What candidates may be trying to do in the interview

1. Uncover your hot buttons
2. Sell you on their suitability (with or without knowing the specs)
3. Assess the opportunity
4. Surface the company’s problems and / or your view of them
5. Assert knowledge, skill sets or accomplishments on faith
6. Pull power plays to gain control in the interview
7. Ask more questions than answer
8. Cover up their nervousness with stiffness or talkativeness
9. Avoid answering questions with humor or another question
10. Give you their life stories (with all the sordid details)

Keep your antennae up for…

11. Cover up embarrassments or failures
12. Make a weakness or failure seem like strength or success
13. Name-drop or use mutual acquaintances as leverage
14. Use friendliness or attractiveness as leverage
15. Claim individual credit for a group’s or another’s success
16. Close you on commitments
17. Get you to offer them a job
18. Get the highest possible $
19. Inflate their statement of interest to get leverage elsewhere
20. Make a genuinely good impression