Finding a new job isn't always easy. You search for a suitable vacancy¹, send in an application form and if that goes well, you might be invited for an interview. For some, this is when the panic sets in – you're going to be faced by a panel of strangers who'll fire difficult questions at you, and you'll have to actually prove yourself. But how would you feel if, instead of being asked why you want the job, you're asked to stand up and dance?!

 

From the perspective of a company, it wants to hire the right person because they can make a big difference to the success of the organisation². It therefore needs to test a candidate in the most appropriate way to discover how suitable he or she may be. A good interview process should involve rigorous screening of job applicants⁴ and effective questions that every applicant³ gets asked. But that's not always the case.

 

Alison Green is an author and creator of the workplace advice column 'Ask a Manager'. She told the BBC that some companies "give their interviewers little or no training and often leave them completely on their own when it comes to figuring out what to ask job candidates." She mentions that some interviewers are too casual and some focus on building a good rapport⁵ and end up hiring the candidate they just 'clicked with', regardless of their skills and abilities.

 

An inexperienced interviewer may think it's clever to ask 'if you were an animal, what kind would you be?' That has been asked, Alison Green says, but in reality this has no connection with the job. And there have been inappropriate requests, such as one job seeker being asked to show the interviewer the inside of her handbag to demonstrate how organised she was. Talking of inappropriate, the BBC heard from a number of people who were surprised by the questions they were asked in an interview. Mature student Kevin Helton said that "the interviewer asked, 'you used to be in the Army, how many people have you killed?'"

 

But as Alison Green points out, while a candidate might feel at the mercy of an interviewer, they are able to question why they're being asked something, and while the interviewer might be making judgements, the candidate can also make their own judgement and decide if this is really the career move they want to make!

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