So Mr. Farooki... please tell us a bit about yourself...

I’ve always found job interviews to be an interesting experience. It’s a place for mind games, diplomacy, and an extensive show of personality and knowledge. It’s basically the hour or two where you try not to be yourself.

People say that the key to a good interview is being confident. Not that I disagree but I think it’s more important in trying not to make a fool out of yourself when you finish. Mainly because the people taking the interview are trying their level best to make you look like an idiot. And a fool with poise looks even more silly.

I also get the feeling that HR people think too highly of themselves, especially when taking interviews. They try really hard to give the impression that they’ve done multiple degrees in varying subjects such as psychology, math or history. Of course, they probably have a single degree and took the job because they had little or no talent for anything else. But at that particular time they’re the ones who are in control, and they would waste no opportunity in reminding you so.

There are a number of interview questions that are just plain stupid. If I would have a list, my least favorite one would be where I tell them how I see myself after a certain period of time. Some people say that their main focus is on the way you answer the questions, not the answers themselves. That would more or less explain the presence of these irritable and meaningless questions.

I’d like to see interviewers add a bit of humor to the whole process. Not only would it make the interview more interesting but it will also give an opportunity to see if the interviewee has a sense of humor. You wouldn’t want to hire a person with no sense of humor; that would make the workplace even more boring. You can also tell a lot more about the person by sharing a few jokes or playing some pranks. For example, if you tell a racially distasteful joke and the person laughs uncontrollably, there is a high probability that he/she has racist opinions. Or if you plant a mild stink bomb during an interview and the interviewee (knowing that he wasn’t the one who let off) doesn’t flinch for a second will show that he/she would be more tolerable to different types of people.

Now I’m talking like one of those HR people. Damn.