[drugme]

When interviewing people I usually push until I get the candidate to answer "I don't know" on SOMETHING,

"just because I can". To me this technique comes off as condescending and manipulative, and smells like a power play basically. Not to mention - the better candidates will pick up on it, and your company will eventually get a reputation it doesn't want to have.

And really there's no need for it. Time and time again, I find that just by having a normal technical conversation with someone, on virtually any topic that they claim to have expertise in -- they will show their strengths and weakness (and propensity for BS, if any) very, very quickly.

[charlieo88]

You seem like a person that has never had to deal with someone that is incapable of saying "I don't know." It is incredibly frustrating to project manage a team like that. It is tantamount to lying.

[drugme]

Sure I have - and like I said - it's easy to read this behavior from simply having a normal (but let's just say slightly inquisitive) conversation with someone. In fact even in recent memory I can think of multiple occasions where this behavior has emerged, simply when trying to get to the bottom of routine technical matter.

[Stronico]

Not just because I can - interviews are always time limited, and technical conversations always (pleasantly) meander across many topics, usually the strengths of the people talking. It's easy to for someone to spend an hour talking about their strengths - interviews usually need some sort of direction to get useful information.

And it would be manipulative if there were some answer I was going for that wasn't true - I'm trying to elicit an honest response.