Here's the interview question job seekers hate most

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This post from LinkedIn Influencer Liz Ryan appeared originally on LinkedIn.

There are lots of miserable job interview questions that rankle job-seekers. It's not just that the most-hated job interview questions are dumb and even insulting. What's worse is that they are lazy questions.

Too many interviewers rely on scripted questions rather than their own sturdy brains when it comes time to interview a job applicant.

What's so hard about sitting down with a person, looking them in the eye, and saying "I'm going to tell you about the job opening, and then I can answer your questions about it. Does that sound okay?"

A job-seeker's questions will tell you much more about him or her than his or her answers to scripted interview questions will. If you want a list of interview questions to ditch immediately, here's a place to start:

1. With all the talented candidates, why should we hire you?
2. What's your greatest weakness?
3. Where do you see yourself in five years?
4. What special qualities do you bring to our team? (gag me!)

These are bad questions, but the most-hated job interview question is not on this list. It's a question that makes perfect sense to ask someone on a date or at a networking coffee get-together. It's a wonderful question to ask someone you are meeting for the first time, in any setting that is not a job interview.

The most-hated question is, "Tell me about yourself!" It's not even a question. It's the laziest thing an interviewer could say. It means "You talk. I'll listen. I don't want to work any harder than that."

On a date, "Tell me about yourself" is a wonderful question. With luck the person who says "Tell me about yourself" is really interested in hearing about you. You could answer however you want to. You could say "I'm from Bulgaria originally and I like to write poetry" or "I am crazy about palindromes."

You could say anything at all, because a date is a social event where you are welcome to share any side of yourself that you want to share. 

A job interview is different. When an interviewer says, "Tell  me about yourself," you don't  know whether they want to hear your life story, your career story, your up-to-the-minute one-minute audio business card, or what.

You try to figure out how to answer the question and it can be frustrating to do, especially when you see that the interviewer's eyes are glazing over as you begin to tell your story.

 I don't blame job-seekers for hating the question, "Tell me about yourself," as it puts the job-seeker in a tough spot.

However, the question, "Tell me about yourself," actually presents a job-seeker with a golden opportunity. It is like the back of the wardrobe that takes you to Narnia or like Platform Nine and Three-Quarters that allows you to get on the Hogwarts Express.

The question, "Tell me about yourself," is a portal to another world. Want to step into it? Here's how:

When your hiring manager (not an HR screener) says, "Tell me about yourself,"  you can answer in a way that will get the conversation off any script that your manager may be planning to follow.

You'll take your manager far off the script and off into Hogwarts or Narnia instead — a much better place to be! The fun part of a job interview is digging into the Business Pain that is plaguing your hiring manager.

You'll use the question, "Tell me about yourself," to get your hiring manager to start talking about his or her Business Pain — the reason he or she is willing to spend time interviewing people like you in the first place.

You need to know what kind of Business Pain your manager is chafing under. Your understanding of his or her pain is your power in the job-search equation.

Alex spins the table using, "tell me about yourself" to get bart off the script

BART, a Manager: So, Alex, tell me about yourself.

ALEX, a Job-Seeker: For sure. I grew up here in Minneapolis and I've been doing technical product management for about seven years. I was on the team at 3M that developed anti-gravity paper clips and edible staples, for instance.

BART: Cool!

ALEX: I  could take you through my whole story, but I have a quick question about the job and I wonder if now is a good time to ask it.

BART: Go for it.

ALEX: You're the VP of Product Development for your company's biggest division...

BART: That's right.

ALEX: And this role is being newly created, or it exists already...?

BART: It's new.

ALEX: And that's because of the number of new products you have to get out the door this year and next year, compared to 2015.

BART: Yes. We have several large product launches coming up.

ALEX: And your existing Product Managers are stretched thin, I would imagine.

BART: Absolutely. One of our best people went to our sister division because they needed someone with the kind of experience our folks get here.

ALEX: And obviously if the products don't get out the door on time or the product development process is too expensive, that's a very bad thing.

BART: The worst. We can't take that chance. We have to staff up.

Alex can't get much pain from Bart yet. All he's heard about is the standard logic for hiring a new body. That won't get him to Narnia or Hogwarts.  He needs to dig more deeply.

ALEX: I know a lot of manufacturers have a significant amount of red tape and approvals that new products have to get through. New products don't advance through the pipeline unless they have a strong champion, someone who's dogged about moving through every step.

BART: That's so true! Without that concerted push through the various logjams the little delays stack up and before you know it, you're  in a bad situation.

ALEX: Have you run into that situation here?

BART: We did. We were late releasing one of our larger and more significant new product offerings last year and we are still cleaning up that mess.

ALEX: In what respect? Do you mean improving the new-product release process?

BART: That, and also dealing with ramifications of the late product release, meaning bugs that weren't fixed because we were pushing to get the product out the door, and so on.

Eureka— PAIN! Alex feels much better now. With some prodding, he finally got Bart to talk about one of his big pain points. Bart and his team are still cleaning up the mess from a botched product release last year. Alex knows all about that kind of pain! 

ALEX: I'd like to hear about the clean-up effort you mentioned. That seems like a great opportunity for process improvement.

BART: Well that's a healthy outlook on it. The release was late as I mentioned and every "i" was not dotted or every "t" crossed. So we are dealing with issues at some of our largest accounts as well as customer support issues and of course, in our group we try to stay focused on the future — on the next release. Right now our team is stretched because we are dealing with the past and the present and the future all at once. It's very stressful for the team.

ALEX: That sounds really challenging. So what would the nirvana solution look like to you? Is the perfect solution that in three months, the cleanup is behind you and your product development process is in a much better place? How would you describe your ideal state, let's say three months from now?

Now Alex is in his element, consulting with Bart. He is also advising Bart, in a very soft and unobtrusive way. Has Bart ever stopped to think, "Where do I want my department to be three months from now? How much of this mess could be cleaned up by then?"

Most likely he has not. Alex is helping Bart already by getting Bart to focus on  that critical question.

Every manager needs an adviser or two, but few hiring managers will walk into a job interview thinking, "Maybe this person can advise me."

They don't think they need advice. That's why you, like Alex, have to slip into adviser mode gently. You can't say ,"Dude, your department is a mess, but I can fix it!" That will turn off your hiring manager right away.

Alex and Bart are still talking about Bart's difficulties. They are chatting the same way Bart talks to his friends at work about his problems. Bart and Alex are on the same level now.

Bart is not thinking"Does Alex have enough  experience with Tool A or Tool B?" At this point he couldn't care less about what he wrote on the job spec in HR a month ago when he first posted this job opening.

He is deeply involved in the conversation with Alex, because Alex seems to know what he is talking about and he seems to understand Bart's pain.

Who doesn't love to talk to a person who understands our pain?

You can do the same thing Alex is doing in his interview with Bart. You can rise out of Sheepie Job Seeker mode and into Consultant mode.

That is where you want to be in a job interview! You want to get into a substantive conversation about your manager's Business Pain.

It's a  new experience for many job-seekers to spin the table the way Alex did, and to get your manager off the script and into the magical world of pain and solutions. It's fun. Why not start growing your table-spinning muscles the next chance you get? 

Now Alex is in his element, consulting with Bart. He is also advising Bart, in a very soft and unobtrusive way. Has Bart ever stopped to think, "Where do I want my department to be three months from now? How much of this mess could be cleaned up by then?"

Most likely he has not. Alex is helping Bart already by getting Bart to focus on  that critical question.

Every manager needs an adviser or two, but few hiring managers will walk into a job interview thinking, "Maybe this person can advise me."

They don't think they need advice. That's why you, like Alex, have to slip into adviser mode gently. You can't say ,"Dude, your department is a mess, but I can fix it!" That will turn off your hiring manager right away.

Alex and Bart are still talking about Bart's difficulties. They are chatting the same way Bart talks to his friends at work about his problems. Bart and Alex are on the same level now.

Bart is not thinking"Does Alex have enough  experience with Tool A or Tool B?" At this point he couldn't care less about what he wrote on the job spec in HR a month ago when he first posted this job opening.

He is deeply involved in the conversation with Alex, because Alex seems to know what he is talking about and he seems to understand Bart's pain.

Who doesn't love to talk to a person who understands our pain?

You can do the same thing Alex is doing in his interview with Bart. You can rise out of sheepie job seeker mode and into consultant mode.

That is where you want to be in a job interview! You want to get into a substantive conversation about your manager's Business Pain.

It's a new experience for many job-seekers to spin the table the way Alex did, and to get your manager off the script and into the magical world of pain and solutions. It's fun. Why not start growing your table-spinning muscles the next chance you get? 

MORE FROM LIZ RYAN:

   • "That's It, I Quit!" — What's Your Exit Plan?
   • How To Answer the Question "Why Aren't You Working Now?"
   • If You're Stuck In A Toxic Workplace, Read This!

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