Tell us of a situation when you acted outside of the rules of engagement
Most job descriptions traditionally capture the series of activities for which the position is vacant. To take care of a mishap when the employee may claim that a certain task does not form part of his job, a clause of convenience to the job giver is often added to the list of tasks of the employee.
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“And any other tasks that may be assigned to you from time to time,” is often the annoying clause that shields the employer.
In fact, even when jobs are routine in nature and clearly do not necessarily require precautionary clauses, employers still prefer to add it with a clause that sets them at ease.
Whether tasks are routine in nature or otherwise, the above question may be posed at a job interview. The rationale, however, is always not the same.
While non-routine tasks require flairs consistent with the personality type capable of thinking on their feet and exercising wide range of discretion from time to time, largely routine work makes no much use of such qualities.
Thinking on the feet test
The test of thinking on one’s feet is very important to the departments in the business whose operations and activities call for persons with some reasonable amount of intellectual predisposition to using such resources quickly, promptly and appropriately when required.
Tests such as these often come up unexpectedly in the interview process and may sometimes not necessarily have only one course of action. Multiple answers may be opened to the interviewee, practically every answer fitting the question, depending on the perspective of the test taker.
Simulations
Simulations are increasingly becoming a regular feature of job interviews these days. So frequent is simulations that any job seeker even with no previous experience in job interviews cannot claim adequate preparation unless he or she has acquainted himself with simulation related exercises.
Simulations may take real life corporate challenge such as dealing with an irate customer, bringing back an important but dissatisfied customer or disciplining a colleague of similar or higher qualification but in a lower rank.
When simulated, interviewers may discover, for instance, that a job seeker finds fulfilment in tasks that call for the exhibition and use of reasonable discretion and spontaneous thinking.
Where the simulation rationale is to separate prospects who score higher on spontaneous thinking from the rest, this test may be appropriate and clearly relevant for the business.
Non toutine tasks
The test for the job seeker with the personality trait to be able to fit into a position with frequently unique challenges often makes use of the above question.
When the line of work for which a prospect is being screened abundantly calls for this quality, the job seeker will have to pass this question and practically be able to demonstrate at nearly all levels that she has what it takes to be in charge of the role.
Read Vacancy Announcement Thoroughly
One of the simplest tasks of a job seeker who finds an opportunity she wishes to take advantage of is to read the vacancy announcement thoroughly. Even though it seems overly childlike to want to counsel a serious job seeker about the reading of an announcement, the advice is worth a good job.
A good reading guarantees a good understanding of the role. Understanding the role gives you an idea of the kind of person the company has in mind. When you are not in the least the shadow of the ideal, it is needless to stress yourself minding the announcement.
But if you feel you are the person the company is hunting, then decide for yourself, inferring from the announcement, whether the job is largely routine or otherwise. And if it is, do some mocks.
Mock yourself up
I admit that no matter how many times you come up with simulated scenarios yourself, there is only a slim chance of you being a hundred per cent on target.
But the beauty of doing this as many times as time will allow you is in the ability of the mind to adapt to and become very fluent in exercises that pop up in an unexpected manner.
By the time you do the tenth one, you can be about 30 per cent more likely to get it right than the prospect who walked to the screening without such a simulation.
Answers that work
When you are required at a job interview to prove that you have flairs for spontaneous thinking and great ability for discretion, do not panic. While there are many ways of asking the same question, two forms have largely been used.
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The first one asks the interviewee a specific, riddle-like question while the latter allows the prospect to come up with their own past experience with theme relevance as the one in question. In Ghana, the latter is more frequently used.
You are 16. You are unlicensed. You have been warned not to sit behind the driving wheel of any of the vehicles in the house, no matter the circumstances. A child in the neighbourhood is dying from a violently deadly fit. Would you sit behind the driving wheel?
The vehicle your company handed to you has this inscription: “No passengers allowed on board”. On your way from a trek, a violent tornado looms and is forecast to hit an area where you were in 60 minutes. Would you volunteer to evacuate potential victims?
You have one more room in your sports car. A dying old man, a woman in labour, your sweetheart, all needing your lift. Which one would sit next to you?
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In the above questions, while the right answer may depend on the individual, we all will empathise with the 16 year-old who is in trouble with her parents for saving a child.
Similarly, we would not applaud the young man who picks his healthy sweetheart and leaves behind a dying old man and a woman in labour. Neither would we adore the employee who fails to break the rules in a situation as dire as an impending violent tornado.