I once had the question, "Why was your GPA only 2.64?" posed to me. I said, "Because I spent time with my friends instead of studying, and I was late on assignments a lot during my first two years." My interviewer was shocked, and said, "I've never had someone tell on themselves during an interview before." I got the job, doing 3D modeling, a skill I had never attempted, on the strength of that answer, and worked there for 9 years.
There are important lessons here even if my interviewing days (on both sides of the desk) are in the past. My favorite jobs (three of them) were the ones my resume was not a perfect fit for - but I pursued because the job description sparked such great interest in me that I knew I could and would be able to do it so well if given a chance that the person hiring me would be glad they did.
I had similar questions to yours during the hiring process when I was doing the hiring. I like your softball questions about tardiness reasons. It's remarkable how many people don't pick up on those lifelines.
I've been conducting interviews for many years and greatly miss the in person interviews that were key to hiring before the pandemic. We would only get people in if they got to the tech test, which would often happen in the studio at a basic machine surrounded by all the goings on of the games studio... And they'd get interrupted routinely by a passing exec or a team member who knew theyd be there to just say hello or see how they were getting on. The test was always too long to complete and that was the point as we wanted to see how they prioritised and talked about their intentions rather than just what they did.
Nowadays we go end to end with remote zoom calls. As a hybrid company its grand to do this since we work remote most of the time but sometimes the first time you meet someone in person is weeks or months later when we organise team get togethers in an office. We have had to get very good at hiring good people without seeing them in person.
Being late for remote interviews are similarly unforgivable but my lines are , "did you have trouble connecting?" Or "are you having difficulty with your internet?" But incredibly some still struggle to just be on time!
I once had a guy who took an interview with us, at a time of his chosing, and dialed in from an airport terminal as he was on his way somewhere. I was shocked ge elected to pick a time that he'd be travelling to take an interview with us... I obviously gave him an out "oh no was your flight delayed!?"... He looked at me and said "no no I actually came here early so I'd be able to do the interview without rushing off"...
If someone claimed language skills, I’d always have someone in on the interview who (if I wasn’t fluent myself) mastered the claimed skills and would switch in mid-sentence and continue the question.
Also. “I’m going to grab us some coffees. I’ll be back in 10 minutes and then I’d like a 2 minute presentation on [specific core aspect of the job]”. Wheat from the chaff.
I once had the question, "Why was your GPA only 2.64?" posed to me. I said, "Because I spent time with my friends instead of studying, and I was late on assignments a lot during my first two years." My interviewer was shocked, and said, "I've never had someone tell on themselves during an interview before." I got the job, doing 3D modeling, a skill I had never attempted, on the strength of that answer, and worked there for 9 years.
Great story, Mark. You're the kind of guy I'd hire.
There are important lessons here even if my interviewing days (on both sides of the desk) are in the past. My favorite jobs (three of them) were the ones my resume was not a perfect fit for - but I pursued because the job description sparked such great interest in me that I knew I could and would be able to do it so well if given a chance that the person hiring me would be glad they did.
I hope the last guy took your advice in his future job searches.
A stern but fair man, geeze, those really were the days, weren't they?
I had similar questions to yours during the hiring process when I was doing the hiring. I like your softball questions about tardiness reasons. It's remarkable how many people don't pick up on those lifelines.
I've been conducting interviews for many years and greatly miss the in person interviews that were key to hiring before the pandemic. We would only get people in if they got to the tech test, which would often happen in the studio at a basic machine surrounded by all the goings on of the games studio... And they'd get interrupted routinely by a passing exec or a team member who knew theyd be there to just say hello or see how they were getting on. The test was always too long to complete and that was the point as we wanted to see how they prioritised and talked about their intentions rather than just what they did.
Nowadays we go end to end with remote zoom calls. As a hybrid company its grand to do this since we work remote most of the time but sometimes the first time you meet someone in person is weeks or months later when we organise team get togethers in an office. We have had to get very good at hiring good people without seeing them in person.
Being late for remote interviews are similarly unforgivable but my lines are , "did you have trouble connecting?" Or "are you having difficulty with your internet?" But incredibly some still struggle to just be on time!
I once had a guy who took an interview with us, at a time of his chosing, and dialed in from an airport terminal as he was on his way somewhere. I was shocked ge elected to pick a time that he'd be travelling to take an interview with us... I obviously gave him an out "oh no was your flight delayed!?"... He looked at me and said "no no I actually came here early so I'd be able to do the interview without rushing off"...
...we did not hire him.
If someone claimed language skills, I’d always have someone in on the interview who (if I wasn’t fluent myself) mastered the claimed skills and would switch in mid-sentence and continue the question.
Also. “I’m going to grab us some coffees. I’ll be back in 10 minutes and then I’d like a 2 minute presentation on [specific core aspect of the job]”. Wheat from the chaff.
The truth always comes out eventually.
Ah, the people we see on interviews. Never ceases to amaze me how different people are.