Yesterday I interviewed at Emory for the master's program in anesthesiology. Admittedly, I haven't been to many interviews in my life, but the ones I have been to were all pretty similar. Yesterday's was a decidedly different experience. It was definitely the most interesting and, in the end, fun interview I've had. First the format was different. We had three group interviews with three different pairs of interviewers. The first was mostly standard "learn more about you" questions such as the last book I read, the most unusual thing that had happened to me, and how I would react in a given scenario (first to arrive at an accident scene). Then they asked about how Ansel Adams and Robert Frost are related. They also asked about Martha Graham, Eugene O'Neill, and Samuel Clemens. The second interview was just like a normal interview.
The third phase was what made this interview unique in my experience. From the time we walked in, the interviewers acted very intimidating, one more than the other. It was almost like a "Good Cop, Bad Cop" routine, but the good cop never did anything to help us out. It was more "Playfully Mischievous Cop, Pure Evil Cop". They asked us questions that didn't seem to have any relevance, trivia questions (of the sort encountered at the Panasonic Walt Disney World Academic Challenge rather than at a Quiz Bowl tournament for those familiar with such competitions). "What is the Fibonacci sequence?" "If I stand at the nose of a spaceship traveling at the speed of light and turn on a flashlight, what happens?" "Define treason, heathen, and cretin." If you answered correctly, they would have a more difficult follow up question, and it seemed like the goal was to get you to say "I don't know" or make something up. If you made something up, they would pick up on it immediately and ask you more about it in a way that allows you to go farther down that road eventually making yourself look like an idiot. There was no encouragement and no shortage of snide comments. My favorite from my group was "So the little that you know about it is actually zero. Well I guess that's a little." I heard from a woman in the group before mine that he had asked her a psychology question that she didn't know and he responded pretty viciously. "You're a psychology major and you don't know that?! Where do you go to school that they didn't teach you that?" I got the impression that the point of this interview was to see how well we could think and respond under stress. Everybody I talked to beforehand said that it was horrible, but I enjoyed it. My favorite question was as we were leaving. The hardcase asked everybody what his, the interviewer's, name was. He had only introduced himself as "Not Sam." The other interviewer, Sam, had referred to him by name a couple of times while we were in the room though, and he wanted to see who had picked up on it.
Like I said, this was the most interesting and fun interview I have been to. Has anybody else encountered something like this or have I just had the bad luck to meet with unimaginative people?
The third phase was what made this interview unique in my experience. From the time we walked in, the interviewers acted very intimidating, one more than the other. It was almost like a "Good Cop, Bad Cop" routine, but the good cop never did anything to help us out. It was more "Playfully Mischievous Cop, Pure Evil Cop". They asked us questions that didn't seem to have any relevance, trivia questions (of the sort encountered at the Panasonic Walt Disney World Academic Challenge rather than at a Quiz Bowl tournament for those familiar with such competitions). "What is the Fibonacci sequence?" "If I stand at the nose of a spaceship traveling at the speed of light and turn on a flashlight, what happens?" "Define treason, heathen, and cretin." If you answered correctly, they would have a more difficult follow up question, and it seemed like the goal was to get you to say "I don't know" or make something up. If you made something up, they would pick up on it immediately and ask you more about it in a way that allows you to go farther down that road eventually making yourself look like an idiot. There was no encouragement and no shortage of snide comments. My favorite from my group was "So the little that you know about it is actually zero. Well I guess that's a little." I heard from a woman in the group before mine that he had asked her a psychology question that she didn't know and he responded pretty viciously. "You're a psychology major and you don't know that?! Where do you go to school that they didn't teach you that?" I got the impression that the point of this interview was to see how well we could think and respond under stress. Everybody I talked to beforehand said that it was horrible, but I enjoyed it. My favorite question was as we were leaving. The hardcase asked everybody what his, the interviewer's, name was. He had only introduced himself as "Not Sam." The other interviewer, Sam, had referred to him by name a couple of times while we were in the room though, and he wanted to see who had picked up on it.
Like I said, this was the most interesting and fun interview I have been to. Has anybody else encountered something like this or have I just had the bad luck to meet with unimaginative people?
posted by Jason at 12:57 AM
3 Comments:
lucky...my most creative interview was for a job at Eckerd Express Photo when i was 17....i am really proud of you!!!!! i love you very much.
Hmmm…I remember those Panasonic questions. Not exactly Gabriel Garcia Marquez or Zora Neale Hurston. Did other people in your group get agitated? Did you talk much? How big were the groups? So what was Not Sam’s name? I have a really bad habit of forgetting the names of the people I have just been introduced to. I like to attribute this to the fact that during introductions I inevitably spend a good bit of time being questioned about my name, so the other person’s name doesn’t have time to sink in. Maybe I am self absorbed, though, and the above is both a reason for this and a reflection of this.
My most interesting interview was for my job at Fennell Purifoy Hammock right when I got out of school. They looked at my portfolio and asked the usual questions. Then they moved on to some more interesting ones: Who’s your favorite guitarist? The living or dead dinner question. What are the last three books you’ve read? In another interview five years ago, the architect got up in the middle to copy a page in my portfolio. He sort of asked permission…sort of. Another architect heard my name, asked me if I was Jewish, and then developed a wide-eyed, apologetic expression as he realized that he probably shouldn’t ask me about religion. The interview for my current job was so casual and unexpected that I didn’t even think of it as an interview. I like interviewing, though; I get a bit of a high from it. I liked going with the FPHA partners to interview for architectural jobs. I also really enjoyed trying to convince a non-profit group recently that they should hire us to help them buy and restore an old school building. Really, I think what I like is the feeling that I can convince strangers to like me or my company – to get them to think that I’m the right combination of intelligent, pleasant, courteous, and capable.
My dad always mentions an old interview trick that he’d heard about, but it’s hard for me to imagine this really happening. The interviewer offers the interviewee a cigarette, almost with an insistent tone so that he’ll be likely to take it. Then, the interviewer decides not to have one and proceeds with his questions. There isn’t an ashtray on the table, so the interviewee is forced to choose among several bad options -- interrupt to ask for an ash tray, let the ashes fall on the table, walk away from the interview, use his hand as an ash tray, or to come up with some other solution to the unexpected problem. Now the idea of smoking in an interview is ridiculous, of course. Jason, you should have smoked in your interviews. That would get attention. As it is, though, I’m sure that you smoked the interviews.
Hmmm, again. That ? at the end of my last post was supposed to be a smile. :) I meant for that to sound affirmative, not uncertain.
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