Team Riverman here. Interviews are awful.
Imagine there was this basketball player who has great stats and everyone who has ever had him on his team says he is a unique asset that helps them win.
Then some scout invites him for a 20 minute shoot around. He has an off day and the scout never looks at him again.
Not impressive scouting, right? Yet this is basically how most people determine who is the best person for a job.
Wait I have to handle interviews all the time so
What are the odds the biggest douche in the company is significantly more racist/sexist than the average person?
1000%.
Iâd rather go on 100 job interviews than one date where I immediately know Iâm not into the person or vice versa. Hence I have a job but am single.
I mean âhow do you handle ridiculous, inane, timewasting questionsâ is a pretty good test for most office jobs. Bullshitting your way through a âbiggest weaknessâ question without obviously and outwardly losing the will to live is a vital skill in the modern office environment.
I just donât have it in me, thankfully i donât really work in an office environment. But hating interviews is one of the reasons Iâve been at the same company for 12 years.
On the flip side, sometimes interviews can be a godsend for people changing careers or who have experience that isnât an exact match to what the employer is expecting (veterans transitioning out of the service, for example).
To have the chance to explain to a person why they are actually a good fit as opposed to having yet another algorithm throw out their resume can feel really validating (source: personal)
Whatâs your greatest weakness
Unapologetic apathy
Workaholic perfectionist whoâs too modest to tout his own successes. Itâs a problem.
âI have a problem with authority, am incapable of working productively as part of a team, will never buy into any motivational efforts by senior management, am intensely cynical and negative and am prone to extended periods of not giving a shit. Whatâs your salary range again?â
men are more likely to manifest their burnouts through cynicism.
Your customers will love me, but my bosses will hate me. Also your business plan seems suspect. When do I start?
âIâll make you a metric fuck ton of money while simultaneously being the worst employee you have reporting to you. Youâll want to fire me at least once a week but then youâll think about all the money Iâm making you, clench tight, and bear it. The day after we part ways the entire structure I built to make you money will implode so totally that all will be left is rubble and smoke.â
âIâll become so valuable I can piss on your desk and you wonât do shit about it.â
Reminds me of one of my favorite quotes of all time - Bill Russell quoting his dad:
âSon, if the man asks you to work 8 hours, give him 9. That way you can look any man on the jobsite straight in the eye and tell him to go to hell.â
Got a chance of getting screwed either way.
What is a âwinningâ answer here? If I got that question, Iâd obviously realize that going scorched earth on a previous boss is a bad look, but completely ducking the question and acting like youâve never had a bad boss or disagreed with management seems completely disingenuous.
I would pick something I thought the interviewer thought he/she was good at and explain how the prior bad boss was bad at it and it impacted team performance because X,Y,Z.
You want to be like Bernie Sanders and give the answer you want to give regardless of the question. The same way he rants and raves about billionaires no matter what heâs asked, in an interview you have a bunch of stories you want to tell about how great you are and for each question you just practice twisting the question to suit your answer. Like you will probably have some stories ready about how you stepped up and took leadership of a situation. If they ask you about a bad boss, you frame that situation as the boss wasnât able to focus on the problem so you fixed it. Something like that.