What will happen if you can't answer questions of recruiters?

[Jennyfd]

Hi all
Imagine that you're in an interview and you can't answer a specialized of recruiters. How to deal? What do you say?

 

[qusys]

Hi all
Imagine that you're in an interview and you can't answer a specialized of recruiters. How to deal? What do you say?

I think that in an interview for a job there is not any right response of wrong response. It is not a quiz, but only a way of being, showing yourself as you are. On the contrary, if you are compelled to responde in attitudinal test in writing, so in that case there is right or not, but also in this case you shall be calm. This is the right attitude.

 

[Wes Bucey]

Hi all
Imagine that you're in an interview and you can't answer a specialized of recruiters. How to deal? What do you say?

Your posts thus far seem to exhibit a lot of stress about the interview process. If you are located in the United States, every state has an agency which deals with employment issues of its citizens. Those agencies often have free classes, seminars, and training films plus group sessions where folks can learn and practice interview techniques. If you live outside the US, tell us where and we can try to recommend some hands-on learning resources to become comfortable in an interview setting.

To answer your direct question (what if the recruiter asks a specialized [question] about the field or industry that the candidate can't answer?):

First, tell the truth, that you don't know the exact answer, but if you know "something" about the topic, you can add, "but I do know this, and I am certain it would only take me a short while to get up to speed on that particular aspect of my field."
ADDED IN EDIT:


There is a recent survey (I'll try to supply a link later - link is to an executive summary of the survey) which concludes that a large percentage of applicants for jobs are vastly over-estimating their skill levels when applying for jobs and the interviewers are becoming more cognizant of this and giving less credence to the skill sets laid out in resumes and are more closely cross-examining applicants to determine the REAL skill level of the applicant. A number I specifically recall from the survey is that, overall, recruiters and interviewers are responding they think less than 1 in 5 applicants actually have the skill levels they claim on applications and resumes.

My advice to job applicants is to prepare an "honest" Skills Assessment Matrix and be realistic about the suitability of your skill level for the targeted job opening. Review this post for tips on preparing a Skills Assessment Matrix.

 

[Wes Bucey]

I've seen clips of several articles in the past month which emphasize "some" interviewers for notable companies like Google, Apple, etc. are asking "far out" questions in the interview, illustrating a trend to look for folks who can think "out of the box."

One question which has cropped up at several companies:
"How would you move Mt. Fuji 100 miles from its present location?"

J.P. Morgan has been reported as asking candidates to recite pi to six decimals (3.141592).

The idea, of course, is, first and foremost, to see how the candidate reacts/responds, regardless of whether the answer is technically correct.

These are different from the so-called stress interview where the interviewer posits an absolutely unanswerable no win question similar to the one in the Star Trek episode where we learn Captain Kirk circumvented the losing answers to come up with the correct one which was not on the list of acceptable choices.

My question is this:
Are Cove readers hearing of or experiencing similar off the wall interview questions or is this "trend" really just a figment of some writer's imagination extrapolated from one or two isolated instances?

 

[Steve Prevette]

I actually have interviewed folks both in Washington state (to replace me) and here in South Carolina for statistical jobs. One thing that really worried me about some of the applicants was - I'd ask them a fairly technical question like - "Do you know what AQL is?" They'd say yes - and so then I said - "explain it". And they mangled it miserably, or worse, had to admit that they had not a clue.

Now, I'll admit I can't restate the definition of AQL from memory, but at least could give the basic concept and then where to go to find the details. In fact, I'd rather the interviewee had said - I don't know, but I would do the following to find out what it was than to have them try to fake it.