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Human resources experts categorize interview questions with terms such as “traditional” and “behavioral.” Traditional questions include the old standards that almost any American job seeker knows by heart. Where do you see yourself in five years? What do you do on your day off? What’s the last book you’ve read? What are you most proud of?

Traditional-question interviews walk a tightrope between concealment and disclosure. They often invite the candidate to say something “bad” about himself, just to see how far he’ll go. These questions seem to be about honesty. Really, they’re about diplomacy. What you’re most proud of might be your comic-book collection. That’s not necessarily what the interviewer wants to hear, and you probably know that. There are safer answers, such as “the feeling of accomplish-ment I get from doing something — it could be anything —really well.” The trouble with the traditional interview is that both sides are wise to the game. Practically everyone gives the safe answers. The interviewers nod, not believing a word of it.

This has led to the rise of behavioral questions. These ask the candidate to describe a past experience bearing on character and job skills. An example (used at Microsoft) is “Describe an instance in your life when you were faced with a problem and tackled it successfully.” Another is “Describe a time when you had to work under deadline and there wasn’t enough time to complete the job.” The rationale for asking behavioral questions is that it’s harder to fabricate a story than a one-liner.

Unfortunately, traditional and behavioral interview questions do almost nothing to counter the two-second snap judgment. These are soft, fuzzy, and ambivalent questions. Rarely addressed is what you’re supposed to make of the answers. It’s mostly gut instincts Ask yourself this: “Is there any conceivable answer to a traditional interview question that would cause me to want to hire someone on that answer alone? Is there any possible answer that would cause me to not want to hire someone?”

I guess you can imagine alarming answers that might betray the candid psychopath. But most of the time, job candidates give the cautious and second-guessed answers everyone expects. With half-empty or half- full logic, an interviewer can use any answer retroactively to justify the first impression. Rarely does an answer challenge that first impression.

This probably makes some interviewers comfortable. It may not be the best way to hire. It is far from clear that traditional and behavioral questions are a good way of spending the always-too-limited time in a job interview.

Excerpted from page numbers17-18 of ‘How Would You Move Mount Fuji?’ by William Poundstone.