I went to a few interviews several years back that asked questions round
robin like that, with the "what are your strengths?, What are your
weaknesses?", "What 3 words describe you best?", type of questions.  I hated
it!  It seemed like such a waste of my time to play such games and I decided
that I didn't want to work for any place that felt it necessary to play
them.

There are books you can buy to tell you how the employer wants those
questions answered.  So that's all it seems to me to be, a game to see who
has prepared their answers beforehand.  The one who has, and can spout the
party line the best gets the points.

They may measure self-confidence, but I would hope that anyone could tell
from an actual conversation with a person whether they lack self-confidence.
And if they do, they are harder to train???  I think that would depend on
other factors as well.  For instance, there is such a thing as false
self-confidence!  I can give you all sorts of wonderful adjectives to
describe myself, but that doesn't necessarily make them true!  And if I
think that I'm the best thing since sliced bread and I'm not, I may actually
be harder to train, because I already "know it all".

And if I felt insecure about my qualifications and thought that this
employer was going to play the psychology games, I'd get a book and brush up
on my answers, do some mock interview with friends. So does that make me
better qualified for the job or just the interview????

So basically, what I'm saying is that I think you should simply figure out
what you want to know about this prospective co-worker and ask them.  I
agree that behavioral based questions (what would you do if...) would be
helpful, but I'd have to say, forget the mind games.

Regards,

Cindi Swisher, RN, IBCLC

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