This type of pressure may be necessary to assess how cool under fire an air traffic controller, or an explosive expert, might be, but hardly useful for evaluating a software developer or an accounting manager. In " Ditch The Panel Interview: Why Companies Say Farewell To The Firing Squad ", HR opponents of panel interviews list various reasons for a call to abandon this practice. One of these reasons is the perils of group thinking. A dominant voice in the room, for example, can lead the process astray. Setting up an ambush for the applicant. Here's an example of an employer who sets up a special filtering technique dubbed a "quick qualifier. " The secret plan involves adding the following words about three quarters of the way in a job advertisement: "To prove that you're a meticulous reader, you have to include the following sentence when you send your resume: 'It is with my utmost respect I hereto surrender my curriculum vitae for your consideration. '" If you only consider applications that contain the sentence, it has been estimated you could cut the number of resumes to review by 80 percent.
Unfortunately, this tactic may also cut out qualified applicants. It's easy for bright, highly qualified people to forget to include the sentence once they set out to prepare the cover letter and resume. They likely have other more important details on their mind, such as how to best position their expertise and knowledge. Asking the unanswerable. Some interviewers ask pointless questions. These fall in the category of outlandish "what if" questions, such as: "If you were a punctuation mark, what would you be? " What could an interviewer possibly hope to discover with this type of question? Would a question mark be indicative of a curious mind? An exclamation mark a sign of passion? A comma indicative of hesitation? And what about a semicolon? Good at connecting? The New (and Improved) Interview We can all derive inspiration from companies such as Google who candidly admit that some of the interview tactics they used were ineffective. Traditional hiring interviews are unreliable at the best of times, without the addition of outlandish interviewing tactics that result in a flawed system by design.
WHAT sort of dinosaur are you? If you answered Tyrannosaurus rex, then the bad news is that you will not be getting a job with at least one City financial institution. Welcome to the strange world of "extreme interviewing", the latest corporate import from America in which interview panels throw bizarre questions at candidates to see how they react. No amount of revision and practice can prepare the candidate who finds themselves on the receiving end of an "extreme interview". The dinosaur question has become a bit of a City favourite, as most candidates plump for Tyrannosaurus rex, whereupon the hapless soul is told: "Aha, so you are a cannibalistic predator preying on the weak, are you? " How about diplodocus? "So you're a sexist? " is
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