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Are "stress interviews" tactics to see if you're really interested in joining a company, or red flags of an unprofessional organization?

I had a set of interviews with a well performing, but not top-tier, asset management company. During an interview, I thought I was connecting with one of the hiring managers on a personal level. Then, in the middle of the interview, he told me I was overqualified and should apply to better companies in the area. He even went as far as saying he would be glad to give me contacts for people in those firms.

Was this a tactic to see if I was really interested in joining their company, or was it likely a red flag of an unprofessional organization?

There's something fishy here. You've either encountered a form of stress interview or an unprofessional interviewer.

To the uninitiated, the stress interview can be - quite stressful. But that's the point. The interviewer places you in a tense situation to assess your ability to handle pressure. For example, the interviewer makes you feel comfortable and confident and, just when you think the interview is going great, throws you a question or puts you in a situation that knocks you off your feet. Rarely do candidates come away from these interviews with good feelings.

But what if this wasn't a stress interview? Maybe the interviewer genuinely liked you and wanted to warn you away from this firm so you'd find a more suitable match. This is where you employ your network and start researching the organization's reputation and pending plans. Look for financial instability, intense competition, potential litigation, or maybe a downsizing. See what you can learn on the street or by conducting research online.

To determine if you want to keep pursuing a job with this firm or take the manager up on his roster of contacts, you'll need to do some soul-searching. If you decide this was a stress interview, be sure to ask yourself whether you want to work for someone that resorts to this kind of tactic. On the other hand, Wall Street isn't exactly known as a low-stress environment…

Robbie Miller Kaplan, a nationally-recognized expert on career communications, is the author of "How to Say It In Your Job Search" and "How to Say It When You Don't Know What to Say: The Right Words for Difficult Times," published by Prentice Hall Press.

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