Scripted Interviews

Scripted interviews are probably one of my least favourite things. A panel of people face you from across a table and ask you a number of questions designed to determine your character in 20 mins or less. Often the process involves a scoring system which is then used to choose the most suitable candidate. The questions often involve scenarios. While this process seems to work well for human resources folks, I often wonder what they expect from the answers...

"A customer has received the wrong order and becomes irate. What do you do?"

0.o

"An elderly man has a heart attack while waiting in line. What do you do?"

0.0

"Aliens steal the cashbox via tractor-beam. What do you do?"

^.^

Now I'm sure that for most of these types of questions (the above examples being purely hypothetical), there is a "good" answer and an "accurate" answer. The "good" answer being the one the interviewer is looking for and the "accurate" one being what you would actually do.

Case in point:

"Aliens steal the cashbox via tractorbeam. What do you do?"

Good answer:
"Aquiesce to their demands while pushing the silent alarm button under the counter. Call the manager. Wait for police. Do not disturb crime scene."

Accurate answer:
"Run screaming! Make tinfoil hat so they can't read your mind! Spend rest of life telling newsreporters that you were probed!"

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