Ask Me Anything
The HR department of the company at which I recently applied emailed me. I will be contacted "shortly" so they can interview me.
Not to sound cocky, but I think I'd have to botch this interview pretty badly for them not to offer me a position. And botching the interview is certainly a possibility, as I've given some pretty lousy answers to interview questions in the past. So I'm trying to think of what they're going to ask me and there are three potential questions for which I'm struggling to think of answers.
1. What do you do if you aren't able to make a deadline?
I was asked some version of this question at the first interview I had post-college, and I failed to give them a satisfactory answer. We must've spent five minutes on this one particular topic, as the three or four people interviewing me kept rewording the question in an attempt to extract something of value from me, but I just couldn't deliver.
I was all, "You do whatever you have to do to make the deadline."
And they were all, "But what if you can't?"
"What do you mean you can't? You do what you have to do; you pull out all the stops; you make the deadline."
This was obviously not the right answer.
2. What are some of your bad habits/traits?
I can't quite think of how that question is usually phrased, but it's generally a call for something negative about the interviewee.
A couple of months ago, I was out to dinner with Leon and some of his grad student friends, and they were joking about this question.
"Oh, gosh!" one of the said. "I just work too hard and I never ask for raises and I never complain about anything!" And everyone laughed, of course.
"But what is the right way to answer that question?" I asked, and no one had an answer.
3. Why did you leave your last job?
The challenge of this question is to say something that makes neither me nor Ask look bad. Typically, interviewees answer something about personal growth or exploring options (or whatever). But I, unlike most, quit my job without securing another one, and this requires explanation. And even though I've had to explain myself to many (many) people over the past two months, I still haven't cultivated a great, interview-appropriate answer.
Anyway, I hope they take the six hour time difference into account and call me before too long. This waiting around isn't as fun as it sounds.
Not to sound cocky, but I think I'd have to botch this interview pretty badly for them not to offer me a position. And botching the interview is certainly a possibility, as I've given some pretty lousy answers to interview questions in the past. So I'm trying to think of what they're going to ask me and there are three potential questions for which I'm struggling to think of answers.
1. What do you do if you aren't able to make a deadline?
I was asked some version of this question at the first interview I had post-college, and I failed to give them a satisfactory answer. We must've spent five minutes on this one particular topic, as the three or four people interviewing me kept rewording the question in an attempt to extract something of value from me, but I just couldn't deliver.
I was all, "You do whatever you have to do to make the deadline."
And they were all, "But what if you can't?"
"What do you mean you can't? You do what you have to do; you pull out all the stops; you make the deadline."
This was obviously not the right answer.
2. What are some of your bad habits/traits?
I can't quite think of how that question is usually phrased, but it's generally a call for something negative about the interviewee.
A couple of months ago, I was out to dinner with Leon and some of his grad student friends, and they were joking about this question.
"Oh, gosh!" one of the said. "I just work too hard and I never ask for raises and I never complain about anything!" And everyone laughed, of course.
"But what is the right way to answer that question?" I asked, and no one had an answer.
3. Why did you leave your last job?
The challenge of this question is to say something that makes neither me nor Ask look bad. Typically, interviewees answer something about personal growth or exploring options (or whatever). But I, unlike most, quit my job without securing another one, and this requires explanation. And even though I've had to explain myself to many (many) people over the past two months, I still haven't cultivated a great, interview-appropriate answer.
Anyway, I hope they take the six hour time difference into account and call me before too long. This waiting around isn't as fun as it sounds.