Misinterpreting interview questions

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One thing I've done quite a few times, but my NT friends and wife assure me sometimes that it could just be a misunderstanding that could happen to anyone, is I've had to get job interviewers to rephrase questions saying "OK, actually what we're really looking for is..." and I can sort of tell by their nonverbal, but not totally sure, that they are somewhat frustrated or annoyed. More so if it's like the 3rd question they've had this reaction on (and that HAS happened to me on more than one occasion).

One thing I find that we Aspies don't seem to be able to intuitively pick up on is HOW MUCH information we're supposed to give for a particular question. A job counsellor told me to look for "openings" where a question like "have you done such-and-such before" is a chance for you to give an example of it, not just "yes, I have". However, that backfired on me in one interview where the interviewer asked me, "Have you created presentations in Powerpoint before and delivered them?" I responded yes, I had, and started talking about one time where I put together and gave a really great technical presentation that wowed the stakeholders, but then I could see the guy was cuing me to end at about 1 minute and he said "OK...we were actually just looking for whether you'd used Powerpoint before". So much for the job counsellor's advice!! ! I don't know if an NT would have been able to pick up on whether they expected me to elaborate on that or not, maybe they would have made the same "mistake".

Some other questions that I have misinterpreted before:

1) Tell me about yourself (more so in my early-mid 20s, figured out what they really want you to say by now)

2) What do you have to offer this post that none of the other candidates do (even a couple of my NT friends agree that this one is utterly ridiculous)

3) Why are you applying for this job? (I could never tell whether they are trying to gauge my interest in it, or trying to elicit my skill-set match for it)

4) Why do you want this job? (pretty much same deal as above, and BTW, I'm sure many of you feel compelled to give the sarcastic rejoinder of "Because I need the money"...)

5) How would you go about implementing a survey for satisfaction with the current system? (in an IT job - I interpreted this as how would I compose and organize the survey in terms of closed-ended, open-ended questions...but then they cut me off and said "actually, what we were really looking for in this question was 'how would you go about dealing with people in getting the survey out there' - implying that I meet & speak with leads from different departments and such.)

I noticed that a lot of the time, they will say "umm, maybe I'm not asking the question properly" - but I can tell they don't literally mean that - it's just a way of saving face. I really think it comes down to us having difficulty with spontaneous filtering of the right context, I mean if we had these questions as a written exam and they were substantiated (or they asked us to declare any assumptions) then we'd no doubt get A+ all the way. Some of the interviewers may doubt that they asked the question free of ambiguity, but then they'd likely gauge the responses of other candidates against yours, and if you were the only one who misinterpreted the intent of their questions, you're toast.

It may be helpful to just ask them to be more specific. In the example with the powerpoint, I think I would have asked them if they wanted me to elaborate.

When I am answering a long question, I ask for repetition of the key points in advance. I then try and give a brief answer and ask if that is what they are looking for, and whether or not they need further elaboration. Honestly, sometimes they just want to get through to the next question and being too in depth can get annoying'

I remember being asked to "describe myself" and I literally said my height, weight, hair and eye color and full legal name. It wasn't until 5 years later did I realize he didn't mean it literally. No wonder I have never ever passed a one on one interview (other than a job I was practically guaranteed) in my life!

When someone asks me something vague like "describe yourself" I have no idea what to say. After a quick google search to give me an idea what that question means I still have no idea what I could possibly say that is positive without making stuff up. I'm not even sure what to say at all even if I said bad stuff.

If asked why I want that job in particular or any job for me the only honest answer would be "I need money and this job was close enough for me to get to and low skilled enough that I might actually qualify for it." With rare possible exceptions, like if I was applying to a no kill animal shelter I could say "I love animals and want to help them." Otherwise I have no interest in the majority of jobs except money. Does anyone really want to and enjoy doing things like being a cashier in a fast food restaurant?

I only had one interview in my life and one question I remember that stumped me was "are you afraid of being cut?" I don't remember what I said, don't know what answer they wanted, and now looking back on it I think my answer is a definite yes. I even had a cousin working in the same place get his arm burned pretty bad once. I'm clumsy and don't want to get injured but easily could.

Another thing that would baffle me is any type of question asking me "where do you see yourself in 5/10 years." I don't really look that far ahead and see myself either doing exactly what I'm doing now or dead. I have lots of trouble looking that far ahead.

Describe yourself means give two or three things about yourself relevant to the job. So, say I am going for a job in IT. I would say: I have a degree from Stanford in computer engineering. I'm fluent in C++ and Java, and I have experience in troubleshooting problems.

Thing is, always prepare well in advance. Practice makes perfect. If you cannot think ahead for five or ten years, the safest thing to say is 'being happy in my workplace.' Even if it is not the truth, imagine yourself being happy there. Being happy in your workplace is more important for your health and sanity than an awesome pay.

Why you want the job should never be about the money. I have been told that when I say that, it makes me look desperate, which does not attract employers to me. I always tell them about one thing in the description that appeals to me the most. In real life, I am a children's librarian. So I talk a little bit about how I love putting together children's programs. I have gotten the job a few times, or have at least moved on to the second round of interviews, so my strategies have worked. Last year, I passed the interview both times for both jobs I applied for and had the option of choosing, so I stuck with the permanent job.

The library world can be dog eat dog, and I have been through about fifty interviews with a whole lot of random and strange ones in there. I feel like I excel at weird interviews. I don't know if I have had a normal one in quite some time. The strangest was the one in which the police called my interviewer twice during my interview to discuss the vandalism of o ne of the buildings that she supervised. I tried to hide and give her some privacy, but that seemed to be the wrong thing to do, as I did not get the job. Then again, there was also the one where the power went out, and we interviewed in the dark for a while. I actually aced that interview as well.

I had a rare job interview recently and tried to prepare my questions in advance, thinking "what am I likely to be asked?"
But when asked "where do you see yourself in five year's time?" I floundered. It was a basic job, not much prospect for promotion so anything ambitious would be to move on from there.
I find it hard to look ahead to next week let alone five years.
I was also asked if I can multi-task and I always used to think I could. But actually I prefer to focus on one thing at a time, to concentrate on that, then move on to the next.
Although I find interviews stressful, it has helped me see I do need some kind of plan. I need to specialise, preferably in something I can do from home at least part of the time.

One group interview I had the Interviewer tried trick questions, which could be right or wrong. He was trying to put people under pressure to see how they reacted, but also trying to find those most likely to conform and follow orders without questions. I didn't see this at the time, but on reflection realised that was not the kind of person I wanted to work for anyway.

Yes, I hate interviews, I don't understand what they want from me.

Explain how the job for which you're interviewing will position yourself for a different job with more responsibilities. So with a fast food job, you might say that you're interest in becoming assistant manager when a vacancy opens.

That will help you get the job even if you have no intention of buttering up the manager or being nice to everyone to be well-liked by coworkers. Also remember that people dislike each other for stupid reasons, and so not everyone will like you. If you smiled and introduced yourself but they still frown at you, then it's their problem.

What I hate is when they ask a question but don't give enough time for me to finish the whole answer I was going to give. Perhaps this ties in with the question of not knowing how much of an elaborate answer is expected?

What happened a couple of times that I can remember was the interviewer asking something like, "Can you give some examples of when you did XXX?" Now, "some examples" to me implies the interviewer wants more than one, right? So bearing in mind what I had been told about people tending to retain the last thing they've been told, I would line up a couple of examples, planning to leave the real killer one till last and then drive the point home.

Unfortunately, those interviewers interrupted during the first example and asked something else relating to that, dragging the conversation off into another direction, and I never got the chance to deliver the real prime example of when I did XXX that I had wanted to talk about.

I was then in a quandary whether to say, "Excuse me, but I was about to elaborate further on your original question." If I didn't try and get the interviewer back on track they wouldn't get to hear about my best effort; if I did, they might think I'm rude. Or should I bring these things up at the end when the interviewer asks if I have any questions (assuming I have the presence of mind in the heat of the interview to remember to do so)?

Maybe when I'm asked to give "some examples" I should just ignore that and just give the most stellar example, since recruiters obviously don't have the attention span to listen to more than one, even though that's what they've just asked for.

I wonder if a "reasonable accommodation" would be to ask if questions could be formally structured and emailed to me in advance?

After each interview I tend to discuss the questions with my family to work out what a good answer would be if the question comes up in the future.

The open-ended questions (Tell us about yourself, What are your strengths and weaknesses, what can you bring to this job, how can we remember you ...) are the hardest ones for me to answer (and don't really give the interview any information about me other than my ability to keep conversations going).


I think the "tell us about yourself" question should not be used as it asks people to give personal information that should not be taken into account when recruiting.