Can you give an example of a question you might not have an answer for

Dynamic:

 

CtrlAltKiwi:

 

When people talk about burning bridges is it ok to speak up for yourself against a manager in a Volunteer position if she said something to me that was untrue and deeply hurtful?   

 

 

When two of my kids have been fighting, each will tell me their side of the story and typically the truth is somewhere in the middle.

 

As a general rule, if someone coming in for an interview is blaming other people for an issue with their previous employment I immediate wonder how much of the issue was the employee's fault.  The truth is typically somewhere in the middle.  As a potential employer of one of these people I'm not in a position to hear both sides of the story and judge for myself.

 

If I have two candidates for a job, Person A left their previous employer on good terms and Person B left on bad terms, I'm likely to choose Person A.

 

The only time I would bring up conflict in a previous employment discussion is to answer a question like "can you give an example of conflict and how you managed this?".  If you can describe a good outcome, then use the story.  If the outcome is 'the other person was an ass so I chose to leave', do not use that story.

 

Absolutely the best advice above.

Avoid conflict and litigation unless you are rich enough to not give a damn about the outcome. Anger at an injustice ultimately hurts you more than the other person. It saps your energy and has you wasting hours going over and over what hurt you. Instead, ignore it and move forward with a plan. 

The old saying, 'you catch more flies with honey' applies. An apology even when you aren’t the one at fault often has more power than an argument. You can bet the other person already knows if they are at fault…and you need your reference, so we’re back to the not burning bridges. Buy her a scone or chocolate for morning tea and just say 'hey sorry about last week.' You’ll get your reference. 

CtrlAltKiwi:

 

Is it completely fine to ask to skip questions in an interview that I have no answer for? 

 

Depends on the question... if its directly related to the role such as "Do you know how to use email", then it'd look bad if you declined to answer. If its something more personal and unrelated to the role, sure - I'd ask them why they're asking.

CtrlAltKiwi:

 

Is it completely fine to ask to skip questions in an interview that I have no answer for? 

 

I recently helped with recruiting a new General Manager for a community organisation.  I was given a series of questions to ask, and a box beside each question to give the candidate a 1 through 5 score.  Once the first interviews were complete, the three candidates with the best scores were invited back for second interviews.

No answer on a question would have resulted in a 0 on that line, which would have reduced that candidate's chances of being invited back for the second interviews.

Skipping a question is fine, as long as you are aware this will reduce your chances.

I have had potential employees say they didn't know the answer to a question (usually, technical), a few have told me how they would get the answer (search terms in google or other resources they would consult). Unless it was a fundamental 101 type question, I'd be inclined to give them close to full marks, because not knowing, but being able to find out, is a skill I highly value. I've also had people post interview follow up on questions they didn't answer as well as they would have liked, or who have clearly gone away to fill that gap in their knowledge, and you'd score reasonably with me for that, because it goes to attitude, which is far harder to teach, than hard skills. 

Generally, I'd lean toward someone with a good attitude and good communication, over someone with very strong technical skills but poor soft skills. 

There are obviously limits to that. You'd need to be basically competent and show a clear history of ability to learn.

Someone currently unemployed who is upskilling whilst they job hunt is a much easier pick than someone who is unemployed and hasn't. 

CtrlAltKiwi: Perhaps if I had just left things as they were when I resigned rather then end up saying why or maybe just let it go and continued volunteering. though it was a very serious accusation that she made against me.

lxsw20:

 

Can you give an example of a question you might not have an answer for

 

or this one recently from my application to Altitude IT: ''How do you stay organized, and calm when faced with multiple requests to resolve issues from customers and/or colleagues''  

My answer was: ''By drinking plenty of coffee and taking notes.''

This was a automated 3 question recorded interview I don't recall the other 2 questions but I straight away put them into Gemini and read out the answer as I was being recorded.
My thoughts being that if they didn't want to do a proper interview there's not a lot of point in me putting much effort into it. I didn't start out this way I used to follow up (nicely) and thank them for their time but after so much rejection it just got tiring.

24 hours later I got a generic rejection email. So I think that AI must analyze what someone says and that's how they move forward or not it was too quick for a real person to review it.

The other idea I had was to get a friend to do the recorded interview for me and if they progress me I attend the real interview my thoughts being that they won't remember I'm not the person that was in the recording and if it's AI reviewed maybe a real person never does look at the recording. 

I don't know how to answer a lot of questions I'm asked - I sort of feel like the questions are designed to catch people like me out only those that know how to answer properly get progressed.

I even struggle with the question: ''Tell me a bit about yourself''

CtrlAltKiwi:

 

lxsw20:

 

Can you give an example of a question you might not have an answer for

 

How do I deal with conflict.

 

or this one recently from my application to Altitude IT: ''How do you stay organized, and calm when faced with multiple requests to resolve issues from customers and/or colleagues''  

 

My answer was: ''By drinking plenty of coffee and taking notes.''

This was a automated 3 question recorded interview I don't recall the other 2 questions but I straight away put them into Gemini and read out the answer as I was being recorded.
My thoughts being that if they didn't want to do a proper interview there's not a lot of point in me putting much effort into it. I didn't start out this way I used to follow up (nicely) and thank them for their time but after so much rejection it just got tiring.

24 hours later I got a generic rejection email. So I think that AI must analyze what someone says and that's how they move forward or not it was too quick for a real person to review it.

The other idea I had was to get a friend to do the recorded interview for me and if they progress me I attend the real interview my thoughts being that they won't remember I'm not the person that was in the recording and if it's AI reviewed maybe a real person never does look at the recording. 

 

I don't know how to answer a lot of questions I'm asked - I sort of feel like the questions are designed to catch people like me out only those that know how to answer properly get progressed.

 

I even struggle with the question: ''Tell me a bit about yourself''

 

If there was no serious answer/follow up to ''By drinking plenty of coffee and taking notes.'' that would be a red flag. You could joking say that first, but I'd expect a serious follow up answer. Something along the lines of "I would prioritise the requests based on XYZ and systematically work through them. If the number of requests became unmanageable I'd seek help from my team lead. From my last role at ABC I dealt with similar issues by doing 123"

I appreciate you've had a tough run however the answers and attitude you are beginning to show are not positive. Any form of deceit or lying is a serious no go. It will catch up with you.

Nate001: I appreciate you've had a tough run however the answers and attitude you are beginning to show are not positive. Any form of deceit or lying is a serious no go. It will catch up with you.

@Nate001

Thanks, Yeah I see your point I thought I would try another tactic but it hasn't worked and it can quite easily catch up on me like you say. 
I did want to add though that a recruitment agency agreed with my putting things on my CV that were not true- He said that if there's a gap in employment that's the sort of thing they would tell Clients to do invent work history.

Perhaps IT isn't for me if I'm unable to answer the questions asked of me

Maybe if I hadn't had all the mental health issues I was going though when I graduated from my course and accepted the work experience I was offered  (Pulling ethernet cables through ceilings) I would be in a completely different place now maybe I would have easily got a job then if I had been motivated back then and in the right head space. 

It's incredibly disheartening to put in so much effort and get noting back.

I tried the ''People I know thing'' Well I didn't really know them - We had an electrician come and install a security system at our home and I did ask if they needed anyone to help pull cables gave the guys my contact details to pass onto their boss just in case but didn't get anything from that

We also had a repair done on a tv areal and I also asked that guy if he needed any help but he said he works alone. He puts TVs on the walls and installs security Cameras etc.   

I even went to a networking event - a local meetup group ''MS Copilot User Group of Aotearoa which was meeting I think monthly at Microsoft building at the viaduct. It was a couple of hours long and they provided free pizza and wine. I went by myself it was very difficult for me to do socially I was terrible I didn't speak to anyone unless they spoke to me went and sat at a table by myself while people talked eventually someone came and spoke to me for a bit this was before the event started. At the end of one of the events one of the guys attending who I met was a recruiter and one of the staff from Microsoft asked him to connect on LinkedIn and by then I had a couple of wines so I was a bit more confident and I said to the Microsoft woman (I forget her name) I would be keen to connect as well - So I told her my name and she found me on their and this was at the end of the event and basically she just looked at my profile and never bothered to connect. I'm assuming cause she had gathered that I was a nobody.   

Sadly it appears the group no longer operates I did reach out to the organizer to see if it was still running but I never heard back. I also was a little upset the last time I went that the Microsoft employee didn't wish to connect so maybe I wouldn't want to attend again.   

The first round video interviews are coming more common. IME they are watched by the hiring manager. Don't just assume everything is AI. 

As others have said these questions are common, you need to study up on appropriate answers and be ready for them. 

From what I understand, interviews and questions are quite difficult for neurodivergent people. There are absolutely right answers that they are looking for that aren’t necessarily the honest ones. They’re designed to gauge you as a person instead of whether you have an answer for the question content itself.

Anything not ‘normal’ will get misinterpreted even if you don’t intend to e.g. the body language stuff a previous commenter talked about in video/in-person interviews. Even if you tell them you’re autistic there is no guarantee they will accommodate that. If they think your body language says ‘I don’t want to be here’ despite you just being nervous/stressed, majority will have a bias for other candidates that don’t. It’s unfortunate but it happens.

If you struggle with some of the common interview ‘questions’ then best to go over the majority of the common ones and have a answer prepared beforehand. You can exaggerate a little on personal related stuff like ‘what do you do/like in personal time’ etc. but like others said don’t fabricate stuff or it will catch up to you.

Today im planning to update my CVs removing the Dick Smith and also one question;

Should I remove this from my CVs as I have been unable to get anyone from One NZ to actually verify that I did this?

as it’s older experience I’ve removed what I did and just have the dates listed now. 

Customer Service Vodafone NZ (now One NZ) Jan 2016 - March 2021 

this was the volunteer work I did on the Vodafone community- Answering plan questions, providing links to into and questions about sim swaps etc.

Thank you @gzt for your advice about asking one of the other Volunteers that knew me and my work in the unlikely event of a job application getting to a reference check stage in this next couple of months.

Nate001:[snip]

 

I appreciate you've had a tough run however the answers and attitude you are beginning to show are not positive. Any form of deceit or lying is a serious no go. It will catch up with you.

 

This is really important. By all means focus on your good points and skim over the lesser stuff, but never lie. No employer will hire you if they found out you lied to them, and they will very likely try to fire you later if they found out. No employer wants an employee who they cannot trust. It's not a huge industry and word will get around as well. I'm astounded a recruiter said to make up jobs you had never done - if I was employing someone, there is no way I would use a recruiter that offered that advice.

Here's a fairly high profile example, and obviously very serious in terms of potential consequences. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/fake-middlemore-hospital-doctor-with-walter-mitty-view-of-life-sentenced-to-jail/R72OF6WG45H37EFPYIXUXVHFXE/

That guy went to jail for pretending he was a qualified doctor.

Krishnan used bogus CVs, reference letters and forged practising certificates to get a job at Middlemore Hospital, where he saw 81 patients over a six-month period before another doctor raised the alarm.

 

He also filed false affidavits to the High Court claiming he was a doctor, and won an appeal for a discharge without conviction for an earlier traffic offence.

Being neurodivergent is obviously creating a lot of difficulty for you getting through a job application and interview process that isn't designed for neurodivergent people. Perhaps it would be good to seek help from a neurodivergent support group or similar to see how other similar people learn this process? They might also be able to help you promote the positive aspects of your neurodivergency better as well, and how those skills can benefit a potential employer.