Tell Me About a Time When You Lied in an Interview…
I like to think that I am a pretty good liar. I don’t do it often, which is one reason it is so effective. For weeks and months I can build relationships with people where they see me being abundantly candid, sharing truths with them that others wouldn’t dream of sharing. So when I need to fudge the truth a bit people are already primed to believe it. “Matt shared his mental health struggles! He told the VP they were wrong without blinking! Why would he lie about liking my cookies?”
Unfortunately I am a terrible liar (and I hated your dry, tasteless cookies). Pretty much anyone can tell a convincing lie about something small given weeks of time to set someone up. And even if it wasn’t convincing, few people are going to risk a dust-up calling you out for small lies. Really skilled liars are able to convince near strangers something when they already believe the opposite… which brings us to interviewing.
Early on in my career I viewed interviews like the SAT tests that got me into college. I would go, take some nice objective assessment of my skills and depending on how I did compared to my peers I’d either be allowed past the gatekeeper or asked to go somewhere with less rigorous standards. That view is sadly, woefully idealistic. Not only are SAT tests not objective, interviews aren’t about assessing my skills at doing a job —…
