GETTING TO KNOW YOU (AND YOUR BRAINS)

By Rich Janney

Interviews are interesting, to say the least.  You spend a few hours with some people to determine if you are going to spend most of your waking life with them for the next several years—up to the rest of your career.  Each company has a different approach to this high-stakes get together.  Some companies just want to have an old fashioned chat.  However, more and more, employers are taking a non-standard approach to getting to know you and how you work.  Like what—what kind of things will they do? 

I’m glad you asked…

Writing Test

Some law firms have determined that since lawyers mostly write stuff, they should probably see how well you do on a writing project from start to finish.  They will give you a file with some cases, a fact sheet, and some instructions on what they want you to do (write a memo analyzing the law for a client, most likely).  Then they will hermetically seal you in a conference room (with an air supply) and see what you have produced when they let you out.  Does this measure your ability to write an analysis of three cases in two hours?  Yes.  Will it likely make you feel funny, but you can’t quite put your finger on why?  Possibly.  But you should know that it exists.  My advice?  Don’t freak out if this happens.  Just go into the writing chamber and avoid getting distracted and making doodles all over the paper they gave you.

Personality Test

Employers are increasingly administering personality tests.  You sit down—maybe with a Scantron™ sheet and a number two pencil—and the test asks you all kinds of questions that seem totally unrelated, but, thanks to certain algorithms*, a computer will be able to sort you out into a few general categories of human being (e.g., Hufflepuff or Gryffindor).  From this, the employer will be able to tell if you are in the club or not.  Frustrating?  Not if you make it into the correct personality quadrant.  My advice?  You can’t ‘steer’ these exams into saying what a great person you are.  You just have to answer the questions as best you can and hope the sorting hat likes you.

*I am getting incredibly sick of this word

Brainteasers

This has received a lot of attention lately thanks to companies like Google making news that they are no longer going to ask interviewees mind puzzles.  However, Google notwithstanding, many companies still do it.  The philosophy behind brain benders is that they supposedly reveal how you think.  Here’s how it could all go down: You arrive for your interview and exchange some pleasantries.  Then, without warning, your interviewer may ask you this: “A windowless room has 3 light bulbs. You are outside the room with 3 switches, each controlling one of the light bulbs. If you can only enter the room one time, how can you determine which switch controls which light bulb?”  My advice?  Say this: “Just watch which light bulbs turn on and off through the open door.  Idiot.”  Then flip the table over, kick the door open, and leave.  I’m just kidding.  Don’t say “idiot.”