A boss has shared the short and simple interviewing technique that helps him hire the best candidate for the job – and others have praised his approach too
Before attending a job interview, most candidates spend hours researching the company and preparing answers to commonly asked questions. But it doesn’t matter how hard you prepare, you can never guarantee the interviewer isn’t going to throw a curve ball your way to try to trip you up.
That’s exactly what one boss claims to do when interviewing jobseekers for a position at his company – as he says it helps to weed out those unsuitable for the role. Responding to the Reddit thread titled, “Managers, do you have special ‘tests’ for interviewees that you put them through without their knowing?”, he explained how he would ‘upped his questions’ throughout the interview to see the candidate’s reaction.
He said: “I used to do interviewing for a job that was, basically, hacking the internet.
“At some point in the interview I’d ask them increasingly advanced questions until they came to something they didn’t know.
“Then I’d explain it to them. If they thought the new thing was really cool, that was a big plus.
“It showed they really were interested in the job itself, not just in the paycheck.”
Commenting on his, one user shared how they almost got the job for a role they were under qualified for simply due to their interest to learn.
They said: “I almost got a job I was not qualified for through acting like this. I was completely upfront about my qualifications, said immediately when I didn’t know something, but then tried to reason my way through it, or asked.
“It was genuinely interesting, and I actually heard later they would have hired me, figuring that I could be brought up to speed relatively quickly, if HR hadn’t shot them down because of my resume.”
Another user added: “That’s the way I do all technical interviews. Ask general questions, find something they don’t know, explain it, then have them apply it to another question.
“You can never expect someone to know everything, but the ability to learn quick is way better than knowing everything.”
Inspired by this idea, one user said: “I really like that style of interviewing. I’m going to apply that to future interviews.”
Adding to this, a final user said: “I am lucky enough to work at a company that’s ‘doing it right’.
“Our one and only HR person does the initial phone screen to make sure candidates aren’t unreliable psychopaths, and that’s it.
“Every single person after that who talks to the candidate is someone who is actively working in the department they’re applying to.”