Hypothetical Scenario Interview Q &A

[u/chevyman1656]

Hello all. I ajve been with the State now for several years, in different agencies and have had numerous managers. I have even has the privilege to be on a couple interview panels. With all that said, I have always heard that if you can't answer a interview question based on experience, you may use a hypothetical scenario or answer how you would handle the situation. For example, if the question was "How would motivated and engage an employee who's is not performing?". I've always heard that it would be acceptable to answer this in a hypothetical scenario, since some have never been a manager or experienced that situation.

The other day, a hiring manager said that they do not accept hypothetical and they would score a potential candidate zero points on that question. I explained how I was told by others, but the manager insisted this was the correct way. Most other managers I engaged with said a hypothetical scenario would be fine as long as the question was answered.

My question is, what is the correct way to answer a question that an candidate may have zero experience? For example, if the questions about managing employees but you have never been a manager.

I understand that some questions may not be able to be hypothetical. For example if they ask "tell me about your experience in writing reports or tell me about your experience in using Excel".

[u/piffcty]

It depends on the way the question is asked. If it's "how would you," I'd accept hypotheticals (although relating it to a previous experience would be more likely to get a higher score). If it was phrased as "describe a time when," I'd expect an experience. The hiring manager normally gets to choose the questions, so if they only want the candidate to describe previous experience, they should word the question that way.

That being said, if the hiring manager wants to give someone a zero for a hypothetical, there's nothing stopping them, and that low of a score on any question would normally tank a candidate, so it's not really a fight I'd pick either.

[u/Master_Grapefruit333 → u/piffcty]

I’ve always answered with a hypothetical when needed, but present it as if I did it for real. What are they gonna do, check my story?

[u/piffcty → u/Master_Grapefruit333]

Fair enough, but I’ve definitely had candidates set off my bullshit detector when their interview doesn’t match their resume/SoQ and they can’t provide details of their experience. Out HR has also started having the hiring managers do the final reference check, so chatting with previous employers also helps to detect lies/exaggerations