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This may be a little naive, but what if your expertise runs out before theirs? It’s not unthinkable that a candidate has more depth in a field than you do. I r

This may be a little naive, but what if your expertise runs out before theirs? It’s not unthinkable that a candidate has more depth in a field than you do. I remember asking a friend once if he could answer any Tolkien question, and he answered that he couldn’t answer everything, but the stuff he couldn’t answer, I didn’t know the right questions for.

dijit 5y ago
This has happened. Then you ask them to explain it more. If you don’t understand then they likely don’t understand it enough to explain it.
JohnFen 5y ago
> what if your expertise runs out before theirs? I'm always hopeful that the person I'm interviewing is more capable than I, and they very often are. But there's an interesting thing: the more expert a person is, the more willing they tend to be to say "I don't know" (often rapidly followed by informed speculation and a comment about how they would find out). Combining that with the fact that true experts usually prefer to operate at the limits of their knowledge means it's not hard to get such a candidate to say "I don't know". It's certainly not necessary to operate at the same level as a person to get them to operate at the limits of their knowledge and ability. In fact, relatively inexperienced people have a knack for asking those "naive" questions that lead into very deep pools. Edit: I should also mention that my interview style is not in the form of a quiz. It's a conversation. I think that makes a difference as well.