Hiring manager uses wobbly chair test to see how ‘bold’ candidate is during interview
A hiring manager uses a seemingly harsh interview technique to figure out whether someone is the right person for the job.
When it comes to interview techniques, there are some pretty wild ones floating about.
Some hiring managers pretend to be the receptionist on the desk, just to see how polite you really are.
While others like to through you off with ridiculous questions. Just incase interviews weren't nerve-wracking enough as it is.
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But one interviewing technique is guaranteed to make you fall off your chair... literally.
The idea is to make the candidate feel pretty uncomfortable, and ultimately to gauge whether they are willing to speak up in a difficult environment.
Some would say it's clever while others would see it as quite harsh.
The strategy sees the manager placing a wobbly chair for the interviewee to sit on for the duration of the meeting.
Ultimately, they're looking to see whether the candidate is 'bold enough' to speak out and ask for a new chair.
Ridiculous, right?
One man told The Mirror US: "My brother was in ROTC [Reserve Officers' Training Corps] in college, and he told me this story.
"An applicant for ROTC Nuclear Power school would sit the chair in front of the desk of the interviewing officer during the interview.
"There was a second/similar chair in the room available for the applicant - off to the side.
"The chair in front of the desk for the applicant had one leg of chair - cut shorter - so the person sitting in the chair would wobble - during the interview.
"The successful test was to see if the applicant would be bold enough to stop the interview for a moment - to request to exchange his chair, for second/other chair - so they did not wobble."
I probably wouldn't have spoken a word about the chair, and I'm sure a lot of people can relate.
Another mind game that employers commonly put to their candidates is the 'coffee test'.
They wait until the end of the interview to see whether the prospective employee takes their empty coffee cup back to the kitchen or leaves it for someone else to do.
Trent Innes, Chief Growth Officer of hotel commerce platform SiteMinder, explained: "You can develop skills, you can gain knowledge and experience but it really does come down to attitude, and the attitude that we talk a lot about is the concept of 'wash your coffee cup'."
Mia Williams