The Catch-22 of Interviews

In the award-winning documentary, "The Fog of War," former secretary of defense Robert McNamara reminds the viewer of one of the basic lessons of public relations:  "Always answer the question you wish you had been asked rather than the one you are actually asked."  This advice is essential for dealing with the sorts of ridiculous no-win situations that often accompany a job interview:  "Tell me about your biggest weakness" or "Describe the biggest mistake you made at your last job."  Both scenarios require candidates to carefully describe a story that reveals precisely the sort of flaw that might keep them from being hired but which refusing to relate may elicit the same result.  Catch-22.

The solution?  Answer the way you wish the question had been phrased rather than the way it actually is. 

While this is excellent advice for dealing with such no-win situations, I've recently encountered a different one that I had not expected.  My layoff from my last employer took place in February of 2009, which in another few months will have been two years ago.  (Cue the rueful shaking of the head here...)  Since that time, I have been keeping busy by doing many of the same things all the job advisers tell us to do - freelancing, contracting, networking, and even the occasional volunteer work.  Since I don't want prospective interviewers to think I've been sitting around doing nothing, I've put all of these on my resume under the title, "Independent Consultant." 

The result?  More and more interviewers want to know, "Why do you want to leave independent consulting and return to full-time work?"  (No, I'm serious here because you can't make this sort of ridiculous scenario up...)

So, in other words, if I did absolutely nothing but search for a full-time job and listed only my most recent full-time employer on my resume, the inevitable question would be, "What have you been doing since being laid off?"  But if I do all sorts of activities aimed at helping me land my next job, I get asked, "So, why do you want to give all this up and return to full-time work?"  It's precisely this sort of damned-if-you-do-and-damned-if-you-don't sort of situation that makes job seekers have flattened foreheads:  You pound 'em against the wall enough times, and eventually it does start to show.

The solution?  Well, as my wife put it, "Remember your PR training.  Always answer the question you wish you'd been asked rather than the one you were."  So, my answers to this absurdity have ranged from, "Well, after being downsized I wanted to keep my skills sharp, so I began doing independent consulting as a means of keeping current until my next job..." to "Well, when you're laid off, you do independent consulting until you're able to land your next full-time job, and what interested me so much in this position is..." 

In short, much like the question about your greatest weakness, there is no "right" way to answer absurd questions.  You simply have to answer different ones that put you in the best position.

Even if those aren't necessarily the ones you're actually asked.