So, the "best hiring tip ever" is a question that's easy to bullshit once you've heard it, and that puts people whose proudest achievements relate to their careers in the uncomfortable situation of inventing a response that dresses up the importance of their hobbies? Brilliant.
Advice like this makes me realize why employers believe that qualified applicants are so hard to find. If this is the garbage that passes for best practice in interviews, they might as well be sacrificing chickens to the gods of employment.
I'd say it's a very easy to verify question. If someone is experienced in interviews (you can usually tell that's the case) they might talk a lot about the stuff they did, but they will have nothing to show. Usually when you're excited about something you will have some proof, or will know enough details that it's easy to confirm. For almost all people I work with, it's enough to google their name to find their projects / blogs / ... everything the employer would be interested in.
Now you're hinging your hiring decision on your ability to verify a person's hobby?
It seems to me that it would be both simpler and more effective to spend your energy trying to determine if the candidate can do the job for which you're hiring. Leave their hobbies out of it.
Of course. I didn't say that is a good question, or that the answer should be taken into consideration when hiring. I just don't agree that it's easy to talk BS in that situation if the person asking it really wants to know the truth. (i.e. they don't ask it just because it's on the list)
Personally - I think it's a good question to decide which person you'd rather spend half the day with, if you have 2 equally good candidates.
Advice like this makes me realize why employers believe that qualified applicants are so hard to find. If this is the garbage that passes for best practice in interviews, they might as well be sacrificing chickens to the gods of employment.