Well, I went on a job interview recently. I got through the first interview with the department manager and was invited back for a second interview with the HR director and the Executive Director. Everything was going along well: the interview with the HR director was fine and the interview with the Executive Director was going OK. She asked her questions, I followed up with several of my own, and then, as the interview was ending, she said:
“Do you have anything you’d like to tell me?”
I didn’t have a clue what she was aiming at. So I asked:
“I’m not sure what you mean. About what?”
“About anything,” was her response. I had already covered what I wanted to cover in my questions to her and so, I had nothing else really to say.
I didn’t get the job. I don’t know if that was the moment that sunk my candidacy, but it may well have been. Was there anything in particular that she might have been fishing for?
I’ve never come across this (having never actually applied for a job) but it sounds like she was fishing for a prepared statement. Every so often, new steps get added to the interview dance, like the “tough brain teaser” segment or the “swimsuit competition”. This sounds to me like a new segment the company just added, or possibly her testing your ability to react to an unfamiliar situation. Was it a job (e.g. sales or marketing) where you are apt to be caught off-guard in a public speaking situation, and have to think on your feet?
Also: Google your own name, as it appears on your job application. Do any of the hits suggest that someone with your name has some sort of second life? For example, are you (or is someone with your name) an activist for some political cause? Is there any information in the Google that would appear to conflict with the resume and/or curriculum vitae you presented? If so, she may have been fishing for you to admit to that perceived breach of integrity.
According to the books I’ve been reading, you should have either said, “I’ll call you tomorrow if I think of anything else,” “When do I start?”, or asked her out.
Okay, you can skip that last one…
swimsuit competition? I must have missed that interview…
My guess is that the question is designed to test your response to stress. A similar question could be “Tell me a story.” There aren’t any right answers, just a number of wrong ones: “I’m really making progress in my Anger Management class.” “Why? Who’s been spreading lies about me?” “And I paid the money back and no charges were filed.”
When I’m interviewing, I’ll sometimes end with “Is there anything you were hoping to work into the conversation that we didn’t get around to?,” but that’s a much friendlier sort of presentation. About half the time someone will mention something – some hobby or accomplishment or glimpse into their personality – and about half the time they won’t. It’s okay with me either way, I really do just put it out there as “here’s your last chance to say anything else you want to say.”
I’ve often closed an interview asking this question or something similar.
I never intend it to be a test of how someone would react in a stressful situation. I simply want to make sure that if there is anything else that the candidate would like to tell about why they would be a good hire for the position, they have a chance to lay it on the table.
The typical response is that the candidate summarizes their experience and qualifications to try to convince me that they’re the perfect candidate, and then expresses the hope that they’ll get the job.
For me at least, asking the question involves no devious motives.
And zev, I doubt very much if that was the reason you weren’t offered the position. Sometimes there are simply better candidates. Or it could be any number of other things. I recently was the candidate in an interview (sure is different on the other side of the table) and didn’t get an offer. My experience and skilss were a perfect fit, but I sensed that for whatever reason the hiring manager (my potential boss) and I just didn’t “hit it off”. I can’t articulate it any better than that. And that “connection” is often quite important.
Use this question to tell the interviewer about skills or achievements that he didn’t ask you about. I ask: Is there anything about you that you think would make me want to hire you that I didn’t think to ask about?
As an HR person, I’d say this question is common and not particularly devious. (Believe it or not, good HR really isn’t about being devious…)
Had I been the interviewer in your case, I would have assumed from your response that you didn’t have a lot of interviewing experience. Might be perfectly normal, unless you’d had several previous jobs. However, a question as blunt as “About what?” is not going to earn the candidate points for social graces. But unless it’s real blunt, or for a position where social graces are paramount, I probably wouldn’t take points off.
For the future, I’d suggest practicing 2 responses to this: a gracious thanks and goodbye and a recap of your key skills, working in any that might not have been covered. For example, I’m bilingual. For a lot of jobs they don’t require it, so it doesn’t come up in the interview, but it can be a plus, so I may mention it at the “anything else” stage.
I also traditionally use this as a closer, for the exact same reasons. Usually, I phrase it this way:
“Is there anything else you think I should know about you as a candidate for this position that we haven’t yet covered in the interview?”
Sometimes, strengths, accomplishments, or skills that they have and are proud of (and which may be applicable) don’t naturally come out of the questions the interviewer asks (though I find this rare). I just use this as a catch-all to tie things up just in case. Usually, they’ll answer “No” and I won’t hold it against them, but I always prefer if they rephrase or reiterate their key points in selling themselves to me.
Or she’s fishing for personal information you can volunteer but she can’t ask. You could talk about your kids, or your hobby. I’d stick with talking about obscure job skills, tho’.
I was asked this same question the last time I applied for a job. I also wasn’t expecting it. My honest response, albeit pathetic, was, “I want this job more than any of the other candidates.” I got the job!
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