Discussion » Questions » Jobs » Why do employers rely on asking such meaningless questions where answering honestly only hurts your cause?
Benedict Arnold

Why do employers rely on asking such meaningless questions where answering honestly only hurts your cause?

Examples:

1) Why do you want to work here?
honest answer:
" Well I don't like being poor and you are hiring."   No other reason really.


2)  Why should we hire you?
"   Because I need a job and you need a worker."   DUH!!!!!!

3)  How much are you looking to be paid?
"  As much as you are willing to pay me."    Dumba**


4) What do you think of our company ethos?
" Don't care as long as you pay me.   Pretty sure it's a bunch buzzword bullcrap anyways."   Seriously who ever pays attention to this?

5)  Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
"  How the hell should I know?   Hopefully somewhere that pays more and is less demanding.  Like they say though, wish in one hand and crap in the other. See which fills up first.  In all probability( if you hire me) I'll be sitting in this chair again being forced, by you,  to reapply for this job again."  This one is my personal favorite as it is exceedingly silly.

Why do todays employers love to be BS'ed to so much and why are they so quick to reward the people who are just good at feeding them BS with a straight face?

Posted - December 21, 2016
Tags : None

Responses


  • 5450
    Other than my first job where I had to do some talking to the owner of the company because I was 18 and didn't have any experience my interviews were pretty easy.  I filled out an application and there weren't a whole lot of questions because they already decided they were going to hire me.
      December 21, 2016 2:12 PM MST
    2

  • Lot's of places don't even do human to human interaction when hiring anymore. 
      December 21, 2016 2:17 PM MST
    1

  • 5450
    My first job seemed like the hardest to get.  When I was 18 I told my dad what I wanted to do and he said he knew a guy who owned a company I where I could go to work but when I asked my dad if he could talk to the owner he said "No, I'm not going to talk to him.  You're going to have to convince him yourself to give you a job."

    Somehow I survived that and got a job.
      December 21, 2016 2:23 PM MST
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  • I never found it hard to get a job,  just the interview party always feels dirty and sleezy.   I feel like I would have my intelligence insulted if someone fed me what most "suits" eat up with a spoon.   The whole process feels disingenuous whenever I had one.
      December 21, 2016 2:29 PM MST
    2

  • 7943
    Umm... probably because they can help weed out the bad eggs before hiring. Believe it or not, there are actually people who are genuinely enthusiastic about working for a specific company. There have been a few times I've gushed out answers about how I couldn't wait to work with a particular team or start a certain project. 

    Granted, we don't all have the luxury of doing as we please, but when you can choose to work for a company you actually like, versus taking a random job just for the check, you should. If you've never been on an interview where you've felt that way, it may be time to rethink your strategy. 

    I should also add that experienced interviewers can tell when you're BSing them. They've just asked the same question to 20 different people. If you're giving them the answer they want to hear, they know it. If you get the job anyway, it may not be because they were excited to hire you... it could be just that you sucked less than the other interviewees or because they appreciated that you could put on your happy BS face. lol
      December 21, 2016 2:34 PM MST
    4

  • I'm too brutally honest and introverted for it to be comfortable I guess.
    I always expect and prepare for discussing my skill sets and abilities and get bombarded with these kinds of fluff questions.  
      December 21, 2016 2:57 PM MST
    3

  • 1128
    I hated those types of interviews and yes I went through more than a few of the most ridiculous interviews. LOL
    I never could answer #5 wih a straight face...lol  
      December 21, 2016 2:38 PM MST
    2

  • 44795
    I have had two real interviews. They hired me immediately after one question each. I did have two more at two other high schools but I really didn't want to work at either of them.
      December 21, 2016 2:59 PM MST
    1

  • Other than the ethos, I have been asked each of the questions at numerous job interviews.  They are excrement upon  poop on crap.  They might be reasonable for degreed positions but not for entry level employment.  I suspect they are just a set of clichés uninterested managers use to fill up a few minutes of an interview.
      December 21, 2016 3:09 PM MST
    1

  • 3934
    Because we live in a world with many many many more people in it than there is useful work for them to do.

    Hence, the majority of hiring managers have to do SOMETHING to winnow down the immense pile of applicants for  their paltry number of available positions to a manageable number.

    The winnowing process doesn't necessarily have anything to do with finding exceptional skills, exceptional talent, or exceptional experience (people with those qualities get singled out and head-hunted for positions). Instead, it's just a bunch of arbitrary hoops which will remove the truly lazy, uninspired, or dumb while leaving a manageable pool of adequate-to-good candidates. Then hiring managers can go on to pick candidates from the smaller pools based on arbitrary non-predictive criteria ("He graduated from Harvard," "He seems like a real go-getter," "I think he's a good personality fit for the team," etc.)
      December 21, 2016 6:37 PM MST
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  • Translation.

    It's all BS for BS sake.
      December 21, 2016 6:59 PM MST
    0

  • 3934
    Put yourself in the shoes of a hiring manager. Are you going to carefully scrutinize and interview the hundreds of applicants for one of your positions? Or are you going to use automated/semi-automated techniques to winnow down that huge number?  How many hours in the day do you have? How well are you paid to find incremental quality differences in hundreds of nominally-qualified candidates?

    I don't like it either, but until we eliminate the massive oversupply of human labor in the world, I don't see what alternative many hiring managers have.
      December 21, 2016 7:16 PM MST
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  • Have you ever tried to pick up some extra hours at a Home Depot for the winter?   The process is ridiculous for sorting hardware and stacking 2x4s by length.  Yet there drawn out method of "weeding" people out always get's me some slack jaw that doesn't know the first thing about building materials. 
      December 21, 2016 7:28 PM MST
    0

  • 3934
    @Glis -- Home Depot wants to pay as little as possible for its employees. Those who know what they're doing don't want to work at Home Depot for what Home Depot is willing to pay. Home Depot is aware of this, and knows that people who know what they're doing won't stick around or put up with much discipline. So is hires from the pool of slack-jawed yokels who will be grateful to not have to stand over a deep-fat fryer.
      December 21, 2016 7:54 PM MST
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  • Now, if we can just sort out the other problems with capitalism, we'll have it made.  :)

    I think you're right on all points, but I also think we'll get very old waiting for anything to happen.  Too many vested interests in important positions or with access to same.
      December 21, 2016 8:03 PM MST
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  • Now you're getting it.  I knew I could get you on my side of this.
      December 21, 2016 8:10 PM MST
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  • Hmmm. I thought most corps went to a behavioral interviewing process that was intended to be more situational and intended to point hiring managers away from the std questions and give an indication of how a prospect would react in the workplace and interact with fellow employees. Not that I'm a fan of either, since either method results in hiring people the hiring manager "likes" which creates a little group of people with similar qualities. Lack of diversity results in group think, and stagnates innovation. The 10th man ends up leaving.
      December 21, 2016 8:06 PM MST
    1

  • Human resources is always on top of the next stupid idea.
      December 21, 2016 8:11 PM MST
    1