Re: Number 1 mistake to not avoid during an interview

[demerphq]

This thread reminds me off a story I was once told. It seems that at some point in the selection process for submariners there is/was a tricky test for the potential applicant. The test involves being left in a waiting room full of electronics equipment, supposedly to wait for a one on one interview with an officer of some sort. The equipment is nice and shiny and has flashing lights and stuff. After a certain point one the pieces of equipment starts beeping, or appears to do something unusual. If the applicant in the room touches the equipement it starts doing even more unusual things. The test ends when the person waiting is called into the other room and asked a few trivial questions in a friendly way.

Touching the equipement and not immediately reporting that you did, causes outright rejection. Not touching the equipement but asking about its function was a minor demerit. Completely ignoring the equipment and not even asking about it was the only way to get a good result.

People in interviews are always on guard for trickery. I certainly wouldnt express anything more than modest enthusiasm and definately wouldnt touch anything in a job interview until I was well briefed about what it involved. Coffee, on the other hand is and would be gratefully recieved. :-)

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demerphq

_{<Elian> And I do take a kind of perverse pleasure in having an OO assembly language...}