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?

For those that asked. It was accidental, the recipe for the fruitcake called for a table spoon of orange juice, we didn't have any so improvised with a (well 2) tablespoons of Jack Daniels instead. Any cake that requires fruit juice is far game now.

Take a 'How to conduct sensible interviews' book....

I had a rant about this exact thing last year! It is ridiculous. I got lots of good suggestions for things to take, iirc, vibrators and handcuffs were popular suggestions
It was a group induction thingy, and was utterly cringeworthy... I feel for you OP!

I've known a high street clothes shop so this. My daughter took a music record.

Yeah my cousin when applying for her distinct nurse job. She chose her nurses watch.

I hate this sort of thing. I remember once being asked to list my ten greatest achievements to date for a trainee job which typically people just out of university applied for - so realistically applicants weren't too likely to have invented a miracle cure or found the route to world peace, or anything similar. I was torn between listing my degree, each one of my A levels and a selection of GCSEs to make up the ten, or just putting "Refusing to complete this silly questionnaire".

Well, it could be worse. My daughter works for a company in Greece as went for an interview as a trainer for the same organisation. One of the tasks they had to do was to talk for 5 minutes about a picture (after 10 minutes preparation). Hers was the skyline of Los Angeles - and fortunately she had visited a couple of years before. Her friend was given an image of Macchu Picchu and had no idea where it was. Now that is rather difficult, even though the interviewers indicated it didn't have to be a factual account.

Our local hospital is doing a thing where they ask for matching pairs of knitted hearts or teddies so they can give one to the patient and one to their family - a way to show they're still connected while there's no visiting.

@RhianFuckingMorris

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.

I'm so sorry but the idea of being asked to pretend to be a shape has just made me cry laughing. Wtaf? No idea what I'd have done, probably a runner out of the door 😂😂😂🟡🟥🟣🔷

Take something huge... like a super giant teddy bear or a coat stand. No idea how you’d present it but the thought of a load of interviewees sitting in a waiting room with an assortment of random shit makes me laugh.

I once had to act out being a green triangle and a red triangle at an interview.
That is fucking shameful. Wtf?

Once had an interview where I had to take a packet of my favourite biscuits, and explain why I'd chosen them.
I think they thought it was a good way to replenish the office biscuit tin; they had the bloody cheek to offer me one as if they were doing me a favour.

@GivenchyDahhling

Depending on how much you want the job, this sort of thing would result in me declining the interview on the basis that a company who thinks this is an appropriate interview technique is unlikely to be a fit for me.

I’m in education and have always felt the same way about student panels (ie where you get interviewed by three or so of the kids). It’s not happened to me so far but if I received an interview schedule including this I have always said - and I mean it - that I would decline the interview as I know the school wouldn’t be right for me.

^^ this & if something idiotic was sprung on me,like acting like a decking triangle I'd do what @CuriousaboutSamphire did

I'm 50, not 5 fgs. & funnily enough, when I had my business I managed to get adults, suitable for the job, without resorting to stupid shite like this

@curious -what business do you have now?

I have had similar request after I got my job with a new team. I was working from home and it was via a team video call. My boss sent us an email 30 mins Before to pick a picture or object to describe our present feelings in under 5 mins to the group. Unfortunately I only read the email just before the meeting. I am not a visual person and hate these things. I listened to someone describe a field with a gate in detail ( she described the colours and gate texture etc). So grabbed the first object, which was the cat.

Wot @soloula said

Work out what you want them to know about you and work back from that.

It's just a game, show them you know the rules and how to turn it to your advantage. Choose something about which you feel confident so they see you at your best.

Ridiculous ask, but if you have to take something I'd take something that belonged to a person you loved, that is now dead. A reminder that everyone is a loved being, and that you will treat the people you provide services to the way you would want that person to have been treated.

I think it would be a wonderful career, helping the dying and the bereaved. What a good way to help. Best of luck, OP.

Thank you all so much for your replies they have been really helpful and I have had a good chuckle over some of the responses.

Interviews are so competitive at the moment and sometimes I think these employers are taking the mick a bit to see how far people will go for a job.
I've crossed my fingers for myself and wish everyone else who is currently looking for a job lots of luck x

I think it's actually a really good question for someone who wants to work with people.

If it was me (it's not), I'd want someone to either talk about a hobby - useful stress relief, which would be relevant to the psychological impact of the job. Or it's demonstrating that you can "chat", start a conversation etc. Some of the best support workers / nurses / HCPs are not necessarily those who can give you the exact academic answer about the theory, but those who have knowledge to build on AND can make people feel at ease / build rapport quickly.

I can see it wouldn't be relevant for a lot of jobs, but as a bereavement support worker, you'd need to be able to chat, find common ground etc quickly (at least when I imagine what the job could be) and I think that's probably what they are looking for.

I had one a couple of years ago now where they asked how many tennis balls I could fit in the room we were in. Among other random questions. I wasn't given dimensions for either the room or the tennis ball. I'm dyspraxic and struggle to judge distance a result. It didn't go well

Good luck, Toomuch

@IncrediblySadToo I work with letting agents, making those interminable condition reports you get at the beginning and end of a tenancy.

Lockdown has slowed things down so I am also setting up a sewing business, possibly, maybe, sometime, never

@ToomuchtimeonNetflix best of luck

Eugh, how wanky. Can you take a picture of yourself in your interview outfit, holding a picture of yourself, holding a picture of yourself, (etc) and hold that picture of yourself at the interview? The more pictures of yourself holding a picture of yourself, the better. Just so they reeeeeaaaaally get to know you!!

Depending on how much you want the job, this sort of thing would result in me declining the interview on the basis that a company who thinks this is an appropriate interview technique is unlikely to be a fit for me.

Me also - I would rather stay unemployed for the rest of my working life than work for a business who conducted interviews in that way. They would most definitely not be my people.

I'd know to withdraw from the process. If they think this is a good interview idea, we are highly unlikely to be a good match.