idealpeople blog

This morning, we spoke to a client who have been struggling to hire an Executive Assistant to the CEO. It’s rare for us to be working on a pure soft skills position such as this to be honest, but this is a special client, so we said we wouldn’t mind working to try and get them someone talented.

Turns out they have been through several rounds of interviews, and in fact, had a candidate in mind who made it to the final stage.

As this is a newly created position, the client suggested to us that they really want to hire someone inquisitive, curious, and motivated by the role - like a Personal Assistant on steroids… This ‘favoured’ candidate, who had performed really well during the first three rounds of interviews, at the closing stage, was asked the classic:

“OK, do you have any more questions?”

To which the lady replied: “How easy is it to get a sandwich around here?”

So, this was the end of the journey for the favourite candidate, and back to the drawing board in terms of the search. And all because of a daft question at the moment of completion.

It’s with this in mind, we asked around at Idealpeople towers, to find out the classic ‘awful responses’ to that questions, which we have heard about. Here are the best examples of what not to ask at an interview. Here are some potential ‘Deal Breaking’ questions, to avoid

Is it possible for me to get a small loan?

Would you like to work for the person I might be working for?

Another “classic” (reply from a Programme Manager, when asked about their approach when project deadlines all start to slip, and budgets creep) was “I just start throwing Pens around…” NEXT!!!

At the request of one of the more junior jobseekers we are working with, we are also soon to release on the blog, a bunch of really good generic questions to show off with next time you have an interview.