Job interview questions

Robert124 said:

My gut feeling and first reaction to that question would be to tell them to mind their own business and storm out of the interview.

If you want a job you are going to need to learn not to react that way - the company are about to take a big chance on hiring you - costing many tens of thousands of pounds a year in the hope that you are not some incompetent chump or psychopathic customer abuser.

They will naturally want to know what you think about yourself - this reveals a lot about how you think, how you value yourself and gives them a possible insight into whether you will work well with others in the team.

Once you learn to see it as a bit of horse trading (they need to sell the job to you as you need to sell yourself to them) then the interaction makes a lot more sense and you can put yourself in a better frame of mind to respond.

My gut feeling and first reaction to that question would be to tell them to mind their own business and storm out of the interview.

Interviews can be nerve-wracking, so having insights from someone with your experience is gold. When it comes to nailing interviews, understanding what IT support/service teams seek is crucial. Maybe you could shed light on how applicants can showcase problem-solving skills or adaptability? Those are often key traits. And hey, for those exploring opportunities, understanding the interview process can be an easy way to make money in the long run. Your guidance here might just be the game-changer for someone's career journey.

“Batteries sold separately, from Bandai, terms and conditions apply..”..

Lol.. I cant vouch for the results..

13 said:

One of the hardest questions to answer for me has been "tell me about yourself?

They want to know what you honestly think about yourself.

For example, I would say "I'm a people pleaser - I've spend decades working to help others through what I do and I've become really good at it. I also like to help my colleagues become better at what they do so the whole team raises its game and that reflects on us all."

That is selling my core capabilities and team working skills

Then, to give them something to have a laugh about and remember my by, I throw in a joke: "I bake an awesome cake, knit waistcoats for dogs and once dated a member of the royal family. Well one of those isn't strictly true but I'll let you decide".

The interviewer is then thinking about which one they think is false rather than whether I'm what they are looking for but then they remember the funny bit and think that this is what they want in their team.

Variations on this work better for management interviews however.

This is a question to learn by heart - role play it with a friend (on the phone or face to face) until you can answer it even when stressed. Learn to be confident with it and think what sort of follow up questions they may ask (eg for the royal family one, say "I'm not at liberty to discuss who - Non Disclosure Agreement you understand").

I'll use it as my plan B next time

Well you can change ‘Umm’ out for anything really.. so to begin talking can just be an elongated ‘umm’.. you could even say what you just said to me..

What did you answer? I just kept going ummm. . .

Haha.. its a mistake to ask me that..

One of the hardest questions to answer for me has been "tell me about yourself?". I literally never know what to say, which might be why I never get anywhere.

Pegg said:

Ultimately, it's always the same - it's that slippery thing they call 'fit'. It defies logic and can rest on very trivial things.

That is actually a very easy thing to know - so long as you are neurotypical.

It is us autists that cannot see the expected social dynamics and who suffer as a consequence. To my knowledge there is no "cure" other than learning more about how these things work in social groups and mask up to fit in as best you can.

It is exhausting for me and from what I read, for most others on the spectrum.

There are some good books on the subject:

The Unwritten Rules of Social Relationships - Decoding Social Mysteries Through the Unique Perspectives of Autism - Temple Grandin, Sean Barron (2005)
ISBN: 9781941765388

And for the day to day chit-chat with your colleagues:

Stress-Free Small Talk - How to Master the Art of Conversation and Take Control of Your Social Anxiety - Gallagher LMFT, Richard S  (2020)
ISBN‎ 1641528958

Knowledge and its application were the way I dealt with it, but once you get into the management layers you get a whole different bunch of social rules because they are kept at arms lengths by their underlings and often have a lot of power hungry, mal adjusted people who sought power over others. This was not a nice field to work in my experience.

Judge Dredd said:

in 90% of the cases the recruiter will not tell you the real reason why you have not been selected.

Ultimately, it's always the same - it's that slippery thing they call 'fit'. It defies logic and can rest on very trivial things.

I've been on both sides of the interview process and 'fit' will get you every time. There is no justice in 'fit' so I have fought it when I've had the power to do so, sometimes successfully. The best person for the job should be the one who best meets the job spec, but very often it isn't that person who gets selected in my experience.

Sometimes 'Fit' works in your favour when you're trying to get a job, sometimes it doesn't. 

lol he is retired now. My current manager does not even dare to talk to me without a witness. 

Haha.. good for you man, I had a great manager that loved my loyalty to him, he got fired for ‘hate’ a year later and I wasn’t far behind him due to the circling wolves..

I suspect you are right about the liabilities, so I’ll take all the luck I can get, a favourable-manager is always the dream..

Mate, in 90% of the cases the recruiter will not tell you the real reason why you have not been selected. Everyone is deathly afraid of a discrimination lawsuit, so they just say some "acceptable" excuse, send out a standard rejection letter or flat out ignore you. Nobody will tell you "we do not hire aspies, get lost", especially if that is the real reason. Just keep trying and hope to find somebody willing to give you a chance (good luck). I was lucky, the hiring manager that hired me went in retirement three months later. Probably he did not gave a damn and just needed a warm body to man the desk during the late shift.

I agree, they do flummox, but it’s not difficult to learn the language, it’s difficult the read the meaning underpinning the communication..

Thanks for taking the time to do this. I'm sure a lot of people here will find this really useful.

Myself included ^^

I'm hoping to get a job again soon. I feel like I'm ready to tackle that again.

Lord save me! 

Lol.

Interviews and questions always flummox me so with this it should be much easier for me next time.

Thanks!

I always have a feel for whether I like the job, and will get the job, in-interview. Once I have figured out that it’s a lost-cause, by observe autonomous-nodding, or infantile-remarks, I shift to figuring out why I have a bad-feeling.  

So I’ll ask ‘what traits have you observed that make me suitable?’ Or ‘how should an expect to see my role develop over the next 6 months?’ Or ‘how you expect to see the team develop over the next 2 years?’. 

Usually I’ll understand the role, the company, their thoughts, and their intentions; by the time I’m done. A good experiment has been to ask them similar questions, after I’ve been ‘unfortunately’d’, and the answers will be totally different: 
-“try again soon”,
-or “it’s not you it’s me”,
-or “I can’t see why you won’t be accepted by someone else” .
-or “clearly you have ideal qualities for something”, 
-or “what?! I can’t believe we didn’t hire you! Sent your CV!” (Never hears from them again)..

I’ve been doing this for 10 years now, and it’s just the luck of the draw, I feel. I’ve had a-hundred people ‘look-at’ my CV and call it perfect and call me perfect.
They say “there’s no reason you couldn’t get a job”, I say “Great! Give me a job..”, they say ”erm.. no we mean bacon-packing, there’s no reason we can’t get you off our books”. 
I say “I’m not suited to bacon-packing, I have an honours-degree, am smartish, and have volunteered for you successfully for a year, and you have a vacancy”. They say “look you have to get ‘a job’, then get transferable skills, then continue to do what you’re doing now for less-money and more-stress and less-time, don’t be selfish!”..

I going off the rails here.. but you get the gist.. there is some invisible-blockade I feel, whatever that may be political or prejudicial, it’s completely out of my hands..

Im not economically viable.. it would seem..