[reggieband]

Maybe they were fishing for the "what do you see yourself doing in 5 years" kind of information.

As a manager, motivation is one of the primary things I focus on. Every employee is different ... some people want money, some people want autonomy, some people want to be mentored, some people want to work on massive systems. I try not to get philosophical (or personal) but I at least try to get a flavor from a candidate as to what their motivation would be and how that might fit into the team.

[craftinator]

Fishing is not a good way to catch good employees, only a good way to catch fish. If a hiring manager can't ask the questions they want the answers to, then I walk out the door.

[watwut]

But like, do you really expect stages to be open with this? The real this that drive people tend to be personal and during hiring process people are bound to bias it towards what they think makes them sound good.