Christcorp
15-Year Member
- Joined
- May 21, 2008
- Messages
- 5,380
As has been pointed out, many of the questions asked either have NO right or wrong answer, or as an ALO we really don't care what your answer is. We know at 17-18 years old, you don't have a lot of "Worldly Experience". The main concern for most ALO's, is to determine if your answers are 1) Truly Yours. (Not some canned answer or something that can be explained because "that's the way you were raised". 2) That the answer is thought out. (That you aren't just babbling or trying to BS us and that you can think on your feet). 3) That you are articulate. (You can tell a lot about a person, their leadership potential, their confidence, their respect, etc. by how they speak).
My interviews usually last around an hour. I have the majority of my core questions that I ask all applicants. I then usually have 2 very subjective, controversial, and opinionated questions that I ask all of them. Everything from gays in the military, to abortion, to religion, to politics, illegal immigration, etc. Again, most of it, I really don't care what the answer is. But I do care that the applicant is giving me an answer that THEY'VE thought out. That they can have an opinion on. I will usually follow up with a "Devil's Advocate" question to see if the individual is "OPEN" to other ideas and opinions, and willing to entertain someone else's viewpoint, or if they are adamant or closed minded to their own opinions. And I will sometimes, situational, ask followup questions to an answer that I've heard trigger words. I.e. If an answer comes across to me and I "PERCEIVE" a tone of sexism, racism, discrimination, etc. I'll usually followup to make sure that I didn't misunderstand their answer. We are all human, and I don't want to develop an unjust opinion of an applicant because I misunderstood what they were saying.
And having both male and female applicants/candidates, I've sometimes had to modify questions. Not every question can be gender neutral. When the military started allowing women to be involved in more "Front Line" types of jobs, I might ask a male candidate their opinion on this and possibly being in an offensive side by side ground scenario with a woman. On the other hand, I might turn the question around a little for a female applicant to get her opinion on the fairness of the opportunity or the possibility of lowering physical standards of a job in order to allow women in it. The point is, most ALO's ASK and most applicants are ASKED, the same questions. There will be some variance to some questions. The majority of the questions asked however, are not intended to find out WHAT your answer is. It's designed more to determine HOW you answer the question. Even something that may seem sexist or racist on the surface, may be asked because of a reply to a previous answer or position to a question. Or maybe it's asked simply to BREAK the applicant's train of thought. I've done that MANY TIMES. Let them get deep into an answer, and then go off topic to take them away, then make them pick up where they left off. (For what it's worth, I let applicants know while we're chatting before the interview, that I WILL do things like that). It helps to see how well organized the individual is and if they can handle not being fully in charge.
But every interview, whether ALO or MOC, will be different. There are different objectives for each interview. The MOC interview is more designed to compare each applicant to each other, and to pick the BEST (or best 10) for a nomination. An ALO's interview is to determine if the INDIVIDUAL (Not compared to the other applicants) is the "Right Stuff" for the academy and military. We can give ALL our applicants an outstanding score, or we can give ALL our applicants a terrible score and recommend they NOT receive an appointment. Different purposes for different interviews.
My interviews usually last around an hour. I have the majority of my core questions that I ask all applicants. I then usually have 2 very subjective, controversial, and opinionated questions that I ask all of them. Everything from gays in the military, to abortion, to religion, to politics, illegal immigration, etc. Again, most of it, I really don't care what the answer is. But I do care that the applicant is giving me an answer that THEY'VE thought out. That they can have an opinion on. I will usually follow up with a "Devil's Advocate" question to see if the individual is "OPEN" to other ideas and opinions, and willing to entertain someone else's viewpoint, or if they are adamant or closed minded to their own opinions. And I will sometimes, situational, ask followup questions to an answer that I've heard trigger words. I.e. If an answer comes across to me and I "PERCEIVE" a tone of sexism, racism, discrimination, etc. I'll usually followup to make sure that I didn't misunderstand their answer. We are all human, and I don't want to develop an unjust opinion of an applicant because I misunderstood what they were saying.
And having both male and female applicants/candidates, I've sometimes had to modify questions. Not every question can be gender neutral. When the military started allowing women to be involved in more "Front Line" types of jobs, I might ask a male candidate their opinion on this and possibly being in an offensive side by side ground scenario with a woman. On the other hand, I might turn the question around a little for a female applicant to get her opinion on the fairness of the opportunity or the possibility of lowering physical standards of a job in order to allow women in it. The point is, most ALO's ASK and most applicants are ASKED, the same questions. There will be some variance to some questions. The majority of the questions asked however, are not intended to find out WHAT your answer is. It's designed more to determine HOW you answer the question. Even something that may seem sexist or racist on the surface, may be asked because of a reply to a previous answer or position to a question. Or maybe it's asked simply to BREAK the applicant's train of thought. I've done that MANY TIMES. Let them get deep into an answer, and then go off topic to take them away, then make them pick up where they left off. (For what it's worth, I let applicants know while we're chatting before the interview, that I WILL do things like that). It helps to see how well organized the individual is and if they can handle not being fully in charge.
But every interview, whether ALO or MOC, will be different. There are different objectives for each interview. The MOC interview is more designed to compare each applicant to each other, and to pick the BEST (or best 10) for a nomination. An ALO's interview is to determine if the INDIVIDUAL (Not compared to the other applicants) is the "Right Stuff" for the academy and military. We can give ALL our applicants an outstanding score, or we can give ALL our applicants a terrible score and recommend they NOT receive an appointment. Different purposes for different interviews.
