think this company would benefit from that?”

You’ll get an honest response by going at it from the standpoint of strengths. This line of questioning still requires a person to be “self-actualized though.” 

And that’s a wrap for today on the topic of The Worst Interview Questions. 

There are a lot more terrible questions, and I’ll bring more to the table in the coming weeks. 

As always, I’ll be bringing you new information weekly. Be sure to subscribe wherever you are listening to this. Feel free to comment, rate, and review what you hear. Share this podcast with other leaders that may be building “out of this world teams.” You can email me with your thoughts or questions. I may use your subject matter in upcoming shows. 

It’s great to meet you and thank you for listening. I know you only have so many hours in the week, and I am grateful to spend this time with you. Until then, make it a great day! See you on the flip side.