What to order at an interview lunch?

[Cornelius_Tuggerson]

@not_alice

and the candidate is going through the line first with me watching to see how s/he solves his/her predicament

That will tell you nothing about his ability to do the job, it’ll just tell you if he gets nervous about picking food in front of a hiring manager.

[mack]

I think an ideal interview lunch would be a piece of fish & some veggies. Bites just flake off and pretty much melt in your mouth. Not too filling. You don’t have to do surgery on it like some steaks, nor do you have to gnaw uncomfortably on a piece of gristle until you can get a moment to do…whatever…with it. If you get a bone, not that big a deal, it’s understood. Salad can be ok, but can also be sort of fidgety. If not fish, then a chicken breast something-or-other (Francaise, Marsala, etc.)

[Voyager]

@x-ray_vision

Probably just a story.

Like I said, my friend, who was definitely in the nuclear navy, said it happened to him. Even if the Ford and Edison references were legends, it is not impossible that someone hearing of them would decide to adopt that policy. This is something where it being attributed to multiple people does not necessarily decrease its likelihood. By the way, I know many people who have worked for IBM, and none have told the story, which doesn’t mean that some random IBM manager did it , just that it wasn’t official policy.

My friend would have been a junior grade officer. If Rickover really had lunch with every officer, it is quite plausible that my friend had lunch with him. It is also plausible that he was just repeating the legend. This is one closer than FOAF.

[x-ray_vision]

@Voyager

Like I said, my friend, who was definitely in the nuclear navy, said it happened to him.

Actually, you said that your friend had lunch with him, not that he was a rejected in any way by Rickover for salting his food before sampling. But since you said you have your doubts, and I’m guessing by that you mean the trustworthiness of your friend’s story, why does it matter?

Even if the Ford and Edison references were legends, it is not impossible that someone hearing of them would decide to adopt that policy. This is something where it being attributed to multiple people does not necessarily decrease its likelihood. By the way, I know many people who have worked for IBM, and none have told the story, which doesn’t mean that some random IBM manager did it , just that it wasn’t official policy.

I never said anything was impossible.

[MissGypsy]

@mack

I think an ideal interview lunch would be a piece of fish & some veggies. Bites just flake off and pretty much melt in your mouth. Not too filling. You don’t have to do surgery on it like some steaks, nor do you have to gnaw uncomfortably on a piece of gristle until you can get a moment to do…whatever…with it. If you get a bone, not that big a deal, it’s understood. Salad can be ok, but can also be sort of fidgety. If not fish, then a chicken breast something-or-other (Francaise, Marsala, etc.)

That would seem the easiest, to me, also. Then again, some people just hate the smell of fish, so there’s just no telling what might be off-putting to someone. When I used to do interviews (not for jobs, but interviewing people for newspaper articles), I ordered something non-messy that I could eat with one hand, while I took notes with the other hand – lots of salads, soups, and handy little appetizers.

Now I wonder if it might be really impressive if someone could order a really messy dish, like spaghetti, or a whole lobster, or something difficult like that, and show some real finesse in being able to eat it neatly and unobtrusively. Just speculating, though…