Reflections on Job Interviews
When interviewees bluff about their age – it is easy to catch them either by the way they appear (not always true) or the number of years they have been working.
However in the USA, it is against the law to ask a candidate to disclose the age, the marital status or the religion. The Interviewer can be hauled up in court, for asking any questions in these areas.
It is common for many interviewees to say their hobby is reading or seeing movies or listening to music. However, be prepared for further probing. I remember once Prakash Tandon, when he was Chairman of Levers, India, asked a young management trainee what his hobbies were. He said his hobby was reading. He then asked him what he had reading the last three months. The candidate blandly replied that he reads the Illustrated Weekly and nothing else. Needless to say, the young man did not last very long in Levers. It could be a good guess that he found his next assignment in the Illustrated Weekly or perhaps, the Readers Digest.
When a candidate claimed that he had been moved from Marketing Manager to corporate Business Development Manager to give him more all round exposure he was asked what contribution he had made in the last six months in his new assignment. He had no answer. After fumbling for a while, he said that this was confidential and he therefore could not disclose this information. Had he said this straightaway and with confidence, there would have been credibility. However, his body language and the stutter, gave him away!
If the company is downsizing or closing some departments, or now outsourcing some jobs – you can be a casualty of a larger happening. The best route is to face this squarely and tell the interviewer honestly. Using the ‘looking for greater challenges’ is a played out turn of phrase – which now puts interviewers on guard – rather than encourages them to look favourably at the candidate.
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