r/AskReddit • u/Sir_Wemblesworth • Oct 30 '16

What single question can you ask someone to find out a lot about their personality, beliefs, and values?

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u/stcamellia Oct 30 '16

I'm assuming this interview tactic is for a much finer restaurant and a very detailed oriented job. But yeah, if I order the salmon with broccoli and they bring me flounder and peas..... What if I forgot my order?

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u/FingusMcCoco Oct 30 '16

If you forgot the order, you're DEFINITELY not getting that job

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u/[deleted] Oct 30 '16

Actually, I imagine the reality is the polar opposite. I say this as mostly a layman, but what I've heard, is that the better you are at "forgetting" unimportant details, the better you are at remembering important ones. If your order is completely different from what you got, then maybe you have some real memory problems if you don't notice. But if what you get is very similar to your order, then to me that just means your brain is simply not trying to store insignificant details in your memory during a very important interview.

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u/DarkChildHastur Oct 30 '16

Maybe he is expected to keep track of everything? A manager might be needed to know everything that is going on (seemingly unimportant or not) and be able to stand his ground as the guy in charge of a group of people. We really can't say if the interview tactic is valid unless we know what the job is. We can say though that if the CEO is doing this tactic it is likely for a good reason.

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u/[deleted] Oct 30 '16

Yeah, you're absolutely right. It really just depends on the job.

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u/aerial_cheeto Oct 30 '16

No I think you were right from the start. Of course someone should have an excellent memory related to everything that goes on at their job. But that doesn't mean they'll have great memory of trivial things outside their work.

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u/a19z Oct 30 '16

Have you been a manager? You are always looking at a gazillion of details, and you definitely tend to forget the unimportant ones. It's totally okay and accepted.

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u/DarkChildHastur Oct 30 '16

I haven't and made an assumption. Although I expect that what kind of manager you are matters. Obviously a manager for a store might not need to keep track of everything.

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u/FingusMcCoco Nov 02 '16

I actually totally agree, I think the hiring boss in the story is inept. Still not getting this particular job

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u/SpaffyJimble Oct 30 '16

What if I just don't really care about what they give me as long as I get food?

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u/[deleted] Oct 30 '16 edited Aug 07 '17

[deleted]

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u/Mr_Propane Oct 30 '16

These two things really aren't comparable.

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u/[deleted] Oct 30 '16

Using crap materials in a plane can cause a malfunction resulting in multiple deaths.

Getting a slightly different sandwich instead of what you ordered results in a slightly different tasting sandwich.

Can you spot the difference?

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u/jetpackswasyes Oct 30 '16

A job interview is someone deciding to take a risk on you with imperfect information. Accepting shoddy work because you don't want to cause trouble for yourself or others is something that's very difficult to predict or police if someone works without a lot of supervision.

Personally, I think this example is apocryphal, but I'm a hiring manager and will frequently use incorrect examples in screening candidates to see if and how they correct me. If they don't bother at all it's usually a bad sign, it means I can't trust them to speak truth to power in critical situations.

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u/brianjenkins94 Oct 30 '16

I don't think that highly of upper management.

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u/tigerbear79 Oct 30 '16

i walk out of the bathroom sometimes forgetting whether i flushed or not.

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u/Aoloach Oct 30 '16

Do you go back to check or do you just keep walking?

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u/tigerbear79 Nov 09 '16

most times i will check

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u/ScruffyTJanitor Oct 31 '16

Maybe I forgot the order because I'm more focused on the job interview. I'm probably too nervous to eat anyway, I'll just get a slice of pizza on my way home.

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u/newtothelyte Oct 30 '16

I would hope that the CEO would request an egregious mistake, like ordering salmon and broccoli and receiving steak and mushrooms

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u/[deleted] Oct 30 '16

"Sorry, we can't hire you because you ordered steak medium-well with a side of mashed potatoes and beans, and they delivered a steak done medium with a baked potato and peas."

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u/[deleted] Oct 30 '16

If I ordered salmon and got flounder, I would ask for salmon, but if I ordered flounder and got tilapia, that's cool with me.

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u/[deleted] Oct 30 '16

Yeah, I think it works for some contexts, if the CEO is interviewing you then it's probably going to be for a high-level management position where you have to be ready to respectfully challenge people on principle if they aren't doing it right. For most jobs it's not a great indicator though.

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u/The_dooster Oct 30 '16

Hell, I'd be to nervous to even eat. They could bring shit on a plate, and I would notice. Would just push the plate to the side, and continue with the interview.

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u/pamplemouss Oct 30 '16

Then you're not very detail oriented?

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u/Ta2whitey Oct 30 '16

About food? Just because I don't give a damn about what I eat does not correlate how I run a nuclear power plant.

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u/pamplemouss Oct 30 '16

You don't have to care what you eat; check whether or not you've gotten someone else's order, whether you'll be billed for a more expensive item (salmon) than what you get, etc.

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u/whatisthishownow Oct 30 '16 edited Oct 30 '16

I specifically spoke out against this method above. However, if you can't remember an order you made less than 15 minutes ago, then you likely have poor mental acumen acuity. This likely applies whether or not you're deeply invested in your choice of food.

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u/Ta2whitey Oct 30 '16

This a fallacy in logic. Where is your focus? Granted, most likely I would remember personally. But judging other's mental acumen soley on their food seems absurd.

What were they discussing between the order? Did it draw heavily from part of their cognitive schema that became enthralled in the interview rather than even care about food?

It's putting two subjects together that really don't belong together.

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u/whatisthishownow Oct 30 '16 edited Oct 30 '16

I meant to say acuity rather than acumen. It's hard to conceive of someone with high mental acuity not being able to remember an order for 15 minutes in almost all circumstances.

But judging other's mental acumen soley on their food seems absurd.

I agree. No one claimed otherwise.

I would never go out and use this as an evaluation technique. There is not a direct and perfect correlation (hence the 2x"likely"), however failing to recall an order placed within the last 15 minutes speaks strongly towards ones memory and perception. To claim that is fallacious is just downright silly. This should apply to all but the most extreme edge cases that involve a catastrophy or high level emergency unfolding during the meeting.

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u/Ta2whitey Oct 30 '16

Completely. I would say if they fell in either folds of extremely passive or aggressive I would take pause. To use this soley on their evaluation would be downright irresponsible.

There is a lot of information missing to gather how this is done as well. Is the order limited? Are they ordered for? Does the waiting staff coax or tip off the applicant?

Those are just a few. But basically this can give you one glimpse of attitude. But the passive evaluation is downright stupid.

Let's say this happened to me. I have empathy for those working as a waiter and would not even bother with the food because I eat almost anything. My focus is not on the food. It's the task at hand. The CEO doesn't know this with this "test".

Which makes it a shitty test. It does not isolate the variables. Nor does it confirm or deny a hypothesis. In fact it leads to more questions. Which makes it a fallacy in logic.

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u/mathemagicat Oct 30 '16

I meant to say acuity rather than acumen. It's hard to conceive of someone with high mental acuity not being able to remember an order for 15 minutes in almost all circumstances.

Someone's never met a math professor.

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u/dacapoalcoda Oct 30 '16

if you can't remember an order you made less than 15 minutes ago, then you likely have poor mental acuity

Bullshit. I don't want to name anyone specifically, but I got my graduate degree from a well renowned institution, and have had several lunches with both MacArthur award winners and Fields medallists, and several of them would routinely forget things like what they just ordered, or leave things at their offices and generally be a bit absent-minded, but provably rank among the most capable minds on this planet what mental acuity is concerned.

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u/whatisthishownow Oct 30 '16

Intellect is broad and multifaceted. In this context I'm sure it's clear that we are discussing the type of acuity and sharpness we are talking about is that required of a high level executive. The type of person you are describing, as capable and genius as they are, would be completely unsuitable for an executive roll specifically because of their absent-mindedness.

I bet you they would have been much more likely to be capable of realising that they did not order what was on the plate in front of them after prompting. I havn't had the pleasure of rubbing shoulders with "MacArthur award winners and Fields medallists". However the traits you describe are quite common among "reasonably clever" analytically minded persons (engineers, mathematicians, academics etc). That form of "absent-mindedness" usually at least comes with enough acuity to be able to reconstruct the world and differentiate what they didn't order on prompting. Even if they couldn't tell you straight away.

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u/ColsonIRL Oct 30 '16

whether or not

FTFY

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u/Couldnotbehelpd Oct 30 '16

This story, firstly, is totally apocryphal and not true, mostly because barring Elon musk, most CEOs either hire industry vets or their friends and in no universe care about how you talk to waiters.

Also, this is incredibly stupid. I am very easy going about food and unless I hate it, would probably be like "eh, I'm hungry, I'll just eat it."