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Job interview question: what would you have answered?

43 replies

PuppyDay · 23/05/2025 17:41

Interviewed today for a senior position in a public sector organisation. Interview by the chair of the board and other board members. Knew none of them. Their final question was “who is you role model and what about that person do you try and model in your leadership approach”? My mind went blank.

i ended up saying I haven’t got a single role model. That there are many people I’ve been inspired by and learned from both professionally, in my family and in the piblic sphere but not a single person I seek to imitate. They then asked me to name of the people I felt inspired by in the public sphere!

what would you have said?

OP posts:
WitcheryDivine · 24/05/2025 13:26

That’s hard to answer on the spot but I would have probably named a previous manager because of her combination of XYZ things which I have always tried to emulate. Bonus point maybe for saying - she wasn’t perfect so I wouldn’t want to blindly follow in her footsteps and on issues like X I have always made sure to blah blah blah and follow the official workplace guidelines.

Shetlands · 24/05/2025 13:40

Ursula Van Der Lehen, Madeleine Albright, Michelle Obama, Indira Gandhi, Shirley Williams, Hilary Clinton, Angela Merkel, Barbara Castle, Emmeline Pankhurst, Stella Rimington...

Various reasons for all of them and none are perfect but each one has shown some aspects of leadership that I admire.

MarkingBad · 24/05/2025 15:02

NellieJean · 24/05/2025 13:24

I’m genuinely interested, why is it a stupid question. I could see myself asking it and I’d have a decent answer ready if asked it.

I'm not the PP you quoted but my I add my thoughts?

Most people on an interview panel have little to no interviewing experience so they read it up to prepare themselves and these kinds of questions are suggested as a way to test thinking speed, ability, creativity, and personality. All sounds good, except that it doesn't often do any of those things, mostly because the askers have no idea how to assess those things from the answers given. That makes them pointless.

On the interviewees side there are two main ways people answer these questions. Firstly they have been to a few recent interviews and because these questions come in an out of fashion they've looked it up as a textbook answer and give the interviewers that. Or it's the first time they encoutered the question and a period of silence dotted with umms and ahhs ensure while they try and think of an answer and then worry about their answers later. They can also make candidates wonder if they were some kind of trap, it can make an interview become a little hostile too.

None of those things actually tell the interviewers anything other than whether they've come across that question before or not. It's a very inefficient way to assess anything.

It's also pretty disrespectful. The interviewee may have done the legwork or finding out about the company, the aims, objectives, ethos, personalities etc. They've had to do this over and over again for others. These questions make many wonder if the interviewers have prepared for the interview, whether asking irrelevant questions, wasting time, and playing mind games is part and parcel of the company ethos too, or whether planning and leadership of their teams is as poor as the interview techniques they display.

Companies forget that it is not just the candidate who is being interviewed, they are too. They lose good candidates through asking questions, the answers to which, are not fully understood by the panel or even why they are properly relevant because most times they have no relevance and they are certainly not the best way to allow people to showcase their abilities to think quickly or display ideal personality traits and they can reflect very badly on the company too. It's very rarely an answer to those questions that tip it in the candidates favour because as I said previously they've usually made up their mind by the time they get to these questions anyway.

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Emmz1510 · 24/05/2025 15:09

I think your answer was good and would have been impressed if I were on that panel! I’m guessing that the question was less about who you admire than what values and qualities you aspire to.

SerendipityJane · 24/05/2025 16:11

When I've been allowed to interview, I don't care what the answer to the question I ask may be (if it has one).

I am much much more interested in the candidates approach to it.

As such, there's no such think as a "stupid question", unless the interviewer(s) can't gain any information from the answer.

Jeevesnotwooster · 24/05/2025 16:12

Madeline Albright came to mind first off. Because she came from a non political background, after having children and achieved loads. And she said she always encouraged women to interrupt more as men do. Also, to seek common human interest with someone you don't agree with

Next option would be Lady Hale. But I'm not quite so sure why

Agree the Obamas would always be a good option

IDontLikeOddNumbers · 24/05/2025 16:18

I was once asked which Spice Girl I'd compare myself to 😀

angelinawasrobbed · 24/05/2025 16:27

‘You’

topcat2014 · 24/05/2025 16:32

I had an interview the other week - mind went totally blank. I literally couldn't think of one living person..

On the way home, I thought I would have liked to have said Zelensky.

It was a really old school interview, not at all like the competency based stuff we've had for the last 20 years, so I was out of practice

PuppyDay · 24/05/2025 20:38

Sorry for not coming back to this before.

For those that asked - even when they prompted me a second time to name someone in the public sphere I froze. One of the people on the panel was a former MP so I panicked about showing any political leanings. I said I admired people who put public service at the heart of their leadership but then said the most inspiring people who really do that are unlikely to be famous. I then said I also admired leaders who showed vulnerability and admitted mistakes and that was much rarer to see in people in the public eye as the press is so unforgiving. By the time I got through saying all that I finally thought of one person to name and said if I had to name someone on the spot I’d go for Gareth Southgate because he had put empowerment at the heart of his coaching style, he was calm and resilient under pressure, didn’t seem to have an ego and knew when to leave. It mad a panic answer.

I really want this job but that question really flummoxed me. Like the previous poster I’m used to competency based questions which I’d practised to the nth degree.

OP posts:
ThePlatypusAlwaysTriumphs · 24/05/2025 20:41

I'd no doubt have blurted out "Yoda!". And then kicked myself mentally!

IKnowAristotle · 24/05/2025 21:01

Based on your most recent post, it sounds like you answered with relevant skills and values (which is surely the point) and did actually name someone. A really good answer.

Jeevesnotwooster · 24/05/2025 21:07

PuppyDay · 24/05/2025 20:38

Sorry for not coming back to this before.

For those that asked - even when they prompted me a second time to name someone in the public sphere I froze. One of the people on the panel was a former MP so I panicked about showing any political leanings. I said I admired people who put public service at the heart of their leadership but then said the most inspiring people who really do that are unlikely to be famous. I then said I also admired leaders who showed vulnerability and admitted mistakes and that was much rarer to see in people in the public eye as the press is so unforgiving. By the time I got through saying all that I finally thought of one person to name and said if I had to name someone on the spot I’d go for Gareth Southgate because he had put empowerment at the heart of his coaching style, he was calm and resilient under pressure, didn’t seem to have an ego and knew when to leave. It mad a panic answer.

I really want this job but that question really flummoxed me. Like the previous poster I’m used to competency based questions which I’d practised to the nth degree.

Our recruitment has moved away from competency based to more strenghts, experience, tendencies (or is it trends). Basically to widen the net so you're not just recruiting people who have had the chance to deal with the required competencies.

SerendipityJane · 25/05/2025 09:57

Our recruitment has moved away from competency based to more strenghts, experience, tendencies (or is it trends). Basically to widen the net so you're not just recruiting people who have had the chance to deal with the required competencies.

Long experience has taught me that competency and qualification are not synonyms. Very early in my career I bagged a role because despite not doing brilliantly at the technical, I aced the "what we are looking for" test. Because there was a typo in the test, and out of 5 candidates, only I mentioned it. The interviewer left the room, I heard a booming "WOODY !!!!" and a few seconds later the interviewer returned and said "yes, you're right". Their byline was you can teach the skills, but you can't teach the 'tude. (It was the 80s).

Hence I have tried to pay it forwards.

I hope we all know people who have very advanced qualifications, but who couldn't be trusted with scissors, whilst by the same token there are folk who have no qualifications and yet run a business. Well.

SarfLondonLad · 25/05/2025 10:30

I got thrown something similar and said "My father."
Since none of them knew him from Adam I was on pretty safe ground.

SwanOfThoseThings · 25/05/2025 10:43

I think I would invent a manager I'd had in the distant past, "Laura Smith who was my manager when I first started in X role twenty years ago" and endow her with all the qualities I thought they were looking for in the present role.

Fitzcarraldo353 · 25/05/2025 10:45

If have totally blanked too. With some time to think I'd probably say Mary Robinson

SerendipityJane · 25/05/2025 11:53

SarfLondonLad · 25/05/2025 10:30

I got thrown something similar and said "My father."
Since none of them knew him from Adam I was on pretty safe ground.

Interesting answer ...

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