BENIGN TO FIVE

Everyone does job interviews a little bit differently. There’s everything from pure banality delivered by middle aged men called Geoff, Steve and Brian to multi-faceted, 11-stage mega-processes involving psychometric testing and treadmills and zero gravity trials.

Somewhere in the middle are the ones so affectedly “zany” that you fear a clown will pop out from under the table at any moment and scream “WHERE DO YOU SEE YOURSELF IN FIVE YEARS?” They tend to involve an interviewer who tries to play charades with you, another who says “that’s rad, dude” a lot, and a lemur.

This is the interview of self-described “disruptors” and, as disruptors, traditional questions are anathema to them. They’ll ask things like “If you were a tinned vegetable, which variety would you be?” and “How do you reach peak awesome in the morning?” Or they might ask you a riddle.

Once you’ve batted away this self-indulgent tripe and they inevitably ask “Do you have any questions for us”, probably while jangling a tambourine or something, hit back hard.