Written Interview Questions- answers in third person?

It's a way of testing you to see whether you can write a professional paper, in which would never use the first person. Don't think of it as pretentious -- think of it as pretending you are a researcher writing about your research. One big advantage is that when you write about your positive features in the third person, it doesn't sound like bragging. Saying "the candidate has excellent work habits" is a lot easier than saying "I have excellent work habits" (just a random example).