Interviewers: Don’t be afraid to go negative

There is a host of interviewing advice out there for job candidates. Much of the advice concerns how to circumvent interview questions that might require the job candidate to give out information he or she doesn’t want to. Of course, this means that interviewers will have to step up their game to circumvent the circumventers.

This is what getting negative looks like in the behavioral interviewing scene:

–”That’s good (referring to an answer), but it doesn’t really answer my question. Tell me….”

–”I need more detail about what you did in the situation. What you’re giving me is very high level, I need to dig into the details with you.”

–”That happened a long time ago. Do you have a similar experience that’s happened in the last year?”

–”Most of the examples you are giving me are team oriented. We value teams here, but for purposes of you being a candidate, I need to know what you did, not what the team did. Focus me on what you did.”

–”That’s a great example with a good outcome. Now tell me about a situation where you used a similar strategy but it didn’t work out for you.”

–”Tell me about a time where you’ve been fired or taken off a project due to your performance.”

–”I’m struggling to understand the details of what you’ve done in these situations. Once you tell me about a scenario, start giving me deep, deep details of what you did, not what the team did, not what you usually would do in that situation, but what you actually did.”

–”You keep telling me what you usually do in situations. I’m not interested in hypotheticals, I’m interested in what you have actually done.”

Some of these sound a little harsh to me — I’m picturing the job candidate in a blindfold with a cigarette dangling from his lips — but managers might find a varation of these suggestions useful.

My Office

Hi guys, I just wanted to show you my office. The creative team from office has really done some splendid job. They have done some awesome wall paintings below are some sample images from my office.

Office Wall

Heads

Cartoon with fractured leg

Warli painting on wall

Tweety on Wall

Johnny Depp

Apple asks court to ban Google Phones

Apple on Tuesday asked the U.S. International Trade Commission to block the importation into the country of HTC’s Google Android-based mobile phones, including the Google-branded Nexus One.

Apple asked the court for “a permanent exclusion order” that would bar from entry “all mobile communications devices and components” made by HTC that carry the offending technologies, according to court documents.

Apple on Tuesday sued HTC for alleged, multiple patent violations, claiming the Taiwan-based manufacturer’s products infringe on its iPhone technology. Apple filed the actions with the ITC and the U.S. District Court for Delaware.

In the ITC filing, Apple says 11 HTC phones violate its patents, including the Nexus One, Touch Pro, Touch Diamond, Pure, Imagio, and myTouch 3G. Apple claims HTC infringed on a total of 20 patents governing a range of technologies.

Apple wants the ITC to block HTC and its partners from “importing, marketing, advertising, demonstrating, warehousing inventory for distribution, distributing, offering for sale” any of the listed phones.

Apple is also seeking unspecified monetary damages in the Delaware court.

“We can sit by and watch competitors steal our patented inventions, or we can do something about it. We’ve decided to do something about it,” said Apple CEO Steve Jobs, in a statement. “We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own technology, not steal ours,” said Jobs.

Patent suits are not uncommon in the ultra-competitive tech industry, but vendors generally take a low-key approach and let court documents speak for themselves. That Apple issued a press release featuring its high-profile CEO indicates the company views HTC’s alleged infringements as a serious competitive threat.

“Apple has been and continues to be damaged by defendants’ infringement,” Apple said in its filing with the Delaware court. HTC has yet to file a formal response to the allegations.