engage them in conversation rather than just a questions and answer session. ask them to put it into context - like what type of situation? work? home?
Why ? they are interviewing you for a job do you think they really care that you leave the toilet set up and that you still cannot do the perfect Yorkshire pudding?
Cannot see a conversation being struck up in a formal interview tbh
I had this question in an interview for the job I've had for a while now. First time I did the usual sidestep but the other interviewer (the first was the CEO) pushed it.
Looking them straight in the eye I answered along the lines of 'that's straight off page seven of the interviewer's handbook' with a laugh and continued the conversation with the CEO. Job pretty much offered there and then.
The other interviewer has proved to be a words over actions colleague (not really got to the bottome of what they actually do...) and has utterly misunderstood me when I've tried to ringfence the unicorn...
Cannot see a conversation being struck up in a formal interview tbh
If the opportunity is there to start one then go for it. IMLE of interviewing and being interviewed then if the interviewee can prove him/herself confident enough to engage the panel in a conversational manner rather than just answering questions then this can be a really big advantage. It demonstrates the ability to gel into a "team" situation and approaching your interviewers as peers rather than people to please is a good thing.
If however the interviewing panel expect to make me squirm and feel uncomfortable with prescription questions like "So, what do you consider to be your weaknesses?" then I'm not entirely sure that I'd be keen to work there.
folks don't ask this sort of thing anymore do they? I thought it was all 'tell me about a situation where you had to [insert skill/'competency' here]' these days. Or 'we've set up a couple of exercises for you. Please build an award-winning app with this SDK we've been developing. When you've done that, please prepare a presentation on the future of our industry. You have 1 hour'.
If however the interviewing panel expect to make me squirm and feel uncomfortable with prescription questions like "So, what do you consider to be your weaknesses?" then I'm not entirely sure that I'd be keen to work there.
I think part of the deal and the matrix and all that shit is to make sure that each person gets exactly the same questions so you can score them all fairly
I guess if it is a less formal more conversational interview where they are just trying to see if they like you then it may work.
FWIW we could not deviate from them...even the clarification or hints we could give were written down.
If you have say 5 panels all interviewing 6 people for 12 jobs you need some way of making it "fair"
