4 ms·

Lying about these things is trivial to see through. One or two follow up questions and now the candidate is a likely liar. I'm definitely biased against liars.

nsxwolf 9y ago
So that's where we're at now? "Don't lie; we'll find out your real hobby is needlepoint"
- treehau5 9y ago
  "One of my favorite hobbies is piano" "Oh yeah? What's your favorite scale?" "Uh what?" "Can you tell me your favorite major triad?" "..." interviewer assumes person is lying because their level of enthusiasm and knowledge doesn't match up to their expectations of what a "true piano hobbyist is" when really person just likes to play chopsticks on the piano or lookup yt videos on how to play pop songs
  - Nadya 9y ago
    "I like to play my favorite songs, I don't really know any music theory." But honestly, there is an expectation of some level of competency/knowledge when trying to "claim" a hobby, because people consider a hobby as something you involve yourself in at more than a surface level. Would you call yourself a polyglot because you know how to say "I love you." in eight different languages? Would you expect others to consider you multilingual? Probably not... There is some floor level of expectation before people would say you can "speak" a language and would consider you multilingual and a single phrase doesn't cut it for most people. If someone tells me that they like to play a musical instrument - I'd first gauge their level of ability "What songs do you like to play?" followed by their knowledge of music theory "Could you show me a `Gm sus4 7` chord in the second inversion?" or a more basic "What are the 12 notes in Standard Western notation?"
    - treehau5 9y ago
      > But honestly, there is an expectation of some level of competency/knowledge when trying to "claim" a hobby, because people consider a hobby as something you involve yourself in at more than a surface level. No. In fact, the very definition of a hobby refutes this. A hobby is purely anything you have taken interest in for mere pleasure or to fill leisure time. Hobby's synonyms are pastime, leisurely activity, leisurely pursuit, etc. There should be no expectation of mastery. Now if I said I am a piano practitioner, I would assume some knowledge. > If someone tells me that they like to play a musical instrument - I'd first gauge [...] And this list of criteria you gauge will vary from person to person, and interviewer to interviewer, which is exactly why approving/rejecting candidates based on their hobbies is unreliable at best. By the way, your listed criteria of what someone being a musician is would exclude Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Paul McCartney, Kurt Vile, Tony Williams, Danny Elfman, Eric Clapton and Tom Morello, just to name a few.
      - Nadya 9y ago
        >In fact, the very definition of a hobby refutes this I don't care much for definitions - because dictionaries are often years or decades behind how words are literally used. In this case it's a matter of breaking expectation - and not because the statement is "wrong". The statement would be correct but goes against what people are expecting when they ask such a question. If someone were to tell you "My hobby is drawing." what do you first imagine? Perhaps not hyper realistic graphite drawings but you're probably imagining something with at least a mediocre level of talent. Decent proportions, an understanding of depth, at least the basics! How surprised would you be if they showed you a bunch of crudely drawn stick figures that look like a three year old drew them? Would you think they were pulling a joke on you? If someone says "I'm a programmer" would it break your expectations to find out that they can only write `=SUM(A2:B2)` into an Excel spreadsheet? How many people do you think would disagree that they are "a programmer" if that is the extent of their programming talent? Do you think that would be a majority of people or a minority of people? If someone put on their resume that they had 8 years of programming experience and failed to mention that it was only with Excel functions would you count that against them when hiring them? Would you consider it manipulative or shady? It's the equivalent of saying "I handle financial transactions for a multi-billion dollar company." when you're a cashier at McDonalds. Factually correct, but you better only be saying it in jest or you would be considered a manipulative asshole. By the way, my listed criteria did not exclude them. The first judgement is one of ability - all of them would pass as musicians by that alone.
- namelezz 9y ago
  Even when you hobby is watching porn?
watwut 9y ago
That assumes interviewer knows enough about randomly chosen hobby and ignores the fact that most people dont have deep hobbies. In any case, if my hobby is something I am not comfortable to talk about with strangers (because they are likely to make weird gueses for example), you are not entitled to that information.
Bartweiss 9y ago
Eh? Who said 'lying'? I rock climb, listen to jam bands, and play video games. They're all very real hobbies I could pass any reasonable test on, in the bizarre event that someone considered it appropriate or worthwhile to "test me" on my own hobbies. But I certainly don't think all three of those hobbies are interchangeable in an interview setting. The article talks about the question having a 'catch', so apparently the author agrees that they weren't asking the question in good faith - there were specific hobbies that were better!

nsxwolf 9y ago

So that's where we're at now? "Don't lie; we'll find out your real hobby is needlepoint"

treehau5 9y ago
"One of my favorite hobbies is piano" "Oh yeah? What's your favorite scale?" "Uh what?" "Can you tell me your favorite major triad?" "..." interviewer assumes person is lying because their level of enthusiasm and knowledge doesn't match up to their expectations of what a "true piano hobbyist is" when really person just likes to play chopsticks on the piano or lookup yt videos on how to play pop songs
- Nadya 9y ago
  "I like to play my favorite songs, I don't really know any music theory." But honestly, there is an expectation of some level of competency/knowledge when trying to "claim" a hobby, because people consider a hobby as something you involve yourself in at more than a surface level. Would you call yourself a polyglot because you know how to say "I love you." in eight different languages? Would you expect others to consider you multilingual? Probably not... There is some floor level of expectation before people would say you can "speak" a language and would consider you multilingual and a single phrase doesn't cut it for most people. If someone tells me that they like to play a musical instrument - I'd first gauge their level of ability "What songs do you like to play?" followed by their knowledge of music theory "Could you show me a `Gm sus4 7` chord in the second inversion?" or a more basic "What are the 12 notes in Standard Western notation?"
  - treehau5 9y ago
    > But honestly, there is an expectation of some level of competency/knowledge when trying to "claim" a hobby, because people consider a hobby as something you involve yourself in at more than a surface level. No. In fact, the very definition of a hobby refutes this. A hobby is purely anything you have taken interest in for mere pleasure or to fill leisure time. Hobby's synonyms are pastime, leisurely activity, leisurely pursuit, etc. There should be no expectation of mastery. Now if I said I am a piano practitioner, I would assume some knowledge. > If someone tells me that they like to play a musical instrument - I'd first gauge [...] And this list of criteria you gauge will vary from person to person, and interviewer to interviewer, which is exactly why approving/rejecting candidates based on their hobbies is unreliable at best. By the way, your listed criteria of what someone being a musician is would exclude Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Paul McCartney, Kurt Vile, Tony Williams, Danny Elfman, Eric Clapton and Tom Morello, just to name a few.
    - Nadya 9y ago
      >In fact, the very definition of a hobby refutes this I don't care much for definitions - because dictionaries are often years or decades behind how words are literally used. In this case it's a matter of breaking expectation - and not because the statement is "wrong". The statement would be correct but goes against what people are expecting when they ask such a question. If someone were to tell you "My hobby is drawing." what do you first imagine? Perhaps not hyper realistic graphite drawings but you're probably imagining something with at least a mediocre level of talent. Decent proportions, an understanding of depth, at least the basics! How surprised would you be if they showed you a bunch of crudely drawn stick figures that look like a three year old drew them? Would you think they were pulling a joke on you? If someone says "I'm a programmer" would it break your expectations to find out that they can only write `=SUM(A2:B2)` into an Excel spreadsheet? How many people do you think would disagree that they are "a programmer" if that is the extent of their programming talent? Do you think that would be a majority of people or a minority of people? If someone put on their resume that they had 8 years of programming experience and failed to mention that it was only with Excel functions would you count that against them when hiring them? Would you consider it manipulative or shady? It's the equivalent of saying "I handle financial transactions for a multi-billion dollar company." when you're a cashier at McDonalds. Factually correct, but you better only be saying it in jest or you would be considered a manipulative asshole. By the way, my listed criteria did not exclude them. The first judgement is one of ability - all of them would pass as musicians by that alone.
namelezz 9y ago
Even when you hobby is watching porn?

watwut 9y ago

That assumes interviewer knows enough about randomly chosen hobby and ignores the fact that most people dont have deep hobbies. In any case, if my hobby is something I am not comfortable to talk about with strangers (because they are likely to make weird gueses for example), you are not entitled to that information.

Bartweiss 9y ago

Eh? Who said 'lying'? I rock climb, listen to jam bands, and play video games. They're all very real hobbies I could pass any reasonable test on, in the bizarre event that someone considered it appropriate or worthwhile to "test me" on my own hobbies. But I certainly don't think all three of those hobbies are interchangeable in an interview setting. The article talks about the question having a 'catch', so apparently the author agrees that they weren't asking the question in good faith - there were specific hobbies that were better!