The Mysteries of Interviewing

HRmoves in mysterious ways its wonders to perform! Especially when it comes torecruitments, the ways of the Human Resources guys is mysterious indeed. Istill remember, in my day, being tested for personality on what these guyscalled the 16-PF (16 Personality factors) test. One of the various mysteriousquestions was one involving a choice of which game I liked – Bowling, Croquet,Baseball or Skating (or some such mysterious choices). Having played none ofthe above (and ‘none of the above’ was not an option!) I could not see how mychoice would indicate anything about my personality. Maybe I did not quiteunderstand their esoteric field. Maybe it involved predictions on the lines ofTarot, where you choose cards of which you know nothing.TheIAS was, in my youth, the Holy Grail of almost all wannabe employees. Abilitiesrequired of a potential IAS aspirant had acquired mythic proportions. One ofthe anecdotal interviews (maybe real as well) went something like this:“Howmany steps did you climb up to come to this room?”“Asmany as I will climb down, Sir!”Wow!Presence of Mind! That is how it was told to me. For me, however, any potentialIAS aspirant created an instant mental image of a person obsessively interestedin counting steps on any staircase!Icould really not see where the presence of mind to obscure the absence ofknowledge can become an over-riding requirement for a job – any job! Except, ofcourse, if your job consisted exclusively of being interviewed by the likes ofKaran Thapar! I can never forget his interview with Sheila Dixit about roadaccidents in Delhi. Ms.Dixit wasmaking the point that, though helter-skelter traffic in Delhiwas the cause of accidents, pedestrians were also contributing to the problemby not adhering to traffic rules. Thapar says, “So you mean that thepedestrians are responsible for their own deaths!” With journalists like thisyou really do not need rabble-rousers!Thatinterview put me off TV interviews totally and, thus, I missed an episode thatI would have loved to watch (and did watch later on youtube). Thapar wasinterviewing Jayalalitha. Thapar’s idea of interviewing seemed to consist ofnot allowing his interviewee to complete a single sentence! Jayalalitha, ofcourse, is well-known for her patience! She just stormed out after sayingsomething like she thought she was to be interviewed and not to merely feedlines to Thapar on some sort of televised stand-up comedy show. If he merelywanted an audience for the sound of his own voice, she had better things to dothan sit around his studio listening to his asinine ideas. (I have liberallyparaphrased what she actually said). One day when I felt like cheering her withgusto!Wherewas I? Ah! Interviews for education and jobs, wasn’t it? However did I get ontoTV interviews? I digress too readily!Iwas being interviewed for a seat in IIM-A. Out pops this question, “Can youname all the Chief Ministers of Maharshtra since Independence?”Was this man for real? Did he really think that I memorized the CMs of allstates in Indiafor light relief between studying Fluid Dynamics and Thermodynamics? Did hewant me to grovel and claim, ‘I am sorry that I failed to realize theimportance of knowing the name of the 1960 CM of Maharashtrain managing the funds of HLL today?” Did he expect the IAS style smart-aleckanswer? The first answer that sprung to my mind was “Fools can ask questionsthat the wisest men cannot answer” but, somehow, I felt doubtful that he wouldjump up in joy upon hearing it. The second one was “Do you know them?” – with or without a ‘Sir’ at the end of it – butthat, too, did not seem like an iron-clad guarantee of a seat in IIM-A. The onethat I chose was “I do not know all the CMs of my home state, so how can I beexpected to know all the CMs of Maharashtra?”. Wrongcall! Admitting to more ignorance than the question called for was not thewisest of moves.Ihave been given to understand that such questions are asked to see howconfidently the candidate admits his ignorance. I fail to see the logic of thisidea. I would have thought that the purpose of an interview would be to seewhat a person knows and how confidently he is able to articulate what he doesknow. I am very confident about the fact that I do not know something when I amignorant! It is when I think I know something that I have a lack ofconfidence!  If I knew that saying ‘Idon’t know’ with confidence was all that was required of me, I would have spentmy time standing in front of the mirror, looking at myself in the eye andpracticing to say ‘I don’t know’ instead of wasting time on memorizing thecapital of Timbuctoo and other such esoteric pieces of information! (I have asuggestion for Interviewers. If all you want to test is this, why don’t youjust ask ‘Which came first – the chicken or the egg?’ rather than elaboratelyinventing questions that the candidate cannot be expected to answer? Fear ofcoaching classes, I suppose!)Letme turn to the one interview where I was successful. This was the interviewthat got me the seat in IIM-B.“Ah!So you are Suresh!”“YesSir!”Tothe best of my knowledge and belief that was the only question that I answeredin the whole interview. My unwavering confidence in saying ‘I don’t know’ toall the other questions must have so impressed the interviewers that I gotadmitted!