What do you think about …Abortion…The President…The Death Penalty…(or any other controversial subject)?
TRAPS: Obviously, these and other “opinion” questions should never beasked. Sometimes they come up over acombination dinner/interview when the interviewer has had a drink or two, isfeeling relaxed, and is spouting off about something that bugged him in today’snews. If you give your opinion and it’sthe opposite of his, you won’t change his opinions, but you could easily losethe job offer.
BEST ANSWER: In all of these instances, just remember thetale about student and the wise old rabbi. The scene is a seminary, where an overly serious student is pressing therabbi to answer the ultimate questions of suffering, life and death. But no matter how hard he presses, the wiseold rabbi will only answer each difficult question with a question of his own.
Inexasperation, the seminary student demands, “Why, rabbi, do you always answer aquestion with another question?” Towhich the rabbi responds, “And why not?”
If you areever uncomfortable with any question, asking a question in return is thegreatest escape hatch ever invented. Itthrows the onus back on the other person, sidetracks the discussion from goinginto an area of risk to you, and gives you time to think of your answer or,even better, your next question!
In responseto any of the “opinion” questions cited above, merely responding, “Why do youask?” will usually be enough to dissipate any pressure to give youropinion. But if your interviewer againpresses you for an opinion, you can ask another question.
Or you couldassert a generality that almost everyone would agree with. For example, if your interviewer iscomplaining about politicians then suddenly turns to you and asks if you’re aRepublican or Democrat, you could respond by saying, “Actually, I’m finding ithard to find any politicians I like these days.”
(Of course,your best question of all may be whether you want to work for someone opinionated.)