on the spectrum of “right <————> wrong” answers…

… because it is a spectrum as it’s not binary/mathematics we’re dealing with here, it’s fuzzy human stuff…

… there is a difference between “absolutely wrong” and “not right as much as that other person we interviewed”.

there are absolute wrong answers. if you tell me in the interview that you worked for north korea’s security services im noping the fuck outta that interview.

but if you say “i hate XYZ” and our team loves XYZ, then, like, i mean, yeah, that’s not ideal. it’s not wrong. maybe we could put you on something where you don’t work with XYZ directly. but are you going to be as happy and productive as someone who actually likes XYZ? cos you’re gonna have to deal with XYZ at some point working here.

there are absolute wrongs, but, 99.99% of people don’t say things like that in interviews.

and the things you seem to be referring to in a binary manner right/wrong are, really, more about where in the SPECTRUM of right/wrong you come out in the aggregate.

that’s why we tell people in interviews that there’s no wrong answer. it’s to help calm them down, help them feel comfortable, so we can find out where they sit on the spectrum of “fitting in” without interview anxiety getting in the way and making them give stilted answers where we, as interviewers, don’t get a chance to find out who these people are.

edit: sorry i added a bunch after posting. i’m having one of those days.