Lately I’ve been writing and talking a lot about frames. You know what frames are — they’re the mental models we build to make sense of new situations and circumstances. Frames practically rule human existence; we’re so framed-up most of the time, we can’t see straight (and I mean that literally). A job interview is a perfect example of a highly-framed event. Every little part of the exercise is well-defined, once we’ve been on a job interview or two. We know how to shake the interviewer’s hand. We know how to give a hearty laugh at the interviewer’s lame little welcome joke, how to sit up straight in our chair and how to answer questions. A job interview is about as formal and ritualistic as a non-military, non-religious human interaction can get.
Can you think of another situation (leaving out police interrogations) where you’d voluntarily go into a room, sit down, answer questions that are put to you, then clam up and wait for the next question? Adults don’t generally converse with each other that way, outside of oral exams in school.
Let me be quick to say that some employers are starting to change the job-interview frame — heck, some of them threw out the standard hiring frame years ago and have never looked back. Those organizations invite candidates in for interviews, sit down with them and have substantive peer-to-peer conversations. Those organizations hire great people without much trouble, because they chat with their job candidates the same way we’d chat with someone at a kids’ soccer game or a block party. It’s the employers who stick to the standard interview protocol (and the traditional hiring process in general) that scratch their heads and wonder “Why can’t we get good people?” But this article isn’t for them — it’s for job-seekers who have to navigate a traditional job interview, where insulting questions like “With so many talented candidates available, why should we hire you?” are part of the mix.
Nearly every day, I hear from a job-seeker who’s been tripped up by one of two traditional, insulting interview questions that old-line employers love to ask job-seekers. These questions are ridiculous. They’re essentially commands, like the commands we give our dogs: Sit up! Beg! When we ask a grown human to tell us how he or she stacks up against other job candidates that we’re fully aware the grown human hasn’t met, we’re asking the job-seeker in front of us to grovel. “Why should we hire you?” is a grovel-inducing question. It comes from the same petty bureaucratic power place (the flip side of which is fear – fear of not being in control, or fear of feeling insignificant) that goofy hiring policies and red-tape-laden hiring processes come from.
Only a person who thinks that a great way to greet job-seekers online is “Please fill out our employment application completely. Any fields left blank will subject the applicant to immediate disqualification from consideration” could have designed these pointless interview questions.
So when you’re asked a grovel-inducing question like “Why should we hire you?” or “What’s your greatest weakness?” you may feel pressure to start gushing about your degrees and your stellar work habits and whatever else you think might impress the interview. That’s horrible. I don’t want you to start trumpeting your fabulousness – that’s just another form of groveling. My job-search approach is called the Grovel-Free Job Search, so it wouldn’t do at all for you to sit there and say “Well, I’m a hard worker. I’m loyal, and I have great skills, and I also walk old ladies across the street.” That’s nauseating. It’s beneath you. Here are answers to the two deadly interview questions that won’t make you throw up in your mouth as you reply to the question. We’ll change the frame ever so slightly, instead.
AWFUL INTERVIEW QUESTION NUMBER ONE: With all the talented candidates we’re meeting, why should we hire you?
Traditional, grovelly answer (TGA): Well, I’m this and I’m that. I’ve been told I’m X and Y. Grovel grovel grovel yada yada gag me with a spoon.
Non-grovelly answer: Wonderful question! I mean, I think you nailed it. That’s really the purpose of this interview, isn’t it – to see whether I’m the right person for the job, and whether this is the sort of place for me? I’m not sure you should hire me. That’s going to be your task, to sift through what you’ve learned about all the people you’re meeting and ask your gut ‘Which one feels like our person?’ I’m sure you’ll be looking at ‘hard’ things like work experience, and ‘soft’ things like communication style and whatever else you pick up in a meeting like this. Here’s why I don’t stress about it, one way or the other. When I’m in the room with my next manager, s/he and I are both going to know it — so I have total confidence in the universe to sort all that out.
AWFUL INTERVIEW QUESTION NUMBER TWO: What’s your greatest weakness?
TGA: Well, I may push myself too hard at times. I’m hard on myself. I’m a perfectionist. I don’t know when to quit! Ha ha. (Cringe at inanity of words coming out of my mouth.)
Non-grovelly answer: Oh, great question! Weaknesses: I used to really believe I had fundamental flaws as a person, and it bugged me. I used to read self-help books and take courses to fix whatever I thought was wrong with me. Thank goodness, I grew up a bit and realized that I’m fine; I just need to steer myself into situations where I’ll thrive, and keep myself far away from situations I shouldn’t be in. Take database management – that’s not my sweet spot. I did it once. No benefit to me or my employer, believe me. Now, marketing strategy and branding – that’s where I should be playing.
I’m not so sure I believe in the idea of personal weaknesses anymore. I believe in people discovering what they’re meant to be doing. Chipping away at areas that aren’t our strengths, in the hope of getting a little better – that doesn’t feel like a mission, to me. Zeroing in on our life’s work and doing it — I can get excited about that. So tell me: what’s your greatest weakness, here at Acme Explosives?