The melting pot: Where all job seekers end up.The melting pot: Where all job seekers end up.

BENIGN TO FIVE

It has happened to all of us. You go into a job interview brimming with confidence like a cauldron of self-satisfaction, feeling more-than-adequately armed to confront the coming interrogatory assault. And you come out feeling like an abandoned sock puppet that has been kicked into a sandpit smelling of hopelessness and cat wizz.

Usually, the source of the pain is a single lousy question. A big, fat, prickly blindsider that leaves your mind screaming “Whaaaaaaat?” and your mouth attempting to buy you some time with auto-pilot inanities like “…in relation to that…”, “…what I would say is… “…in terms of…” and so on.

Employers are wily. They know that questions considered doozies only a few years ago are now pedestrian, posing no threat to an adroit jobseeker. They have a constantly running production line of new questions, each one more difficult to answer than the last.

Here are some of the latest, the ones you should be prepared for as you seek greener job pastures: “Sometimes we need to build a metaphorical bridge to overcome a problem. What figurative building material do you use to construct such bridges?” “Tell us about a time you saved an organisation money by using techniques that you learnt from a 1970s’ instruction manual.” “As a child, what tactics did you employ during Easter egg and Mintie hunts?” “What do you think Rhonda Burchmore can teach us about time management?”

Read them, remember them and work out how you’re going to respond to them. Then swagger into your interview knowing that nobody’s kicking you into the rejection sandpit today.

Jonathan Rivett fell into a cauldron of self-satisfaction as a child. He blogs exceptionally well at haught.com.au.ÂÂ