I’m going through the transcript of an interview I did recently. It turns out that I wasn’t imagining things: several times, the man I was interviewing would answer a question by rephrasing his answer to the previous question. Our conversation goes something like:
ME: “What kind of food do you serve in your company cafeteria?”
HIM: “We believe in proper nutrition, so we serve entrees that include all of the food groups.”
ME: “Excellent. So what’s your favorite baseball team?”
HIM: “We serve grains, fruits and vegetables, meat, and dairy.”
Except replace food and baseball with technology.
This is why dogged persistence is so important to a successful interview. Sometimes you just have to keep asking the same question in different ways until you get the answer you’re looking for. You might feel like an idiot for doing it, but the results will make a difference.
Wade Rockett 