The jury is still out

Daniel is on the interview board at the police department. He really loves doing this as part of his job - he gets to know the applicants, and he gets to be nosy, which is one of his favorite pastimes. I have never given much thought to the days when he suits up and goes "for interviews" but today opened my eyes.

I am still doing the job search thing, and I had an interview today. My past experiences with interviews (I can recall 6 off the top of my head) have involved myself and a potential supervisor discussing my qualifications and the position they were seeking to fill. I have NEVER had to sit before a panel and answer questions. Until today.

It was me against a team of teachers. The seven women had papers in front of them. They fired questions at me. When I answered, they all bent dutifully over their papers and wrote notes. I felt like I was sitting before a grand jury. The questions were generic and ambiguous:

What are your strengths? (organization, efficiency)
What could you bring to the team? (uh... what?)
Where do we fit in to your long term goals? (define "long term")
What would you do (oooh-oooh!) for a Klondike bar? (anything but this)

I left feeling like those people didn't know me any better than when I had first walked through the door. Is this really an effective way to interview someone for a job? Were they just screening me for obvious social dysfunction, and maybe will call me back later?

I asked Daniel if this is what he does when he is interviewing. He laughed and said that it isn't so much WHAT you say, but HOW you say it, and how confident you are. Sheesh. Why didn't he tell me that before I went? I coulda saved myself a lot of worry about the content of my answers, as long as I said them with conviction, right?

"I could bring COOKIES to the team! Every week!"