to ask if this is common in interviews - help please!!

[ToomuchtimeonNetflix]

I have been shortlisted for an interview next week and have been asked to take along an object or picture so I can describe myself to the panel.

Has anyone else experienced this? I really want to run for the hills and not attend and I would too if I didn't need the job.

Does anyone have any ideas what they would bring to start me thinking?

How odd! What type of job is this?

OMG why do they insist on doing this sort of thing? Honestly I feel for you!

I think I'd bring a pair of false eyeballs and roll them as far upwards as I could

Sorry, unhelpful I know Good luck with the interview

This kind of thing was really common about 10 years ago. I had hoped it had died a death.

Around that time I was asked "if you were a house hold appliance which would you be?". This was not a job in Currys.

Yeh I think it’s relevant what the job is before we can suggest an object.

Its a supportive role, helping people with life difficulties like bereavement

Oh dear god, I think I'd decide I didn't want the job or to work for this business. What is the job?

However, I'd almost guarantee they got the idea from Google so have a look and see what's suggested as a "good" answer.

a first aid box

It could be a photograph of your family, pet etc. A painting you like, your favourite album, a poem, an item of clothing, something that your nan left you, something funny like an awful ornament that you constantly argue over with your partner etc. Make them laugh, make them think, make them see how loving you are, show them the side of you that matters. Very best of luck!

I've asked people at 2nd interview to tell us about something they're really interested in. They often behave more naturally and are more relaxed and you see more of them. But that was a sales role and fairly junior and certainly not at first! A bit odd but not the oddest I've seen!

?

My oh had this during recent training and it was something they used to keep in touch over lockdown. A lot of people used phones or tablets. He used his Scotland football top ad he’s in a fantasy football group with some mates.

Never had this before.

I guess they want something to represent you, so I'm not sure how useful advice from internet strangers will be. Think it depends on what you like doing and what the job is. Nevertheless, some suggestions... could you take a favourite book from your childhood? Or your passport if you like travelling? Or a ball of wool if you like knitting? Or a pot plant if you like gardening? Or a hammer if you like DIY? Or a wooden spoon if you like cooking?

@ToomuchtimeonNetflix

Its a supportive role, helping people with life difficulties like bereavement

Christ.

I'd take something you've had since childhood with some bullshit about how as you've grown up and gone through difficulties the item has changed a little (broken, ripped, missing an eye) but you've always had it as a comfort and a way to remember that things get better.

And here it is the ridiculous "industry" of recruitment!!
I once had to act out being a green triangle and a red triangle at an interview. Finding myself doing star jumps in an interview was a low point in my life and just plain humiliating.
I never got the job but then they failed to ask me questions on how I would apply my skills and experience to the role. They obviously ended up with someone who could act out t being a yellow circle or whatever in just the right way.

Fgs - what has this got to do with helping people through bereavement?

I guess they want creative symbolism, like an old stone of the street - “I am solid as a rock,” or some paperclips joined in a chain - “These are to show how I connect with others.” Or take some matches and strike them to indicate how you help others see the light? Shine a torch in their faces.

Do you collect anything, ceramics, glassware, postcards...? If so, take an object with you, so you can talk about why you think it's interesting, where you found it etc.
Or perhaps you are interested in gardening, take some photos of your favourite garden so you can explain what you like about it, or where you travelled to visit it?

It's a bit of an ice breaker, to encourage you to relax and shine, as you talk about something that you know well. It will give them a bit of insight into your personality too.

Try to see it as an opportunity to talk about yourself in an interesting way.

Thank you for your responses there are some good answers on here,
I'm thinking that a picture is a good idea too .

A quick look at Google and this practice appears more common than I thought.

Its probably just to get the best out of you. A lot of people don't do well in a formal q&a and freeze up. I wouldn't over think it.

When I left teaching, 6 years agog, I had the channel your reaction as a triangle shite.

I left at that point. Making sure to walk 3 straight lines that ended at the door!

Life is too short.

Yes they did contact me when they realised I had actually left the building. I told them I am a 50 year old adult looking for a job not a teenager auditioning for a play and that I was not the right match for their company.

I got a very long email explaining their ethos to which I replied "that's nice".

I am too old for such crap. I started my own business!

Yuck!

Take a voodoo doll and say you stab people who displease you with stupid interview questions.

Dental floss, you can say that sometimes one thing can offer different solutions. So if travelling Ie dental floss can be used as a fishing line, washing line, used for sewing, used as rope. small, compact and flexible etc relate to self as being creative and looking at solutions.
or some sort of crap.

Go you Samphire! Excellent.

This is the sort of thing that unimaginative hiring managers do when they don’t understand how to interview people correctly and just google “interview techniques”. I can guarantee they won’t really have a proper way of assessing the candidates fairly on this.

Either that or it’s a way of tricking people into taking along photos of their kids so they can discount them.

Do you have a hobby? Take something from that along and spout some bollocks about taking some time out to relax and re-centre yourself.

How badly do you need the job?

I’d be tempted to not take anything and tell them that showed I consider not only what I’ve been asked to do but the higher purpose. If they don’t match I won’t blindly continue doing a task that doesn’t achieve the desired outcome.

But I wouldn’t fit well in a place that did this sort of bullshit.

How can you “channel your reactions as a triangle?” What in earth did they mean Curious? Are you supposed to do yoga or something? So strange. Most people would just laugh,