We provide competency-based behavioral interviewing training for interview teams including hiring managers, recruiters, and interviewers.

INTERVIEW EDGE • APRIL 1998

Interview Wheel of Death

One of our Effective Interviewing!® seminar participants recently told us about an interview tactic used by a former employer (note the word "former"). It's called "wheel-of-death" and goes something like this: a high-tech firm hands prospective customer service reps a manual on an unreleased product and gives them 30 minutes to study it. After this cram session, the candidate faces a panel of six interviewers who bombard him or her with highly technical questions that are literally impossible to answer. In fact, the only correct response is, "I don't know the answer. I'll have to get back to you." Any candidate who tries to bluff their way through the wheel-of-death is considered, well, "dead."

We don't see the point of this "game." There is no established correlation between a candidate's ability to withstand job stress and the stress of an interview, so the "wheel of death" seems like a meaningless, and slightly sadistic exercise - the corporate equivalent to fraternity hazing. And in today's job market, where employees can pick and choose among companies, who would want to work for a firm like this?

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