#45: Know Your Field
When applying for a position as a marketing writer, it’s reasonable to expect candidates to have a basic understanding of the field they’ll be working in. However, this expectation should be in the context of their role as writers, not as experts in a specific industry. In this case, the candidate’s expertise was in writing, not furniture.
What makes this interview bizarre is not the interviewer’s desire for the candidate to know what a “sham” is, as the context of this term remains unclear. Rather, the oddity lies in that this was the sole question, and the interviewer’s subsequent rudeness seems unwarranted regardless of the candidate’s response.