Page 102 - How To Answer Interview Questions (II)

Job Interview Question 50

It's your dime.
(Interviewer doesn't ask questions)

I once had a candidate go to a sales interview, sit down and… nothing. The hiring manager just
ignored her and played with a pen. That’s enough to rattle the most skilled and experienced person.

The wrong thing to do would have been to get rattled, and just sit there, too. It wouldn’t take long
before the manager would have gotten up and invited her to leave—or even walked out without
saying anything.

However, this woman was unflappable.She smiled at the ‘interviewer’ and said, “I’m so happy to
meet with you today. I understand that you are in the market for a new sales rep. What are the most
important qualities you’re looking for in someone for this job?”

With that question, she got the hiring manager talking, they went on with the interview, and she got
the job.

What the hiring manager was looking for was someone who had a strong enough personality and
confidence to walk into a cold-call situation and make the sale. If this woman had shown that she
couldn’t even step out of her comfort zone to stand up for herself, how would she ever find the
strength to stand up for the company’s product in the face of an initially disinterested customer?

I’ve seen a lot of companies “play” with candidates this way—put them in uncomfortable
situations to see what they’re made of. One company routinely had a cab collect interviewees from
the airport and then drop them off at an incorrect location. Another company did something similar—
they had the cabbie deliberately take a long and winding route to the interview, making the
interviewee late. They learned a lot about their candidates by seeing how they reacted under
pressure, how they treated the cabbie (who was in full cahoots with them), and what they did to
rectify the situation.

Never let anything make you lose your composure in an interview situation. Even if you think
something is just too weird, it may be a play to rattle you and see what you’ll do. Just smile at the
attempt, keep your cool, and keep moving toward your goal.