Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

Forget the old cliche about stupid questions. There ARE stupid questions, and hiring managers have asked me a bunch of them.

I’ve been interviewed for jobs a dozen times There are stupid questions, and hiring managers ask them all the time.

First, don’t ask the person to solve your problems. This is a job interview, not a free consulting session. If the person solves your problems, pay them. If the person gives you alternative ways to attempt to solve your problems, pay them. If you aren’t going to pay them, don’t ask.

Second, don’t ask puzzle questions.

“But, I want to see if they can think on their feet.” That is a tired, lazy, cliche. What do you want? Ask about that.

Here are a few, specific, STUPID questions (so stupid they are not in the form of questions):

• Describe a situation where you had to communicate with difficult people and what you did.
• Describe a situation where you had a complex problem and what you did.
• Describe a meeting with a brain-dead interviewer and what you did (oops).

Let’s talk substance about the job. For example, “What methods, tools, and techniques do you use?” If they answer something like, “Gestalt round-trip development” and you don’t know what that is. Pause and look it up on your own personal Google machine before you move on to the next not-so-stupid question.