Interview Question: “Would you prefer popularity or respect from your Co-Workers?”


You applied for a position. Your resume was good enough to get through the maze of resumes that the hiring manager had to go through.  You were chosen for an interview.  During the interview, you are asked the following question: “Would you prefer popularity or respect from your Co-Workers?”

OK! How do you answer that? Does it matter how you answer that? Of course it does. Why would you be asked that question if it didn’t matter.

The truth is most of us would like to be both. We would like respect from everyone we meet and we also would like to be the most popular person on the planet, right? Sounds good, but before you answer please take into consideration what kind of job you are interviewing for.

If you are applying for a managerial or an executive position where you will be managing a number of people, a “Team”, I believe the best answer to this question is respect. The definition of respect is: a feeling of deep admiration for someone or something elicited by their abilities, qualities, or achievements. Because of your ability and qualities and achievement you were given the position.

If on the other hand you are interviewing for a position that requires “teamwork” I would say the best answer would be popularity. In this case you would want your Co-Workers to like you so your “Team” can work together towards the goals put forth by your manager or executive who by the way you all “respect.”

Of course, having both respect and popularity is a good thing to have in both instances. However, in my opinion as an executive or manager respect is much more important than being popular. 

I hope this helps you in some way.

I’ll be back next week!

disABLEDperson, Inc.

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