‘Readiness is all’, says one of Shakespeare’s characters. Dealing with prolonged silence and sustained staring by the interviewer during an interview can be very unnerving for the best of candidates. Mercifully it is not used too frequently. Normally you will not face this treatment when you appear for an interview for an entry level job. Nine times out of ten the people interviewing you will be thorough HR professionals trained to spot your strengths and suitability for the job. Yet you ought to be prepared for the situation as you might end with a goofball of an interviewer once in a while. The interviewee is sometimes put through the ‘silent treatment’ to check whether the candidate can work well under pressure. It is one of the techniques of what has come to be known as ‘stress interview’ and is used to see how you respond to stress situations. Once again at the risk of repetition it has to be said that readiness is everything. Awareness about what the interviewer is trying to do makes dealing with it so simple that you will wonder if there was nothing more to it. On the other hand if you are not ready for it you might mess up the interview. If the question’ what are your greatest weaknesses?’ is a deadly bouncer, this one is the lethal ‘bodyline bowling’ itself.
This is how it works. You have just answered one of those questions about your strengths, achievements or your weaknesses and the interviewer instead of carrying on the conversation just sits there and stares at you for what seems to be endless time. You wait feeling a bit uneasy and thinking if you made a mistake or broken some sacrosanct rule of good behaviour in an interview. You either freeze in your seat or fidget around uncomfortably and all he does is sits there smiling like Mona Lisa. Such an experience can be very disquieting and devastating to your confidence and could lead to some stupid actions like smiling foolishly and asking, “what?”
Most interviewees unprepared for the situation make the mistake of rushing in to fill the vacuum created by the silence assuming prolonged silence is an invitation to restate or clear up the previous answer. The hapless interviewee sometimes babbles on and on to get things right giving away more and more information irrelevant for the purpose of the interview. Sometimes this information could even be damaging. Why people begin to babble thus is because in most cases the candidate feels that he has committed a blunder so he just keeps rambling on to correct the ‘wrong’ without knowing what wrong he is correcting. He ends up being utterly confused and feeling miserable. That is what happens when you are unprepared.
Now let us see what can happen if you are ready for the body line bowling. The ‘stress test’ or ‘the silent treatment, as it is sometimes called is nothing more than a weak little kid wearing a vicious looking mask. The moment you unmask the interviewer it becomes innocuous. If the interviewer tries to put you through it this is what you do: You keep quiet yourself for a little while and then with a smile and all the sincerity at your command ask something like, “Is there anything else you want me to tell you about my achievements or strengths?” The point is not to be scared or confused. Keep any hint of sarcasm out of your response and be very, very polite. That is all there is to it.
That is why the strategy of being honest not just in the interview but all through life is so important. The silence scares people because they know they are either hiding some information or exaggerating an achievement. You have to be one hundred percent sure at all times to be honest. Then you have nothing to hide and no one will ever be able to intimidate you by silence and staring. In any case in general conversation too, we must remember that silences do not have to be filled up unnecessarily. In a situation where you are negotiating a deal or an agreement you have to be ready not only with your own ‘shopping list’ but also the ‘shopping list’ of the other party. In learning the art of effective negotiation one must be trained not to rush in to fill up the vacuum created by ‘silences’. In fact it is believed that he who speaks first looses. In an interview situation the rule dose not apply with the same intensity but it is certain but the person who rushes in to fill up the silence too quickly looses. So what you have to do is: wait for some time; look and feel confident; smile; and ask politely, pleasantly and sincerely if there is anything else the interviewers would want to know about the last question they asked.
Showing posts with label bouncer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bouncer. Show all posts
Monday, June 29, 2009
Thursday, June 25, 2009
The Deadly Bouncer
If there is a complicated or a trap question then this is the one. We know the basis of your selection for a job is your strengths not your weaknesses then why should the interviewer even bother to ask a question like, “What are your greatest weaknesses?” The fact is this too is a question which is asked quite frequently. There is a 50:50 chance you will be asked this question and more often than not it will be lobbed at you in an ever so lighthearted, easygoing manner. If you are not prepared for it you will be hit by this bouncer. Like they say you will not be knocked out by a a hard knock but by the one you did not see coming. Chances are this is the one which will catch you unawares.
This is normally an eliminator question and the purpose it serves is to shorten the list of candidates for the final round of selection. The psychology behind the elimination seems to be why should you even talk about your weaknesses? Why be negative? Some people (usually psychologists) even suggest if you are aware of your weaknesses why have you not worked on them already and got rid of them. So the best strategy to deal with such a question is not to talk about your weaknesses. If you do the interviewer will probably give you credit for honesty but assess you negatively for your being aware of your weakness for sometime and not taking effective steps to improve. Don't even ask me why they do that. I am not a psychologist. All I can tell you is that they do.
One very old, tested and quite acceptable strategy to deal with the question is to disguise one of your strengths as a weakness. Though it has been extensively used by trainers to train candidates for interviews it works most of the time simply because it insures you do not talk about any weaknesses. Of course it occasionally produces hilarious results especially in campus recruitment as sometimes the entire batch of say twenty or even thirty candidates are asked the question and each one invariably talks of the same strength 'disguised as a weakness'. For example they would say something like, "I am so focused and determined to get the job done on time that I drive my people too hard. I am this A type personality and I work with such a sense of urgency that I sometimes forget that not everyone is at the same wavelength."
Interviewers also have fun with this and the moment they realize the batch is prepared with it they twist the question and sometimes ask," OK is your weakness also the fact that you drive them too hard?" The experienced interviewer will obviously know that you will not talk about your weakness and that is how it should be.
The best way to deal with this question in an interview again focuses you on finding out what exactly are your interviewer's needs because you can state them in answer to this question and assure him that you can think of nothing that would stand in the way of your performing the functions that need to be performed in the job you are being interviewed for. Remind them of what they are looking for and show them you have those skills and traits. For example you could say, " Well, I am sure there will be shortcomings in me but based on what I know what qualities are required for this job, I believe, I will be the best choice. I know when you hire people for a job at this level; you are looking for the right qualification and the right kind of motivation to do well. You can see from my records I have both the qualification and a willingness to pursue excellence in whatever I do. So I feel I there should be nothing that could come in the way of my performing well if given the opportunity."
And of course don't end up repeating this passage verbatim. Try and understand what you are doing and convey it in your own language. This will require practice and practice sometimes is boring. Remember, spectacular success is always preceded by a lot of not-so-spectacular practice. If you still do not feel up to it for any reason or you are still not very sure about the qualities the interviewer is specifically looking for, you could confess to a small weakness which is not really a weakness. If you can match it with the requirements of the job so much the better. For example if the position you are being interviewed for is in the PR department, you could say I like people and one of my weaknesses is that I like to party. If it is a teacher's job you are applying for, you could say that one of your weaknesses is that you do not seem to be able to finish off your work in the class room. Students tend to trust you so much that they continue their contact with you even after the class and keep coming to me for advise and guidance. That takes a lot of my time and my family sometimes has a problem with it. Sometimes you could just say with a touch of humor that your biggest weakness is coffee or perhaps chocolates.
The idea is not to focus on weaknesses and be prepared to talk about he interviewer's need and your strengths and how they make a perfect match.
This is normally an eliminator question and the purpose it serves is to shorten the list of candidates for the final round of selection. The psychology behind the elimination seems to be why should you even talk about your weaknesses? Why be negative? Some people (usually psychologists) even suggest if you are aware of your weaknesses why have you not worked on them already and got rid of them. So the best strategy to deal with such a question is not to talk about your weaknesses. If you do the interviewer will probably give you credit for honesty but assess you negatively for your being aware of your weakness for sometime and not taking effective steps to improve. Don't even ask me why they do that. I am not a psychologist. All I can tell you is that they do.
One very old, tested and quite acceptable strategy to deal with the question is to disguise one of your strengths as a weakness. Though it has been extensively used by trainers to train candidates for interviews it works most of the time simply because it insures you do not talk about any weaknesses. Of course it occasionally produces hilarious results especially in campus recruitment as sometimes the entire batch of say twenty or even thirty candidates are asked the question and each one invariably talks of the same strength 'disguised as a weakness'. For example they would say something like, "I am so focused and determined to get the job done on time that I drive my people too hard. I am this A type personality and I work with such a sense of urgency that I sometimes forget that not everyone is at the same wavelength."
Interviewers also have fun with this and the moment they realize the batch is prepared with it they twist the question and sometimes ask," OK is your weakness also the fact that you drive them too hard?" The experienced interviewer will obviously know that you will not talk about your weakness and that is how it should be.
The best way to deal with this question in an interview again focuses you on finding out what exactly are your interviewer's needs because you can state them in answer to this question and assure him that you can think of nothing that would stand in the way of your performing the functions that need to be performed in the job you are being interviewed for. Remind them of what they are looking for and show them you have those skills and traits. For example you could say, " Well, I am sure there will be shortcomings in me but based on what I know what qualities are required for this job, I believe, I will be the best choice. I know when you hire people for a job at this level; you are looking for the right qualification and the right kind of motivation to do well. You can see from my records I have both the qualification and a willingness to pursue excellence in whatever I do. So I feel I there should be nothing that could come in the way of my performing well if given the opportunity."
And of course don't end up repeating this passage verbatim. Try and understand what you are doing and convey it in your own language. This will require practice and practice sometimes is boring. Remember, spectacular success is always preceded by a lot of not-so-spectacular practice. If you still do not feel up to it for any reason or you are still not very sure about the qualities the interviewer is specifically looking for, you could confess to a small weakness which is not really a weakness. If you can match it with the requirements of the job so much the better. For example if the position you are being interviewed for is in the PR department, you could say I like people and one of my weaknesses is that I like to party. If it is a teacher's job you are applying for, you could say that one of your weaknesses is that you do not seem to be able to finish off your work in the class room. Students tend to trust you so much that they continue their contact with you even after the class and keep coming to me for advise and guidance. That takes a lot of my time and my family sometimes has a problem with it. Sometimes you could just say with a touch of humor that your biggest weakness is coffee or perhaps chocolates.
The idea is not to focus on weaknesses and be prepared to talk about he interviewer's need and your strengths and how they make a perfect match.
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