Quick Tip: Feign Ignorance
May 31, 2008 by Eric Eggertson
Filed under Marketing
Too many interviewers think their job is to look smart.
The job of the interviewer is to create an environment in which the subject of the interview is as open, animated and coherent as possible. If jumping on a couch and behaving like an orangutan (with a hat tip to Tom Cruise) is what it takes to achieve that, then that’s what they do.
Instead of proving how intelligent you are, use an interview to achieve your goals.
Ask dumb questions. Ask open-ended questions that force the person to explain more.
Leave your ego at the door, and you may find yourself getting the information you need.
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I’ve had to sit through a large number of interviews for jobs before where the interviewer (usually a supervising staff member) likes to act like the big boss and throw stupid questions at you for fun. Two years back I was interviewed for a job and I ended up in a five minute argument about “ALT tags” in HTML, where he wouldn’t believe me that there was no such thing and that alt is an attribute. Surprisingly enough, even though I needed the money I didn’t take the job.
I’m always under the impression that an interview is supposed to pick a suitable candidate for the role specified. No matter how highly anyone holds a job if the questions are not relevant then the interviewer has failed and will most likely hire someone to help him/her drag the company down.
Nice post. I guess it is a rule of thumb many people, and not only journalists, should learn.
Mike:
In the case of a job interview, it could be useful to ask a question that tries to get the person to reveal something about themselves.
Asking a question that reveals how much you know about some topic won`t necessarily help you decide whether the person would be good at the job.
Sounds like the same kind of bozo you were arguing with.
Mariana:
Thanks. I`m full of brilliant insights like that!
Eric: Definitely! Unless you’re dealing with a very specialised job for employees with rare talents one’s personality is always going to come into question. I’ve always tried to maintain a friendly atmosphere, but with the interview in question it is the first time an interviewer has become genuinely angry with a ‘disagreement’.
Making a living in tech PR has taught me not to be afraid to ask dumb questions. You have to if you are going to be able to do your job. Pick your moments though.
I agree, but I also respectfully disagree.
I agree that the objective of the interviewer is NOT to look smart. Their objective is, or should be, to find out as much about the person/subject as is possible, AND to find out specific information that they particularly wish to know. This is true for job interviews, public relations interviews, news interviews, etc. And the way to do that is indeed to ask questions.
But where I disagree is that those questions should ever be “dumb questions”. Open-ended? Yes, often. “Dumb”? Never.
Examples of dumb questions?
“How do you feel about your husband being trapped down in the mine” (Really irritates people viewing the news.)
“What position did you have in the last company you worked for?” (On the front page of the resume in the interviewer’s hand.)
Asking “dumb” questions can bring an interview to a screeching halt, because the person being interviewed becomes irritated with the questions AND the person asking them. Where a job interview is concerned, it can result in a very qualified candidate losing interest in the job you are trying to fill. Where a public relations or news interview is concerned, it can result in increased gamesmanship, or the interviewee being less forthcoming, or even that individual walking away from the interview entirely.
Ask questions — many of which should be open ended. But consider carefully the questions that should be asked. And after asking those open-ended questions, don’t hesitate to ask more pointed questions to solicit more specific information.
John Hornbeck
http://www.MarketingTalentNetwork.com
http://www.YourMTN.wordpress.com/
John:
Yeah, maybe “dumb” should be in quotation marks. My point is that I hear too many radio and TV hosts posturing for their audience instead of getting their guests to reveal something about themselves. It’s sloppy journalism.
Also, the journalist/lawyer/investigator often asks questions that they already know the answer to, because they don’t want to assume what the person’s answer will be.
In some circumstances, asking a dumb question is appropriate, because it’s important for the person to state the obvious.