I watched this gif way too many times Wed, Aug 09, 2017

Confession: Sometimes when an interview is going nowhere or the answers seem canned or rehearsed, I'll throw out a super random question to liven things up. One that is fun sometimes is "if you were an animal what kind of animal would you be?" 

Now, there's some obvious psychology behind this one. For example, if someone said "I'd be a sloth! I love to be lazy!" I might think differently of them, but for the most part I just like hearing about people's favorite animals. A very middle-of-the-road answer is always a dog..and then people proceed to tell me about their dog and show pictures. It helps them break out a bit.

But the more I thought about it, I would love to have an employee like my dog. He is always in a happy mood, always ready for an adventure, and loyal beyond words. I don't have to beat around the bush when he's in trouble - in fact he knows with one sideways glance from me. He greets me with a smile whenever he sees me and (surprisingly) has a better handshake than a lot of candidates I come across. If you were to emulate your dog, what kind of employee would you be? Or deeper yet perhaps - If you your dog were like you, would you still want them as a dog?