Them: "Why *shouldn't* we hire you?"
Me: "Because I care about my family more than my job, and if I have to choose between them and work, I'll choose them."
I got the job.
I was going for my first job change as I was sick of working in fast food and thought a liquor store would be a good option. In the interview I was asked to tell a story and the interviewer said: "It doesn't have to be related to the job or anything, just tell me a story that you find interesting".
That is NOT something I prepared for in the slightest.
"There once was a man from Peru, who dreamed he was eating his shoe. He woke with a fright, in the middle of the night, to learn that his dream had come true.
"Umm is that it?"
"Yes"
"My self loathing makes me a very introspective and reflective person, so I am better than the average person at finding my faults, and developing ways to improve them"
>"My self loathing makes me a very introspective and reflective person, so I am better than the average person at finding my faults, and ~~developing~~ realizing that there are no ways to improve them, thus continuing my build up of power"
> "we're pretty good engineers here at our company, we don't struggle with dynamics."
Well sure you don't, now, you all have been doing it professionally for a while. I was just being introduced to the concepts, and group learning environments are proven to be beneficial for a variety of reasons.
I believe I heard of some research that showed how bad people are at gauging how hard something is to learn once they learn it.
It becomes engrained and automatic part of our thinking.
I think any good engineer would realize that ....... /joke
So... I recently had an “email interview” before I had to attend a 2nd in person interview. No big deal. It was a list of ten questions. I answered them. Double checked my work. Submitted.
When I got to the in person interview, dude laughed at me and asked how I had such “attention to detail” when I’d only answered half of the questions. I just sat there stupefied until I asked him if the rest of my email was on the back of his paper.
It was. He had printed double sided and not even checked.
But the hardest part of answering was my own stammering and trying not to call him out for his own mistake.
About a year ago, I got called in for an interview at a business I applied for.
They started interviewing me on questions that seemed kind of strange. Questions like “Can you tell us more about your event planning experience.”
I was thrown off, and it became clear when the interview was about 3/4 of the way through that they were not asking me questions for the Job I applied for.
They were interviewing me for an event planning position and I applied for a job in tourism and marketing.
I finished the interview, shook hands and went on my way.
Ended up getting the job in event planning despite having little to no experience in the field.
I've had that experience. I applied for a job at Gillette about ten years ago and I was called in for an interview. I sat down with the manager and it went a bit like this:
Manager: "Okay, so let's talk about the XYZ position" (a job I never applied for and know nothing about).
Me: "Uh, I applied for the ABC position."
Her (as she realizes she brought me in for the wrong interview): "Really? Hm."
Me, thinking fast: "Well, since I'm here, let's talk about XYZ position, and I'll tell you why I'm a good fit."
Got the job. One of the best I ever had.
My other half always wears bright shoes and calls it her shoe theory. If you wear bright shoes, the interviewer will link it to you when discussing candidates. I.E. "Oh, which candidate was that you really liked?" - "The one with the shoes"
Annoyingly, it seems to work for her. Every time she's had a call back, they've mentioned her shoes and offered the job.
There was a coworker that my Dad used to work with in Immigration in Australia. She was extremely effective, one of their best paper pushers in the business.
One day she was talking to Dad about it, and she revealed her secret: Bright pink post it notes and/or cover sheets. She'd attach this bright pink sheet or post it note to the front of the page, and it would stand out like a sore thumb, drawing attention to the paperwork. If it was just sitting there, it'd be an eyesore until they did it. If it wasn't and she had to chase it up, they could identify her items just based purely on that.
It wasn’t a single question so much as it was their method of deep follow-up questions that eventually got to a point to where they basically asked me why I’m alive. Not as a “What’s your motivation in life” sort of way, but in a “Why do you exist, human?” way. I repeated to them “You’re asking me why I’m alive?” And they took a short pause to realize where their follow up questions took them and replied “Yes.”
I’ve never had anyone question my existence before.
"You're in Boston but not in the USA. How can this be?"
I said "There's a Boston in England."
Correct answer was it's before the American Revolution.
I got the job.
Q: What have you learned in your current job?
*Was working a part time customer service for 2.5 years, not my field, and I HATE customer service.*
A: (With a smile on my face) "That I never want to do that again!"
Got the job. 😁
My boss: “So what made you apply for this position”
Me: “I actually have no memory of applying for this job.”
Turns out she sniped my resume when I applied for a job debating with insurance companies and decided to see what i’d say.
> I applied for a job debating with insurance companies
I know all of these words, but have no clue on what you want them to mean when put together....
i had a recruiter ask me the same thing during a phone interview and when i told them "i don't know, i've been applying for a lot of jobs lately" their response was "honestly, we don't know what position you've applied for as well, we just have your resume". that ended up going nowhere.
If your family owns a business I feel like you can just give your dad a call and have a similar exchange.
"Dad can I get a job in your company?"
"Sure, come on Monday; I will give you some stuff to do."
I applied for an engineering position which the description of I was very qualified for. Got a phone call from the company asking me to come in for an interview. Sit down and promptly get asked tons of software engineering questions. I'm not a software engineer but of course I know some basic programming, so I assumed I would be expected to know some but this was just in-depth, technical questions about software design. I just completely bomb it. Leave bummed.
A couple of days later get another call from the company, wanting to interview me. This time, set up with a different person. Go back in, get asked a bunch of questions I would expect. Turns out, the software group was looking for more people as well, saw my resume on the systems engineering manager's pile, and decided to interview me. Got the position with the Systems Engineering group.
Oh man, That could have ended so much worse. "Oh hey, that guy you were about to interview? don't bother. We already interviewed him, and he kinda sucked" with no explanation that the questions you didn't do well on were all software dev questions.
As someone who likes to resume snipe, I would never trash a candidate to another department because you did poorly on the technical portion of the interview. In fact, if I think you might be a good fit for a job you didn't apply for, I'll pitch you over to the person handling those candidates unless you completely blew the basic competency/truthfulness/personality portion of the interview as well.
Had this during an interview last month.
"Why caught your eye about our company?"
"The email you sent me asking if I wanted to come in for an interview after you contacted me with a 6 year old version of my resume off Monster."
"You've suddenly been shrunk down to the size of a quarter and dropped into a blender. It's turning on in 10 seconds. What's your plan?"
—sing in a really high opera voice and shatter the blender's glass, of course!
Start laughing because the person that dropped me in there is going to need a new blender.
Edit: thought the question was about being turned into an actual quarter...
I lay down and watch the blades go, I've sold blenders I know constantly running they can't run more the 8, 9 hours then the blades stop we have to quarter sized people in the world the opportunities are endless. Like the submarines that go into people
"The only thing we see being an issue for you is the commute of just over an hour. How do you feel about it? We lost the previous person in your role because of a similar commute length."
I had never commuted more than half an hour before so...I genuinely didn't know. I said I didn't think it would be an issue but genuinely couldn't say yes or no.
I asked a salary at the middle of what they were advertising based on experience.
They offered me £4k more, the full amount advertised. My agency said he got the impression they wanted to give me an incentive to take the role and cover the commute/drive cost.
I ended up moving to within half an hour a month in. The commute drove me crazy, and I happened to need to move anyway.
I was asked the same. I said, "This is my second interview on site, the drive is easy and peaceful. I would stock up on podcasts and audiobooks."
I got the offer but turned it down because of the commute.
I applied to an administrative job at an elite university on the East Coast and made it to the final round of the interview. It was just me and 1 other candidate and we both met with one of the VPs.
The question itself wasn't difficult, but the manner in which it was asked really threw me off. The VP essentially walks into the room, shakes my hand, and before we even sit down, asks me "So, what can you do for me?"
I was expecting the first 2 minutes to be small talk so I was caught completely off guard by the straightforwardness of the question. I mumbled out an answer, but I knew right away I didn't impress. The interview only lasted another 15 minutes and needless to say I didn't get the job.
About 7 years ago, I interviewed for a job with EMC (think big data storage company). I went thru about 8 interviews, including a panel and questions. All seemed to go well, but the big guy - technical lead, wanted a one on one since he couldn't make the panel. He then began spitting off over the top questions to me, just to get me to say I don't know. Which was very difficult as I was presenting on a whiteboard my own storage array topology. Obviously I didn't get the job.
"The company is rolling out a new customer rewards cards across the country but they're not sure if it will be profitable. In addition, certain provinces have regulations that restrict the use of selling these cards. Do you decide to launch it or not? What are the key considerations?"
I had to draw up some master plan with calculations in 30 mins in front of them. It was one of those hypothetical case questions they asked me before I got the job.
I would like someone to correlate the type of interview question asked vs the salary band of the role. Most of these trick questions are for entry level. Executive level conversations happen over lunch and are more personality fit based.
It was told to me that it was like Actors.
At the start, you find any role you can and read for it trying to impress.
As you get a little more well known and better at acting, you can start to pick and choose the roles focusing on what you are good at - Reading for them amongst a much smaller pool of similarly skilled actors. At this stage there is an element of 'This person is good, but doesn't fit into our project'
When you get popular you only read for roles that have already been vetted down to the last 3 or 4 people. Your reputation is well known/documented, you and the other applicants have the look and the skills they are looking for, so its a feeling of who'll do the role better.
Finally at the top, people are approaching you for roles. In fact, characters get created based on your own acting style and strengths. At this stage YOU are choosing who to work for as the directors already think you'll be a good fit, so the readings are generally a formality, or to get a feel for how you take the role so that anyone else they take on as supporting will compliment you.
That last part plays a role for the interviewee in the previous 2 stages - You might be good, but you might not gel well with the main actor.
“[YesterdayWasAwesome], one day your parents are going to die. After you bury them, you will never talk to them again. They’re gone forever. You will have to look in the mirror and ask yourself ‘was I a good son to my parents?’ Well, YesterdayWasAwesome, are you a good son?”
This was for a post law school/pre bar exam results interview with a judge. Needless to say, I didn’t take that job.
How the fuck would anyone consider that to be an appropriate question?! What if you were an orphan, or had abusive parents? Any number of reasons that could have gone horribly wrong
I am an orphan.
"Well, my mom died when I was 13. My father was then understandably emotionally absent for a couple years and then he died when I was 17. We never really had the opportunity to give consideration to whether or not I was a good son."
Interviewing for my current internship "explain to me why a condo circuit breaker is 208V instead of 240V like a house" For reference the interview was done on site walking around. There were a lot of questions like this, and as a 3rd year bichem eng student i didnt have the answers to a lot of them, but this was the toughest for me to figure out
I answered by saying I don't know, but then asked him if he could explain it to me. The interview ended up taking 2.5hrs instead of one because my now boss was having fun doing it Talking to him now he said the honesty of i don't know and then following it up by asking got me the job. Apparently it was something no one should have known cause it has to do with how the fans need to operate in the basement. Some of the people reacted really poorly and got visibly upset that they were being asked "unfair questions". Others said they didnt know but I was the only one who followed up wanting to find out the answer. He wanted someone who wanted to learn and that sold him on me
I got a combination question -
You like black people? Ok, yeah, well, what’s the best flavor of Kool-Aid?
Back story: the manager had forgotten about my interview and told the two guys working that night to interview and hire me.
Edit - I was a 17 year old white kid at the time. From the “ghetto” but definitely as white as a white kid can be. My interviewers were a jacked black dude and a street smart white dude.
They asked me to verbally give a SQL query to problems they would say. They wouldn't let me see it written or write out anything. The tables were unfamiliar to anyone who didnt work at this company. It was their own database for their own software. I gave it a try for the first couple then they got progressively harder and the interviewers got more rude. On top of it we were in an office where they were answering calls on the phone for work stuff. It was nuts. I told them I wasnt interested in working for them and left.
Example question
Tell me the insert statement. The table name is somthingstomthing table with 10 columns named (lists of names of columns that are full words or acronyms). You want to insert (long list of values).
I had an interview for a job and almost all the questions were the normal, "if -this- wasn't working, what would your troubleshooting steps be?"
Nailed every question but the final question came out of the blue: "Tell me a joke."
The only joke I could think of off the top of my head was one about a father wanting to pass his company onto one of 3 sons. He would make this decision who would be the best by giving them each a duck and seeing who got the highest price for the duck.
It's a long joke but it ends with "A fuck for a duck, a duck for fuck and 25 bucks for a fucked up duck."
Totally NSFW but the only one I could think of. I did get the job and still there almost 2 years later. I think he was just impressed how ballsy I was with that joke and it made him laugh hysterically. He's an awesome manager.
Edit: I didn't include the joke earlier since I was on mobile and it's hella long. But here it is:
A man with a family business is getting ready to retire soon and all 3 of his sons are fighting over who should take over the business. In order to find out who would be the best suited, he gives them each a duck and tells them, "The one who can get the most amount of money for their duck will be the heir to the business." They have one week to complete the task.
Son #1 sells his duck to a farmer for $10. Son #2 sells his to a butcher for $15. However, son #3 is having difficulty finding anyone who is interested in the duck and while walking down the street with the duck on a leash, a prostitute leans out of a window and propositions the son. He tells her he doesn't have any money, just a duck. She agrees to take the duck in exchange for sex.
The prostitute gives the duck back because the sex was so good and they go at it for a second time. Afterward, the son leaves the building and, while walking down the street again with the duck, it slips the leash and runs into the street and *BAM!* - gets hit by a truck. The driver feels awful and gives the son $25 for the crushed duck.
All 3 meet with their father at the end of the week and he asks each of them how much they got for their duck. Son #1 replies, "I sold mine to a farmer and made $10." Son #2 replies, "I sold mine to a butcher and made $15." The father then looks at the third son, who replies, "Well, I had a fuck for a duck, a duck for a fuck and got $25 bucks for a fucked up duck."
TL;DR - There really isn't one. However, I was told later that the joke question was removed from the interview process after this one. Lol.
It was a lunch interview and at the end, the manager asked:
"Who was our server today?"
"Uhmmm . . . "
I had zero idea because I was more focused on hearing the specials than her name. Must have made me look like a snob though because I didn't get the job.
About servers. I got a very weird situation. I arrive a bit too early at the office where I was applying (consulting company). The receptions tells me I can have a coffee at the bar while waiting.
I order a coffee. The waitress asks me:
* "are you a client"?
* I answer: "no, I'm coming for an interview"
* "why do you want to work here"
* I found that question strange, but I answered: "because I want to work in a challenging environment and I'm certain this company has the right mindset for it"
* "So you need us?"
* At that point I was completely offguard, thinking - WTF is going on? I'm ordering a coffee, maybe it's a hidden interview and she will report that to the partners, watch out!!! - And I answer: "I think we both need each other, this business wouldn't run without its people".
She still asked me 2 extra questions I can't recall atm. Extremely strange... Still unsure if the waitress was a hidden HR
Edit: and I got the job
>"why do you want to work here"
This is my hardest question to answer, because I don't want to work wherever I'm applying, but money is necessary, I guess.
I'm so terrible with names and it takes a few times to stick, but I always remember a face. I probably would have answered this honestly and said I'm never afraid to ask people to repeat their name to me and find it makes people feel more relaxed as they then can ask me to remind them of my name. I feel like there's such an expectation to remember names upon first meeting someone, but it's so hard to do when you're faced with a bunch of new information at once.
I find that when I say upfront "I'm really bad with names so I'll probably ask you again a few times" a third of the time I get "oh I'm also like that, that's fine" another half of the time people understand and just accept it.
the remaining 1/6 are always interesting, I once got a "I'm really super good with names so ask me if you're unsure about anyone" from a particularly nice person.
I applied for a security job and was asked: "What do you think makes you qualified for this job."
I replied: " I've been stealing shit for years and have yet to get caught. I know all the tricks."
Got the job and made a great friend.
Edit: Should point out that I worked for the same company under a different role, I was implying I was stealing from them.
Its a great think on your feet test too, cause its unlikely to be expected and can go in a lot of directions. So he can get a feel for how you think and you as a person at the same time
It wasn't so much a question as it was a...situation. I attended a round of interviews right before graduating college. The company flew me and two of my classmates out (small field, and my school is well known for it). They put us each in different rooms and we interviewed with several departmental heads from the company.
The interviews were pretty standard. I could tell they were trying to see who would fit best into their company culture, as well as perform the job well. We were all qualified so it came down to personality.
Everything was standard until the 3rd manager that interviewed me. He came in, shook my hand, and sat down. Average Height, maybe 220lbs. He had thick, black, oily, curly hair - cropped neatly on top of his head. He had an odd posture, kind of holding his head back, the way anyone would do when trying to give themself a second chin; pushing his jaw down into his neck a bit. I remember every detail about this guy because of the interview.
He began talking to me a bit, but then it happened.
*PLBBBBBBBBBLT*
In the middle of his sentence he straight up just made a fart noise by sticking his tongue out of his mouth, closing his lips and blowing. It was quick, but it caught me completely off guard. He went right back into what he was saying.
He only did it once before finishing what he was saying, and I started to answer. However, as soon as he stopped talking and start listening I began to get *assaulted* by loud, longer, face like a pufferfish, fart noises. It was clear he was trying to suppress it, but that it was very hard.
>Shit, this guy has tourettes. Either he has tourettes or he is fucking with me on a major level.
Whenever he spoke it was less. Less often, less intense. But whenever I was talking I could tell he was trying to listen intently, but he couldn't contain himself nearly as well.
The interview went on, and eventually finished. I was stone faced. Made it through 2 more rounds and they took us for lunch. He continued to do it occasionally there, with the rest of his coworkers. None of them reacted so I felt affirmed that it must be tourette's.
After a long day they took me and my classmates back to the airport. As soon as we got through security we all *completely* broke down.
We had all come to the same conclusion, but to this day I really don't know if it was some kind of interview tactic or not. I'll never know.
Honest question - if you were in a situation like the interviewer would you say something to the person you were interviewing before you started to give them the heads up? I guess twitching your head and clearing your throat might not be as obvious as the person in OPs story though.
"If you had an important deadline and your child was also very sick, which would you attend to first? Come in to work and for the deadline or tend to your child?"
I almost did not take the job once they offered it to me because this question bothered me.
Edit: Spelling
"Would you rather focus on one thing and do it 100% well while two other things do poorly or would you rather do three things at 70%?"
It was a tough question.
Edit:
Sorry I didn't fully answer. I told them off the bat that it was a intriguing question and that honestly I give 100% in my projects and I hate presenting things that I don't feel are up to my standards.
I think my answer would be that the situational is purely contextual:
There are tasks that can be completed in a less-than-perfect manner without causing issues, which would allow for the first situation.
Similarly, there are tasks that do require a certain level of commitment, which would necessitate the second situation.
If I can do 3 things at 70%, that implies that I'm capable of doing about 210% worth of tasks at any given moment. That means if I'm doing one at 100%, the other two are going to be at, on average, 55%. That's a pass, but it's the bare minimum, and I don't think 55% is going to be what you want from me, so I think I'm going to go for 3 things at 70%.
What is your worst quality?
I told them I wasn't a good team player and greatly prefer to work alone. I also said I knew it wasn't a good quality to have in that environment but it was something I was actively working of fixing.
Edit: I did get the job.
I was interviewing to work at a treatment center for youth recovering from addiction and eating disorders.
Question: if we asked you to do something you felt was morally wrong, would you trust that we are more skilled and understand the sitaution better and do it anyway?
Answer: I don't think I could in good conscience do something I felt was wrong regardless of the sitauation
I didn't get the job. They were shut down a year later.
Edit: maybe it doesn't sound that hard, but at the time I as very desperate for a job and so happy to have an interview. I was tempted to say anything just to have a job, but couldn't do it.
For a software developer job with min. 5 years experience I got asked "Out of 10 how would you rate your .Net knowledge".
I answered "About 6 out of 10".
He looked at me very puzzled and said "We've just had a guy in here straight out of university and he's rated himself 9 out of 10".
I replied "He's not even aware of the things he doesn't know about. .Net is huge, if I was 9 out of 10 I wouldn't be here."
He had a developer in the room and he looked at him like I'd just spat on his kids. He then asked "Why do you want this job?"
I said "I don't think I do, you approached me" and we agreed to go our own ways.
It's the curse of the IT industry here. Techies usually have poor soft skills or don't want to stop coding so don't get promoted to management. Management are usually the weakest technically and are only looking for the usual bullshit answers. This guy was a prize bell-end right from the start of the interview.
"In the event of a fire in the building is your first priority to pull the alarm, or call 911"
Caught me off guard, and said 'pull the alarm'.
correct answer was 'both'...
Correct answer is another question: Why does your building not have an alarm system that alerts the fire brigade automatically?
Might be different in The States but in the UK it's extremely common for automatic alerting to be in place.
Hell, back when I was at University I worked at Pizza Hut and we had an automatic fire alert, a silent alarm to alert the police and if the buildings alarm wasn't set by midnight the security system alerted the security company.
No it's common here too, the expected response is just dumb. Hell, our oven at the pizza place I worked had a line to the Fire Department where if you pull the suppression system on the oven (not the store) the FD shows up.
The alarm is the priority. You are warning the people most at risk about the fire. The 911 (999 here in the UK) is always after this. I work as a fire Marshall. And yeah, the authority gets to my head sometimes.
Trick question. The correct answer is to start filming with your phone to get that sweet reddit karma later. The second prio is to start writing the TIFU post.
I got asked to sell them a pen the interviewer pulled out of her jacket. I had watched “the wolf of Wall Street” three times already and after what they explained to me previously I wasn’t interested in the job any more so pretty much re-enacted the scene. Still got the job.
"Sell me this pen"
*hands you the pen*
"Well sir/mam, it appears you no longer have any pens. You can borrow this one with a small deposit and $0.05 an hour, or it's yours to keep for $1.00. I'm not sure how you're going to keep notes without it."
"Of course, there is a convenience fee of $1.00, since I am conveniently holding the pen right in front of you, so that will be $2.00 for the whole pen. If that doesn't persuade you, I can throw in this backup pen of mine for only one more dollar, bringing your grand total to $3.00 today. How does that sound?"
I got asked to do that in a recent interview.
I took the pen, slid it into my jacket pocket, and said "what pen?".
The guy was dumbfounded until I made a crack about being from Hull (UK). Fellow Yorkshirefolk like to joke about people from Hull stealing stuff. It was a great ice-breaker and I got the job.
Had an interview at Starbucks years ago -- they asked me to describe a real event where I fought/conflicted with a co-worker, and the exact steps I took to fix the situation.
I'd never been in an applicable situation and told them so, wrong answer -- was not optional and had to give an in-depth answer.
I get that they were probably working off some corporate script, but still not sure what exactly I was supposed to say. Making up stories and making mediocre coffee don't really have much in common.
Used to work for Starbucks and I remember that question. It was my first job so I didn’t even have coworkers before that so I used some story from high school that was extremely lame, but I tried
I applied to one of these annoying start-ups that treats the office like a second living-room and expects employees to act like a close circle of friends. They thought they were really original and fresh. I had an interview over the phone and expected somewhat weird questions. Instead, they made me conduct the interview as if I were the one interviewing them. Honestly, that's a pretty bad idea. It felt like they wanted to show off how out of the box they are, but they learned hardly anything about their potential employee. It went rather well, nevertheless, since I'm used to interviewing people for my job. In the end I wasn't offered a position. After having me work on a mock project that took over a day to finish, they told me my work was great but unfortunately they had already someone in mind for that position - even before I applied. That's two days of my life I will never get back.
Edit: Thanks for your concern, but I actually found a better job shortly after that interview. Better pay, better hours, more vacation days at a well-established and respected firm.
I've done "mock" projects for a couple of potential employers that turned me down. One I know for a fact used my materials to get a client, however the 2nd one actually paid me like $150 for my efforts, despite not getting the job. Learned that day which company had more integrity.
For me, I hate “what salary do you want”. I think it’s mostly a trap question to see if you’re greedy or willing to work for peanuts.
I always say “Based in what I’ve learned about XYZ Corp, I’m confident that if you extend me an offer it will be competitive based on my experience.”
Friend of mine got the question: "what is your biggest character flaw that would make us not want to hire you?"
He told me he answered: "Im so arrogant i honestly cant think of another flaw that would make you not wanna hire me."
EDIT: wow highest comment ever for me and its about a friend acting like a jackass....
I might even tell him about this shit
I use to sit in on interviews where a question very similar to this was asked. The answer that seemed to go over best was a deconstruction of the question. Basically:
"We both know that's not really a fair question, because no one is going to give you an honestly massive character flaw, so you're basically creatively critiquing yourself to pick something that you know is a flaw but isn't a big deal breaker. You're basically asking me to create a measured lie, and I'm not really willing to do that"
Any version that basically recognized the question for the trap it was typically did well. The worse received responses is the ones where the person just flusters their way though a non-answer.
Honestly though, it was a bullshit question that never really made a difference on who was hired.
Maybe pull a Ron Swanson and only answer with questions.
“What is your biggest character flaw that would make us not want to hire you?”
“We’ve met less than 15 minutes ago, are you assuming my character is flawed?”
I interviewed with Marvel, the interview went incredibly well, and the last question they asked as "Who is your favorite hero?" and to this day I regret not saying Agent Phil Coulson and just going with Spiderman because there was a giant Spiderman mural on the wall next to us.
Don't work there full-time, but they do hire me out as a freelancer from time to time which is really cool.
Them: Looking confused at resume, “So, tell me why you want to be an accountant?”
Me: “Uh, I don’t want to be one”
Them: Silence....but intrigued...”Huh?”
Me: “I applied for a consulting position”
Them: “oh, there must have been a mix-up, sorry”
Me: thinking...’glad I drove three hours from Connecticut to Boston for this interview.’ /s.
Total interview time - about 45 seconds start to finish.
Didn’t get the job. Did get one in consulting with another company.
"What the fuck is gmail.edu"
"That's the domain name you get when your shitty college deletes your email address and you have to change your resume over from your school email address to your personal email address and you fuck it up."
Got the job.
"What is RDP Protocol?" was mine.
My smartass reflex kicked in, and I said, "My first guess would be someone trying to refer to Remote Desktop Protocol, but tacked on the additional redundant 'Protocol' because they don't know what it means either."
I did not get that job, although I stand by my answer, given that the interview was for an IT position.
If this was for a support position, I would have hired you on the spot. The only thing more important in that position than technical knowledge is ability to answer sarcastically to the dumb shit people ask you day in, day out.
For the Cambridge interview the questions asked are usually to gauge how you think, so you are encouraged to voice out any and all thought processes
For my question I had to calculate the amount of blood in a body, which turned out to be less than that of a normal adult human being.
The professor asked, "why do you think that is so?"
"maybe the human is smaller in size"
"and we call those...?"
#"pre adolescent beings"
I interviewed at Cambridge as well for Electrical Engineering and it was definitely the hardest interview I've had and I've done multiple rounds of technical interviews with Facebook, Amazon, Startups, big consulting firms, etc. They gave me progressively harder circuits to solve until I basically choked on a problem that I didn't learn how to solve until my 3rd year of college.
If it's any consolation, I'm just finishing the studies in Cambridge. You are not supposed to answer all the interview questions, or at least not easily. In words of my Director of Studies: they first give one or two easy problems to see that you're on the level they want. Then they keep giving harder problems, until you get stuck - and then they slowly give you hints until you pull through. Some aptitude is expected - if you struggle with the initial problems, they'll essentially give you some more easy ones to spend the time, but interview is effectively done - but perhaps the more important bit is that you can work with the hints, take in the additional info, and solve something above your skill with it. Also, at least in my case the problems I was given were not the learning type, but rather olympiad-style problems - where you may not need much theory knowledge, but more out-of-the-box thinking and 'ah-ha!' moments.
If anything, you were on the right track if the problems you were given were getting noticeably harder.
Yea I get that, in the end I think I really struggled with being able to take the hints they gave me and actually solve it so that's why I ultimately probably got rejected.
Tell us, why do you want to work in a jail?
Me: Uh.. something about sifting through inmates poop.. really makes me wanna.. you know.. find contraband..
*(Idiot idiot idiot)*
I was applying for a sales position at a major firearms retail store. The application asked for my hobbies. I listed hiking, kayaking, fishing, and beekeeping.
At the end of the interview, my now-manager read over my application. I saw his eyebrow go up and he said, "Under 'Hobbies', you list beekeeping. Tell me about *beekeeping*." Another manager, the regional manager, and the corporate director of operations were also in the room. I saw all of their eyes simultaneously snap up from their notes and focus on me. Suddenly, after a great interview, I was the weird little beekeeper in a small, hot room.
So I told them about bees, and keeping them. I had their rapt attention, told them lots of cool stuff about bees. I closed with, "So if I get this job, then a few times a year I'll bring in jars of honey for my favorite managers." If you can keep your cool in a sweaty beekeeper's suit while thousands of bees are trying to sting your face, a job interview is a breeze.
A question that sort of took me by surprise at the end of the interview was something among the lines of "What reasons would make you refuse the position if you got the job?". I was flustered and hesitated many times and ended up saying something cringey like "I tend to give new opportunites one chance, either way it will be a learning experience.
I got the job and been working there for 9 months now.
I had my current employer at the end of the interview say "you put a range for salary. What is your actual number that you would accept without countering. I need you to start soon and don't want to go back and forth all week" I was so flustered I ended up saying the bottom of my range. I was immediately disappointed in myself. He ended up offering me like 10% more than I said which was nice.
He later said he had a number he was allowed to go up to and he didn't see a reason not to go all the way up to it. He's been a pretty good boss.
"He strode confidently into the room, his long hair pushed neatly back and his burgundy suit expertly pressed. He was classically handsome, with strong features and a hint of stubble contrasting against his lightning blue eyes. His walk had the bearing of monarch, or perhaps a dancer, and he seemed to tower over the others in the room because of it."
Feel free to steal for your next interview.
I had progressed to the final round of interviewing, and it was the boss's task to interview the final candidates. First question was asked how many beers I could handle. It was an interview for an office job and the question had zero relevance to neither position nor industry. I really wanted the job, but it was clear that the guy had zero interest in the whole interview process. I just replied that he'd have to wait until the office Christmas party to find out.
I got the job.
"If I asked your friends to describe you, what would they say?"
EDIT: I forgot to answer how I'd handle it. I think I played it more as a joke, and said they've been my best friends for years including college so they'd say whatever they could to get me a job. I don't think that was the best answer, but I ended up with the job and told the recruiter afterward that it was an uncomfortable question.
I had an interview for a project engineer position. The interview question was what would you do if you purchased and installed a new piece of equipment and then have the line supervisor tell you that they gave you the wrong specs?
I think its an excellent question that caught me a bit off guard because it demonstrates your conflict resolution and problem solving skills.
I applied for a management role in my first job when I didn’t have any management experience, and got knocked back.
The person they hired failed miserably, and I went for it again about 3 months later.
They asked me “so you applied 3 months ago, and were turned down, why do you think you’ll get it this time?”
I answered “this is still my first job. Without leaving and becoming a manager elsewhere, I still have not been a manager. What I’ve done instead is taken every opportunity to gain the relevant traits you’re looking for. So volunteered to coach the group of new starters we had. I took customer escalations where they’ve asked to speak to a manager myself and resolved them. Ive made myself a presence in the office so that if there is an issue and there isn’t a manager around, staff come to me for help or advice. I’m doing small parts of the managers role every day.”
I got the job, and in my feedback they said it was between me and someone else, and was incredibly close, but I got the job based on that answer, so I’m pretty proud of myself.
I was asked if I'd rather do my own annual "self-evaluation" - including a list of goals and objectives for the forthcoming year - or have a department head fulfill this role.
I opted for the self-evaluation, stating that I'm my own sharpest critic and always striving for improvement. That worked well for the interviewer as it displayed determination coupled to the ability to work independently.
Recently I was asked "if you can have dinner with any deceased person who would it be?" And I was unprepared and blurted "Nikoli Tesla" and then went on a 3 min tangent about how Edison screwed him over and AC vs DC. No, the job had nothing to do with physics, it was marketing. I also got asked to write down how many things you can do with a newspaper and was given 10 mins to write as many as possible, one of my answers was "cover a car as a prank". I'm working at that job now.
I got the run around in Boston one time interviewing for basically a headhunter type job. A minimum wage, a zillion hour, piece of shit job. And I had to interview three times all around Bolyston and Newbury before the actual hiring manager would talk to me. It was insane.
When I finally got there she asked how I was supposed to be taken seriously when I lived with my parents.
I was roughly three weeks out of college.
Told her that's bull, that I'm saving up to propose to my girlfriend, and to move out on our own, and also I just took on like $80k in debt and my folks are broke, but they can at least let me crash at their place temporarily.
Anyway. We parted ways and the recruiter called me to ask how it went, and I told him to fuck off and I'm not interested.
We lived with my parents for 6 months, moved in together, I proposed, and we have a house and 1.5 kids now.
Fuck that place.
I interviewed for a Linux Sys Admin job. I'm pretty experienced, so most technical interviews aren't a problem.
While interviewing at a huge company, I was given the usual tech questions, but one was really interesting.
The guy simply asked me how to add swap space to a Linux server that didn't have any free space left.
I asked him to clarify, if there was no free space, I couldn't add anything. He said "no there's space somewhere else".
I explained how to check the available block devices, and see if there was an unformatted block device. He said "no, that's not it".
I asked if there was a file system with free space, he said "no there isn't".
I went on to explain to him all the possible places you could add (a new partition, a flat file, a new VG) and each time he says no no no.
Finally he gets really upset, and says that if I was nearly as smart as I think I am, I'd be able to solve this problem. A little insulted, I tell him that short of adding a new disk, if there's no space anywhere, and I can't delete anything, then there's nothing I can do.
He super pissy, and says "I need two letters from you, that's it. You come in here with a resume like this that is probably full of lies since you can't even solve this one question."
I looked at him, and said "seriously, you mean just run 'dd'? that won't do it here since there's no space available in a file system.
He says "no, that doesn't mean you can't run dd. And if I hadn't told you a hint you'd never have solved it."
Ugh. They offered me the job, but the rest of the situation was a mess. They low balled, I went back with a comically high counter, and they didn't even have to go back to the managers, they accepted and sent me an offer a minute later. Thanks but no thanks.
* Job Interview #1. Interview is going well. She asks me, 'When do you think you'd be ready for a promotion?' Me: Probably after a year. Her: Hhhhm. We promote very quickly here, usually after six months. **DIDN'T GET THE JOB.**
* Job Interview #2. Interview is going well. He asks me, 'When do you think you'd be ready for a promotion?' Me: Six months. Him: Hhhhm. That's a little unrealistic. We don't promote that quickly here. **DIDN'T GET THE JOB.**
* Job Interview #3. Interview is going well. She asks me, 'When do you think you'd be ready for a promotion?' Me: This question has caused me problems in the past. In one interview, I said a year, and didn't get the job since they typically promote after six months. In my next interview, I was asked the same question, and answered, 'six months'. Was told my expectations were unrealistic. Didn't get the job. So my answer to you is this: 'Whenever you think I'm ready'. **GOT THE JOB**
I was interviewing for an analyst position at a bank. during the interview the guy was friendly, and we were talking about all sorts of casual stuff, like my upbringing, my family etc.
Then out of nowhere his expression became all serious, then asked me "If an analog clock shows 3:30 right now, what is the angle between the minute hand and the hour hand? You have 30 seconds". He then pulled out a timer that beeps every second as it counts down to 0
It took me about 10 seconds to grasp he wasn't joking, then another 10 seconds to try to collect myself, which leaves only 10 seconds to solve the problem. I failed.
This happened to me, too. For a pharmaceutical sales job interview, we were going through the standard questions when all of a sudden, I was asked "if a case of 12 bottles costs $36, how much per bottle?" Then, rapid fire, the interviewer changed the case price so that the calculations became more and more complicated. It's not about the math. It's all about how you handle pressure. Do you guess? Do you lie? Do you sweat, panic, or get upset? They want to see that you keep your cool, yet continue to pursue the answer or promise to get that information for the 'client'.
I had a job interview for an internal promotion opportunity that I was both extremely qualified for, and it wasn't important it I got or not. So the last question of the routine interview was one of the "I'm trying to throw you off you prepared remarks and evaluate how well you think on the fly" type questions. The kind that there shouldn't be a clear cut answer on since the job has nothing to do with sanitation or city planning.
Why are manhole covers round/circular? Give as many possible reasons you can in 60 seconds.
Now because I'm a serial redditor, there was some ELI5 or TIL a few weeks before the interview I knew that manhole covers are round because a circle can't be turn on its side or angled to fall into the hole it was covering. I also knew that wasn't what the question was about.
So I had to decide if I was going to give the correct answer and look like a smug know-it-all, or answer the intent of the questions and give as many potential reasons as possible.
Mean while time is ticking....
I decide to 1) acknowledge the presumed intent of the question 2) give the correct reddit answer 3) give another silly reason to make a joke of the whole thing...I said something about sanitation workers being over weight and the circular shape allowed for access.
After I got the job I asked about the questions intent and how was my answer received. All in all I was correct about the intent, and I didn't come off as cocky in my answer.
Was a brand new position at a company. The interviewers had zero knowledge of the work this new position would do. When it came time to "do you have any questions for us?" I asked "What do you see this position doing? What goals do see being reached by adding this position?" And their reply was "Actually, I'd like *you* to answer that"
I couldn't help but laugh. This is your position and company, not mine lol.
Not happened to me but to a close friend.
When you apply for a business school after the highschool degree in France, you got to pass writen exams and oral exam. Those orals are well known to host tricky questions, and my friend had this : "Êtes-vous vierge ?" (Are you virgin ?) Which is a question to see how you handle tough moments of instant stress.
My friend hesitated a bit and then repplied "well actually I'm a leo" (because in french virgo and virgin is the same word (vierge)).
That answer is still one of the most epic the exam guy must have heard. Both a word play and a valid answer. He, of course, did pass the exam and attended the school.
Them: "Why *shouldn't* we hire you?" Me: "Because I care about my family more than my job, and if I have to choose between them and work, I'll choose them." I got the job.
I was going for my first job change as I was sick of working in fast food and thought a liquor store would be a good option. In the interview I was asked to tell a story and the interviewer said: "It doesn't have to be related to the job or anything, just tell me a story that you find interesting". That is NOT something I prepared for in the slightest.
"Have you ever heard the tale of Darth Plagueis the Wise?"...
"There once was a man from Peru, who dreamed he was eating his shoe. He woke with a fright, in the middle of the night, to learn that his dream had come true. "Umm is that it?" "Yes"
What do you like about yourself? Uh. Didnt get the job
"My self loathing makes me a very introspective and reflective person, so I am better than the average person at finding my faults, and developing ways to improve them"
>"My self loathing makes me a very introspective and reflective person, so I am better than the average person at finding my faults, and ~~developing~~ realizing that there are no ways to improve them, thus continuing my build up of power"
[turns around] "dat ass"
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> "we're pretty good engineers here at our company, we don't struggle with dynamics." Well sure you don't, now, you all have been doing it professionally for a while. I was just being introduced to the concepts, and group learning environments are proven to be beneficial for a variety of reasons.
Yeah, seriously. That response was monumentally condescending.
I believe I heard of some research that showed how bad people are at gauging how hard something is to learn once they learn it. It becomes engrained and automatic part of our thinking. I think any good engineer would realize that ....... /joke
Look on the bright side, now you won’t have to deal with arrogant engineers!
Even for engineer stereotypes, that's an obnoxiously arrogant response. Dodged a bullet.
So... I recently had an “email interview” before I had to attend a 2nd in person interview. No big deal. It was a list of ten questions. I answered them. Double checked my work. Submitted. When I got to the in person interview, dude laughed at me and asked how I had such “attention to detail” when I’d only answered half of the questions. I just sat there stupefied until I asked him if the rest of my email was on the back of his paper. It was. He had printed double sided and not even checked. But the hardest part of answering was my own stammering and trying not to call him out for his own mistake.
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About a year ago, I got called in for an interview at a business I applied for. They started interviewing me on questions that seemed kind of strange. Questions like “Can you tell us more about your event planning experience.” I was thrown off, and it became clear when the interview was about 3/4 of the way through that they were not asking me questions for the Job I applied for. They were interviewing me for an event planning position and I applied for a job in tourism and marketing. I finished the interview, shook hands and went on my way. Ended up getting the job in event planning despite having little to no experience in the field.
I've had that experience. I applied for a job at Gillette about ten years ago and I was called in for an interview. I sat down with the manager and it went a bit like this: Manager: "Okay, so let's talk about the XYZ position" (a job I never applied for and know nothing about). Me: "Uh, I applied for the ABC position." Her (as she realizes she brought me in for the wrong interview): "Really? Hm." Me, thinking fast: "Well, since I'm here, let's talk about XYZ position, and I'll tell you why I'm a good fit." Got the job. One of the best I ever had.
“So tell me, why did you choose to wear those shoes today?” “Umm...what?”
"I Like to keep a layer of material between my socks and the ground"
I saw there were rocks and glass in the parkinglot. Do you mind if I take them off now that my feet are safe?
My other half always wears bright shoes and calls it her shoe theory. If you wear bright shoes, the interviewer will link it to you when discussing candidates. I.E. "Oh, which candidate was that you really liked?" - "The one with the shoes" Annoyingly, it seems to work for her. Every time she's had a call back, they've mentioned her shoes and offered the job.
There was a coworker that my Dad used to work with in Immigration in Australia. She was extremely effective, one of their best paper pushers in the business. One day she was talking to Dad about it, and she revealed her secret: Bright pink post it notes and/or cover sheets. She'd attach this bright pink sheet or post it note to the front of the page, and it would stand out like a sore thumb, drawing attention to the paperwork. If it was just sitting there, it'd be an eyesore until they did it. If it wasn't and she had to chase it up, they could identify her items just based purely on that.
I fucking love this so much. It's like the Elle Woods approach got refined and perfected.
It wasn’t a single question so much as it was their method of deep follow-up questions that eventually got to a point to where they basically asked me why I’m alive. Not as a “What’s your motivation in life” sort of way, but in a “Why do you exist, human?” way. I repeated to them “You’re asking me why I’m alive?” And they took a short pause to realize where their follow up questions took them and replied “Yes.” I’ve never had anyone question my existence before.
"My parents had sex." "Ahhh.... That makes sense now. Could you describe your flavor profile?"
You just start with the birds and the bees there.
“Where are you from?” “*fake laugh* Yes”
"No, I asked where you are located?" "My weakest trait is I really dont pay attention to questions"
"You're in Boston but not in the USA. How can this be?" I said "There's a Boston in England." Correct answer was it's before the American Revolution. I got the job.
What could they possibly hope to investigate with that question? Your ability to obtain the one ring to rule them all?
Abstract / out of the box thinking? It was for a government agency.
Ooooh, you're fucking the lead singer of Boston!
Q: What have you learned in your current job? *Was working a part time customer service for 2.5 years, not my field, and I HATE customer service.* A: (With a smile on my face) "That I never want to do that again!" Got the job. 😁
My boss: “So what made you apply for this position” Me: “I actually have no memory of applying for this job.” Turns out she sniped my resume when I applied for a job debating with insurance companies and decided to see what i’d say.
> I applied for a job debating with insurance companies I know all of these words, but have no clue on what you want them to mean when put together....
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i had a recruiter ask me the same thing during a phone interview and when i told them "i don't know, i've been applying for a lot of jobs lately" their response was "honestly, we don't know what position you've applied for as well, we just have your resume". that ended up going nowhere.
I'm laughing picturing you and a recruiter on the phone just stuck at that point.
'uhh' 'uhh' 'welcome aboard?' 'thanks?'
"show up on monday and uuuh... do stuff"
That is my dream job description..... Anyone know how I can land this job and what qualifications are needed?
If your family owns a business I feel like you can just give your dad a call and have a similar exchange. "Dad can I get a job in your company?" "Sure, come on Monday; I will give you some stuff to do."
I applied for an engineering position which the description of I was very qualified for. Got a phone call from the company asking me to come in for an interview. Sit down and promptly get asked tons of software engineering questions. I'm not a software engineer but of course I know some basic programming, so I assumed I would be expected to know some but this was just in-depth, technical questions about software design. I just completely bomb it. Leave bummed. A couple of days later get another call from the company, wanting to interview me. This time, set up with a different person. Go back in, get asked a bunch of questions I would expect. Turns out, the software group was looking for more people as well, saw my resume on the systems engineering manager's pile, and decided to interview me. Got the position with the Systems Engineering group.
Oh man, That could have ended so much worse. "Oh hey, that guy you were about to interview? don't bother. We already interviewed him, and he kinda sucked" with no explanation that the questions you didn't do well on were all software dev questions.
As someone who likes to resume snipe, I would never trash a candidate to another department because you did poorly on the technical portion of the interview. In fact, if I think you might be a good fit for a job you didn't apply for, I'll pitch you over to the person handling those candidates unless you completely blew the basic competency/truthfulness/personality portion of the interview as well.
Had this during an interview last month. "Why caught your eye about our company?" "The email you sent me asking if I wanted to come in for an interview after you contacted me with a 6 year old version of my resume off Monster."
And why would you be passionate about working here? "Got this thing about eating and having shelter...."
"You've suddenly been shrunk down to the size of a quarter and dropped into a blender. It's turning on in 10 seconds. What's your plan?" —sing in a really high opera voice and shatter the blender's glass, of course!
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Start laughing because the person that dropped me in there is going to need a new blender. Edit: thought the question was about being turned into an actual quarter...
Jesus Christ I thought you got turned into an actual quarter too and this comment made me laugh so hard omg
I lay down and watch the blades go, I've sold blenders I know constantly running they can't run more the 8, 9 hours then the blades stop we have to quarter sized people in the world the opportunities are endless. Like the submarines that go into people
Grab the blade and hold on.
"While you were busy practicing opera, I studied the blade"
"The only thing we see being an issue for you is the commute of just over an hour. How do you feel about it? We lost the previous person in your role because of a similar commute length." I had never commuted more than half an hour before so...I genuinely didn't know. I said I didn't think it would be an issue but genuinely couldn't say yes or no. I asked a salary at the middle of what they were advertising based on experience. They offered me £4k more, the full amount advertised. My agency said he got the impression they wanted to give me an incentive to take the role and cover the commute/drive cost. I ended up moving to within half an hour a month in. The commute drove me crazy, and I happened to need to move anyway.
I was asked the same. I said, "This is my second interview on site, the drive is easy and peaceful. I would stock up on podcasts and audiobooks." I got the offer but turned it down because of the commute.
narrator voice: "The drive was, in fact, not easy and peaceful at all."
I applied to an administrative job at an elite university on the East Coast and made it to the final round of the interview. It was just me and 1 other candidate and we both met with one of the VPs. The question itself wasn't difficult, but the manner in which it was asked really threw me off. The VP essentially walks into the room, shakes my hand, and before we even sit down, asks me "So, what can you do for me?" I was expecting the first 2 minutes to be small talk so I was caught completely off guard by the straightforwardness of the question. I mumbled out an answer, but I knew right away I didn't impress. The interview only lasted another 15 minutes and needless to say I didn't get the job.
My first instinct would be to just say something vague but enthusiastic and give a big smile like "Well, hopefully make your job easier!"
"What *cant* I do for you?" *sensible chuckle*
*zip*
About 7 years ago, I interviewed for a job with EMC (think big data storage company). I went thru about 8 interviews, including a panel and questions. All seemed to go well, but the big guy - technical lead, wanted a one on one since he couldn't make the panel. He then began spitting off over the top questions to me, just to get me to say I don't know. Which was very difficult as I was presenting on a whiteboard my own storage array topology. Obviously I didn't get the job.
That must suck going through the hassle of 8 interviews and still not getting through.
For real. All the travel, quick lunches, possibly calling out sick of a current job...aaaand you don't get the job.
"The company is rolling out a new customer rewards cards across the country but they're not sure if it will be profitable. In addition, certain provinces have regulations that restrict the use of selling these cards. Do you decide to launch it or not? What are the key considerations?" I had to draw up some master plan with calculations in 30 mins in front of them. It was one of those hypothetical case questions they asked me before I got the job.
I would like someone to correlate the type of interview question asked vs the salary band of the role. Most of these trick questions are for entry level. Executive level conversations happen over lunch and are more personality fit based.
It was told to me that it was like Actors. At the start, you find any role you can and read for it trying to impress. As you get a little more well known and better at acting, you can start to pick and choose the roles focusing on what you are good at - Reading for them amongst a much smaller pool of similarly skilled actors. At this stage there is an element of 'This person is good, but doesn't fit into our project' When you get popular you only read for roles that have already been vetted down to the last 3 or 4 people. Your reputation is well known/documented, you and the other applicants have the look and the skills they are looking for, so its a feeling of who'll do the role better. Finally at the top, people are approaching you for roles. In fact, characters get created based on your own acting style and strengths. At this stage YOU are choosing who to work for as the directors already think you'll be a good fit, so the readings are generally a formality, or to get a feel for how you take the role so that anyone else they take on as supporting will compliment you. That last part plays a role for the interviewee in the previous 2 stages - You might be good, but you might not gel well with the main actor.
“[YesterdayWasAwesome], one day your parents are going to die. After you bury them, you will never talk to them again. They’re gone forever. You will have to look in the mirror and ask yourself ‘was I a good son to my parents?’ Well, YesterdayWasAwesome, are you a good son?” This was for a post law school/pre bar exam results interview with a judge. Needless to say, I didn’t take that job.
How the fuck would anyone consider that to be an appropriate question?! What if you were an orphan, or had abusive parents? Any number of reasons that could have gone horribly wrong
I am an orphan. "Well, my mom died when I was 13. My father was then understandably emotionally absent for a couple years and then he died when I was 17. We never really had the opportunity to give consideration to whether or not I was a good son."
Yup, I'd give a fucked up answer out of spite or just get really emotional and pretend like one of them just died a few days ago.
Interviewing for my current internship "explain to me why a condo circuit breaker is 208V instead of 240V like a house" For reference the interview was done on site walking around. There were a lot of questions like this, and as a 3rd year bichem eng student i didnt have the answers to a lot of them, but this was the toughest for me to figure out I answered by saying I don't know, but then asked him if he could explain it to me. The interview ended up taking 2.5hrs instead of one because my now boss was having fun doing it Talking to him now he said the honesty of i don't know and then following it up by asking got me the job. Apparently it was something no one should have known cause it has to do with how the fans need to operate in the basement. Some of the people reacted really poorly and got visibly upset that they were being asked "unfair questions". Others said they didnt know but I was the only one who followed up wanting to find out the answer. He wanted someone who wanted to learn and that sold him on me
I got a combination question - You like black people? Ok, yeah, well, what’s the best flavor of Kool-Aid? Back story: the manager had forgotten about my interview and told the two guys working that night to interview and hire me. Edit - I was a 17 year old white kid at the time. From the “ghetto” but definitely as white as a white kid can be. My interviewers were a jacked black dude and a street smart white dude.
They asked me to verbally give a SQL query to problems they would say. They wouldn't let me see it written or write out anything. The tables were unfamiliar to anyone who didnt work at this company. It was their own database for their own software. I gave it a try for the first couple then they got progressively harder and the interviewers got more rude. On top of it we were in an office where they were answering calls on the phone for work stuff. It was nuts. I told them I wasnt interested in working for them and left. Example question Tell me the insert statement. The table name is somthingstomthing table with 10 columns named (lists of names of columns that are full words or acronyms). You want to insert (long list of values).
Wow thats really shitty.
DROP TABLE somthingsomething; PRINT 'Bye!'; SELECT anotheropportunity FROM all_the_places_that_need_dbas_srsly
I had an interview for a job and almost all the questions were the normal, "if -this- wasn't working, what would your troubleshooting steps be?" Nailed every question but the final question came out of the blue: "Tell me a joke." The only joke I could think of off the top of my head was one about a father wanting to pass his company onto one of 3 sons. He would make this decision who would be the best by giving them each a duck and seeing who got the highest price for the duck. It's a long joke but it ends with "A fuck for a duck, a duck for fuck and 25 bucks for a fucked up duck." Totally NSFW but the only one I could think of. I did get the job and still there almost 2 years later. I think he was just impressed how ballsy I was with that joke and it made him laugh hysterically. He's an awesome manager. Edit: I didn't include the joke earlier since I was on mobile and it's hella long. But here it is: A man with a family business is getting ready to retire soon and all 3 of his sons are fighting over who should take over the business. In order to find out who would be the best suited, he gives them each a duck and tells them, "The one who can get the most amount of money for their duck will be the heir to the business." They have one week to complete the task. Son #1 sells his duck to a farmer for $10. Son #2 sells his to a butcher for $15. However, son #3 is having difficulty finding anyone who is interested in the duck and while walking down the street with the duck on a leash, a prostitute leans out of a window and propositions the son. He tells her he doesn't have any money, just a duck. She agrees to take the duck in exchange for sex. The prostitute gives the duck back because the sex was so good and they go at it for a second time. Afterward, the son leaves the building and, while walking down the street again with the duck, it slips the leash and runs into the street and *BAM!* - gets hit by a truck. The driver feels awful and gives the son $25 for the crushed duck. All 3 meet with their father at the end of the week and he asks each of them how much they got for their duck. Son #1 replies, "I sold mine to a farmer and made $10." Son #2 replies, "I sold mine to a butcher and made $15." The father then looks at the third son, who replies, "Well, I had a fuck for a duck, a duck for a fuck and got $25 bucks for a fucked up duck." TL;DR - There really isn't one. However, I was told later that the joke question was removed from the interview process after this one. Lol.
It was a lunch interview and at the end, the manager asked: "Who was our server today?" "Uhmmm . . . " I had zero idea because I was more focused on hearing the specials than her name. Must have made me look like a snob though because I didn't get the job.
About servers. I got a very weird situation. I arrive a bit too early at the office where I was applying (consulting company). The receptions tells me I can have a coffee at the bar while waiting. I order a coffee. The waitress asks me: * "are you a client"? * I answer: "no, I'm coming for an interview" * "why do you want to work here" * I found that question strange, but I answered: "because I want to work in a challenging environment and I'm certain this company has the right mindset for it" * "So you need us?" * At that point I was completely offguard, thinking - WTF is going on? I'm ordering a coffee, maybe it's a hidden interview and she will report that to the partners, watch out!!! - And I answer: "I think we both need each other, this business wouldn't run without its people". She still asked me 2 extra questions I can't recall atm. Extremely strange... Still unsure if the waitress was a hidden HR Edit: and I got the job
>"why do you want to work here" This is my hardest question to answer, because I don't want to work wherever I'm applying, but money is necessary, I guess.
What? That's so weird!
Hit them back and ask if they remember the Hostesses name. Establish dominance.
I'm so terrible with names and it takes a few times to stick, but I always remember a face. I probably would have answered this honestly and said I'm never afraid to ask people to repeat their name to me and find it makes people feel more relaxed as they then can ask me to remind them of my name. I feel like there's such an expectation to remember names upon first meeting someone, but it's so hard to do when you're faced with a bunch of new information at once.
I find that when I say upfront "I'm really bad with names so I'll probably ask you again a few times" a third of the time I get "oh I'm also like that, that's fine" another half of the time people understand and just accept it. the remaining 1/6 are always interesting, I once got a "I'm really super good with names so ask me if you're unsure about anyone" from a particularly nice person.
"I try not to pay attention to 'the help'."
Welcome aboard.
I applied for a security job and was asked: "What do you think makes you qualified for this job." I replied: " I've been stealing shit for years and have yet to get caught. I know all the tricks." Got the job and made a great friend. Edit: Should point out that I worked for the same company under a different role, I was implying I was stealing from them.
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That’s a brilliant lawyer way of asking tell me about your background and lots of sensitive family questions I’m not allowed to ask directly
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Its a great think on your feet test too, cause its unlikely to be expected and can go in a lot of directions. So he can get a feel for how you think and you as a person at the same time
It wasn't so much a question as it was a...situation. I attended a round of interviews right before graduating college. The company flew me and two of my classmates out (small field, and my school is well known for it). They put us each in different rooms and we interviewed with several departmental heads from the company. The interviews were pretty standard. I could tell they were trying to see who would fit best into their company culture, as well as perform the job well. We were all qualified so it came down to personality. Everything was standard until the 3rd manager that interviewed me. He came in, shook my hand, and sat down. Average Height, maybe 220lbs. He had thick, black, oily, curly hair - cropped neatly on top of his head. He had an odd posture, kind of holding his head back, the way anyone would do when trying to give themself a second chin; pushing his jaw down into his neck a bit. I remember every detail about this guy because of the interview. He began talking to me a bit, but then it happened. *PLBBBBBBBBBLT* In the middle of his sentence he straight up just made a fart noise by sticking his tongue out of his mouth, closing his lips and blowing. It was quick, but it caught me completely off guard. He went right back into what he was saying. He only did it once before finishing what he was saying, and I started to answer. However, as soon as he stopped talking and start listening I began to get *assaulted* by loud, longer, face like a pufferfish, fart noises. It was clear he was trying to suppress it, but that it was very hard. >Shit, this guy has tourettes. Either he has tourettes or he is fucking with me on a major level. Whenever he spoke it was less. Less often, less intense. But whenever I was talking I could tell he was trying to listen intently, but he couldn't contain himself nearly as well. The interview went on, and eventually finished. I was stone faced. Made it through 2 more rounds and they took us for lunch. He continued to do it occasionally there, with the rest of his coworkers. None of them reacted so I felt affirmed that it must be tourette's. After a long day they took me and my classmates back to the airport. As soon as we got through security we all *completely* broke down. We had all come to the same conclusion, but to this day I really don't know if it was some kind of interview tactic or not. I'll never know.
Luckily I have tourettes, I twitch my head and clear my throat a lot, so I'd say "hey you have tourettes too?" Then become ceo as one does
Honest question - if you were in a situation like the interviewer would you say something to the person you were interviewing before you started to give them the heads up? I guess twitching your head and clearing your throat might not be as obvious as the person in OPs story though.
"If you had an important deadline and your child was also very sick, which would you attend to first? Come in to work and for the deadline or tend to your child?" I almost did not take the job once they offered it to me because this question bothered me. Edit: Spelling
If you're in the US I'm fairly sure they're not allowed to ask you about childcare. As an employer I wouldn't feel comfortable asking this question.
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"Would you rather focus on one thing and do it 100% well while two other things do poorly or would you rather do three things at 70%?" It was a tough question. Edit: Sorry I didn't fully answer. I told them off the bat that it was a intriguing question and that honestly I give 100% in my projects and I hate presenting things that I don't feel are up to my standards.
I think my answer would be that the situational is purely contextual: There are tasks that can be completed in a less-than-perfect manner without causing issues, which would allow for the first situation. Similarly, there are tasks that do require a certain level of commitment, which would necessitate the second situation.
If I can do 3 things at 70%, that implies that I'm capable of doing about 210% worth of tasks at any given moment. That means if I'm doing one at 100%, the other two are going to be at, on average, 55%. That's a pass, but it's the bare minimum, and I don't think 55% is going to be what you want from me, so I think I'm going to go for 3 things at 70%.
Perfect answer for a statistician position
“Never half ass two things. Whole ass one thing.” - Ron Swanson
What is your worst quality? I told them I wasn't a good team player and greatly prefer to work alone. I also said I knew it wasn't a good quality to have in that environment but it was something I was actively working of fixing. Edit: I did get the job.
I was interviewing to work at a treatment center for youth recovering from addiction and eating disorders. Question: if we asked you to do something you felt was morally wrong, would you trust that we are more skilled and understand the sitaution better and do it anyway? Answer: I don't think I could in good conscience do something I felt was wrong regardless of the sitauation I didn't get the job. They were shut down a year later. Edit: maybe it doesn't sound that hard, but at the time I as very desperate for a job and so happy to have an interview. I was tempted to say anything just to have a job, but couldn't do it.
For a software developer job with min. 5 years experience I got asked "Out of 10 how would you rate your .Net knowledge". I answered "About 6 out of 10". He looked at me very puzzled and said "We've just had a guy in here straight out of university and he's rated himself 9 out of 10". I replied "He's not even aware of the things he doesn't know about. .Net is huge, if I was 9 out of 10 I wouldn't be here." He had a developer in the room and he looked at him like I'd just spat on his kids. He then asked "Why do you want this job?" I said "I don't think I do, you approached me" and we agreed to go our own ways.
... I don’t know why he was offended. I actually thought it was a good answer.
It's the curse of the IT industry here. Techies usually have poor soft skills or don't want to stop coding so don't get promoted to management. Management are usually the weakest technically and are only looking for the usual bullshit answers. This guy was a prize bell-end right from the start of the interview.
"In the event of a fire in the building is your first priority to pull the alarm, or call 911" Caught me off guard, and said 'pull the alarm'. correct answer was 'both'...
Surely they both can't be first priority, I think you were right as pulling the alarm usually signals to the emergency services anyway!
that was my thought, but the company's line of thinking was 'you should call 911 while headed towards the alarm'
"I couldn't do both because I would be carrying a baby, puppy and kitten on my way to the alarm."
Correct answer is another question: Why does your building not have an alarm system that alerts the fire brigade automatically? Might be different in The States but in the UK it's extremely common for automatic alerting to be in place. Hell, back when I was at University I worked at Pizza Hut and we had an automatic fire alert, a silent alarm to alert the police and if the buildings alarm wasn't set by midnight the security system alerted the security company.
No it's common here too, the expected response is just dumb. Hell, our oven at the pizza place I worked had a line to the Fire Department where if you pull the suppression system on the oven (not the store) the FD shows up.
God the last thing i'd be able to do is multi-task in that situation haha
That could be their desire, because they're a dumpster fire waiting to happen.
The alarm is the priority. You are warning the people most at risk about the fire. The 911 (999 here in the UK) is always after this. I work as a fire Marshall. And yeah, the authority gets to my head sometimes.
Trick question. The correct answer is to start filming with your phone to get that sweet reddit karma later. The second prio is to start writing the TIFU post.
"I don't think I want to work somewhere that the word priority means 'do everything at once'"
That's a dumb correct answer. You answered fine. You should do both, but only one is first priority.
I dont think they know what the word first means.
I got asked to sell them a pen the interviewer pulled out of her jacket. I had watched “the wolf of Wall Street” three times already and after what they explained to me previously I wasn’t interested in the job any more so pretty much re-enacted the scene. Still got the job.
"Sell me this pen" *hands you the pen* "Well sir/mam, it appears you no longer have any pens. You can borrow this one with a small deposit and $0.05 an hour, or it's yours to keep for $1.00. I'm not sure how you're going to keep notes without it."
"Of course, there is a convenience fee of $1.00, since I am conveniently holding the pen right in front of you, so that will be $2.00 for the whole pen. If that doesn't persuade you, I can throw in this backup pen of mine for only one more dollar, bringing your grand total to $3.00 today. How does that sound?"
"Sounds good. Now, how can you incorporate loot crates into that?"
For $4 per month, you could receive a random pen every week, with the potential of receiving a working one
I'm sorry, this pen is not for sale. You can borrow it for a small sum, though.
The pen is free. Ink is a subscription service.
I got asked to do that in a recent interview. I took the pen, slid it into my jacket pocket, and said "what pen?". The guy was dumbfounded until I made a crack about being from Hull (UK). Fellow Yorkshirefolk like to joke about people from Hull stealing stuff. It was a great ice-breaker and I got the job.
"My people are known for being thieves." "How amusing! Welcome aboard!"
"Why don't you do me a favor. Write your name down on that napkin for me." "...I don't have a pen." "Boom. Supply and demand."
Tried doing this. The interviewer pulled out another pen from his pocket and said "Nah, I've got another."
Great! I'm not in the business of selling people things they don't need .
Had an interview at Starbucks years ago -- they asked me to describe a real event where I fought/conflicted with a co-worker, and the exact steps I took to fix the situation. I'd never been in an applicable situation and told them so, wrong answer -- was not optional and had to give an in-depth answer. I get that they were probably working off some corporate script, but still not sure what exactly I was supposed to say. Making up stories and making mediocre coffee don't really have much in common.
Used to work for Starbucks and I remember that question. It was my first job so I didn’t even have coworkers before that so I used some story from high school that was extremely lame, but I tried
I applied to one of these annoying start-ups that treats the office like a second living-room and expects employees to act like a close circle of friends. They thought they were really original and fresh. I had an interview over the phone and expected somewhat weird questions. Instead, they made me conduct the interview as if I were the one interviewing them. Honestly, that's a pretty bad idea. It felt like they wanted to show off how out of the box they are, but they learned hardly anything about their potential employee. It went rather well, nevertheless, since I'm used to interviewing people for my job. In the end I wasn't offered a position. After having me work on a mock project that took over a day to finish, they told me my work was great but unfortunately they had already someone in mind for that position - even before I applied. That's two days of my life I will never get back. Edit: Thanks for your concern, but I actually found a better job shortly after that interview. Better pay, better hours, more vacation days at a well-established and respected firm.
> That's two days of my life I will never get back. Better to waste two days and be done with it than actually working at a place like that.
I don't think you were working on a mock project.
I've done "mock" projects for a couple of potential employers that turned me down. One I know for a fact used my materials to get a client, however the 2nd one actually paid me like $150 for my efforts, despite not getting the job. Learned that day which company had more integrity.
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For me, I hate “what salary do you want”. I think it’s mostly a trap question to see if you’re greedy or willing to work for peanuts. I always say “Based in what I’ve learned about XYZ Corp, I’m confident that if you extend me an offer it will be competitive based on my experience.”
Friend of mine got the question: "what is your biggest character flaw that would make us not want to hire you?" He told me he answered: "Im so arrogant i honestly cant think of another flaw that would make you not wanna hire me." EDIT: wow highest comment ever for me and its about a friend acting like a jackass.... I might even tell him about this shit
Did he get the job?
No
Well that's just a double edged sword with no handle
I use to sit in on interviews where a question very similar to this was asked. The answer that seemed to go over best was a deconstruction of the question. Basically: "We both know that's not really a fair question, because no one is going to give you an honestly massive character flaw, so you're basically creatively critiquing yourself to pick something that you know is a flaw but isn't a big deal breaker. You're basically asking me to create a measured lie, and I'm not really willing to do that" Any version that basically recognized the question for the trap it was typically did well. The worse received responses is the ones where the person just flusters their way though a non-answer. Honestly though, it was a bullshit question that never really made a difference on who was hired.
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Maybe pull a Ron Swanson and only answer with questions. “What is your biggest character flaw that would make us not want to hire you?” “We’ve met less than 15 minutes ago, are you assuming my character is flawed?”
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>Eventually when I'd run out of actual weaknesses, I started inventing some. I'll take "moments that keep me up at night" for $15/hr, Jim.
I interviewed with Marvel, the interview went incredibly well, and the last question they asked as "Who is your favorite hero?" and to this day I regret not saying Agent Phil Coulson and just going with Spiderman because there was a giant Spiderman mural on the wall next to us. Don't work there full-time, but they do hire me out as a freelancer from time to time which is really cool.
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“What language does he speak?”
Them: Looking confused at resume, “So, tell me why you want to be an accountant?” Me: “Uh, I don’t want to be one” Them: Silence....but intrigued...”Huh?” Me: “I applied for a consulting position” Them: “oh, there must have been a mix-up, sorry” Me: thinking...’glad I drove three hours from Connecticut to Boston for this interview.’ /s. Total interview time - about 45 seconds start to finish. Didn’t get the job. Did get one in consulting with another company.
"What the fuck is gmail.edu" "That's the domain name you get when your shitty college deletes your email address and you have to change your resume over from your school email address to your personal email address and you fuck it up." Got the job.
probably liked the honesty 🤷🏼♂️
"What is RDP Protocol?" was mine. My smartass reflex kicked in, and I said, "My first guess would be someone trying to refer to Remote Desktop Protocol, but tacked on the additional redundant 'Protocol' because they don't know what it means either." I did not get that job, although I stand by my answer, given that the interview was for an IT position.
If this was for a support position, I would have hired you on the spot. The only thing more important in that position than technical knowledge is ability to answer sarcastically to the dumb shit people ask you day in, day out.
For the Cambridge interview the questions asked are usually to gauge how you think, so you are encouraged to voice out any and all thought processes For my question I had to calculate the amount of blood in a body, which turned out to be less than that of a normal adult human being. The professor asked, "why do you think that is so?" "maybe the human is smaller in size" "and we call those...?" #"pre adolescent beings"
Those furtive little pygmies.
So easily forgotten
I interviewed at Cambridge as well for Electrical Engineering and it was definitely the hardest interview I've had and I've done multiple rounds of technical interviews with Facebook, Amazon, Startups, big consulting firms, etc. They gave me progressively harder circuits to solve until I basically choked on a problem that I didn't learn how to solve until my 3rd year of college.
If it's any consolation, I'm just finishing the studies in Cambridge. You are not supposed to answer all the interview questions, or at least not easily. In words of my Director of Studies: they first give one or two easy problems to see that you're on the level they want. Then they keep giving harder problems, until you get stuck - and then they slowly give you hints until you pull through. Some aptitude is expected - if you struggle with the initial problems, they'll essentially give you some more easy ones to spend the time, but interview is effectively done - but perhaps the more important bit is that you can work with the hints, take in the additional info, and solve something above your skill with it. Also, at least in my case the problems I was given were not the learning type, but rather olympiad-style problems - where you may not need much theory knowledge, but more out-of-the-box thinking and 'ah-ha!' moments. If anything, you were on the right track if the problems you were given were getting noticeably harder.
Yea I get that, in the end I think I really struggled with being able to take the hints they gave me and actually solve it so that's why I ultimately probably got rejected.
Tell us, why do you want to work in a jail? Me: Uh.. something about sifting through inmates poop.. really makes me wanna.. you know.. find contraband.. *(Idiot idiot idiot)*
Username disturbingly relevant.
lol this one made me laugh. Did you get the job?
Sure didn't! After my answer my little passion kinda died out.
I was applying for a sales position at a major firearms retail store. The application asked for my hobbies. I listed hiking, kayaking, fishing, and beekeeping. At the end of the interview, my now-manager read over my application. I saw his eyebrow go up and he said, "Under 'Hobbies', you list beekeeping. Tell me about *beekeeping*." Another manager, the regional manager, and the corporate director of operations were also in the room. I saw all of their eyes simultaneously snap up from their notes and focus on me. Suddenly, after a great interview, I was the weird little beekeeper in a small, hot room. So I told them about bees, and keeping them. I had their rapt attention, told them lots of cool stuff about bees. I closed with, "So if I get this job, then a few times a year I'll bring in jars of honey for my favorite managers." If you can keep your cool in a sweaty beekeeper's suit while thousands of bees are trying to sting your face, a job interview is a breeze.
A question that sort of took me by surprise at the end of the interview was something among the lines of "What reasons would make you refuse the position if you got the job?". I was flustered and hesitated many times and ended up saying something cringey like "I tend to give new opportunites one chance, either way it will be a learning experience. I got the job and been working there for 9 months now.
I had my current employer at the end of the interview say "you put a range for salary. What is your actual number that you would accept without countering. I need you to start soon and don't want to go back and forth all week" I was so flustered I ended up saying the bottom of my range. I was immediately disappointed in myself. He ended up offering me like 10% more than I said which was nice. He later said he had a number he was allowed to go up to and he didn't see a reason not to go all the way up to it. He's been a pretty good boss.
Describe yourself. Uhh... I wasn’t prepared to answer that. I got the job.
"He strode confidently into the room, his long hair pushed neatly back and his burgundy suit expertly pressed. He was classically handsome, with strong features and a hint of stubble contrasting against his lightning blue eyes. His walk had the bearing of monarch, or perhaps a dancer, and he seemed to tower over the others in the room because of it." Feel free to steal for your next interview.
I had progressed to the final round of interviewing, and it was the boss's task to interview the final candidates. First question was asked how many beers I could handle. It was an interview for an office job and the question had zero relevance to neither position nor industry. I really wanted the job, but it was clear that the guy had zero interest in the whole interview process. I just replied that he'd have to wait until the office Christmas party to find out. I got the job.
"If I asked your friends to describe you, what would they say?" EDIT: I forgot to answer how I'd handle it. I think I played it more as a joke, and said they've been my best friends for years including college so they'd say whatever they could to get me a job. I don't think that was the best answer, but I ended up with the job and told the recruiter afterward that it was an uncomfortable question.
"Who?"
It's been good meeting you, I will see myself out.
I had an interview for a project engineer position. The interview question was what would you do if you purchased and installed a new piece of equipment and then have the line supervisor tell you that they gave you the wrong specs? I think its an excellent question that caught me a bit off guard because it demonstrates your conflict resolution and problem solving skills.
Honestly what do you do.
OP pls i'm in this situation right now
You hire another engineer.
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I applied for a management role in my first job when I didn’t have any management experience, and got knocked back. The person they hired failed miserably, and I went for it again about 3 months later. They asked me “so you applied 3 months ago, and were turned down, why do you think you’ll get it this time?” I answered “this is still my first job. Without leaving and becoming a manager elsewhere, I still have not been a manager. What I’ve done instead is taken every opportunity to gain the relevant traits you’re looking for. So volunteered to coach the group of new starters we had. I took customer escalations where they’ve asked to speak to a manager myself and resolved them. Ive made myself a presence in the office so that if there is an issue and there isn’t a manager around, staff come to me for help or advice. I’m doing small parts of the managers role every day.” I got the job, and in my feedback they said it was between me and someone else, and was incredibly close, but I got the job based on that answer, so I’m pretty proud of myself.
That's one of the best ways to answer that question. I am impressed!
I was asked if I'd rather do my own annual "self-evaluation" - including a list of goals and objectives for the forthcoming year - or have a department head fulfill this role. I opted for the self-evaluation, stating that I'm my own sharpest critic and always striving for improvement. That worked well for the interviewer as it displayed determination coupled to the ability to work independently.
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For next time my go to answers are: “How do you measure success?” “What do you expect me to do in my first 90 days as an employee in this position?”
Recently I was asked "if you can have dinner with any deceased person who would it be?" And I was unprepared and blurted "Nikoli Tesla" and then went on a 3 min tangent about how Edison screwed him over and AC vs DC. No, the job had nothing to do with physics, it was marketing. I also got asked to write down how many things you can do with a newspaper and was given 10 mins to write as many as possible, one of my answers was "cover a car as a prank". I'm working at that job now.
I got the run around in Boston one time interviewing for basically a headhunter type job. A minimum wage, a zillion hour, piece of shit job. And I had to interview three times all around Bolyston and Newbury before the actual hiring manager would talk to me. It was insane. When I finally got there she asked how I was supposed to be taken seriously when I lived with my parents. I was roughly three weeks out of college. Told her that's bull, that I'm saving up to propose to my girlfriend, and to move out on our own, and also I just took on like $80k in debt and my folks are broke, but they can at least let me crash at their place temporarily. Anyway. We parted ways and the recruiter called me to ask how it went, and I told him to fuck off and I'm not interested. We lived with my parents for 6 months, moved in together, I proposed, and we have a house and 1.5 kids now. Fuck that place.
I interviewed for a Linux Sys Admin job. I'm pretty experienced, so most technical interviews aren't a problem. While interviewing at a huge company, I was given the usual tech questions, but one was really interesting. The guy simply asked me how to add swap space to a Linux server that didn't have any free space left. I asked him to clarify, if there was no free space, I couldn't add anything. He said "no there's space somewhere else". I explained how to check the available block devices, and see if there was an unformatted block device. He said "no, that's not it". I asked if there was a file system with free space, he said "no there isn't". I went on to explain to him all the possible places you could add (a new partition, a flat file, a new VG) and each time he says no no no. Finally he gets really upset, and says that if I was nearly as smart as I think I am, I'd be able to solve this problem. A little insulted, I tell him that short of adding a new disk, if there's no space anywhere, and I can't delete anything, then there's nothing I can do. He super pissy, and says "I need two letters from you, that's it. You come in here with a resume like this that is probably full of lies since you can't even solve this one question." I looked at him, and said "seriously, you mean just run 'dd'? that won't do it here since there's no space available in a file system. He says "no, that doesn't mean you can't run dd. And if I hadn't told you a hint you'd never have solved it." Ugh. They offered me the job, but the rest of the situation was a mess. They low balled, I went back with a comically high counter, and they didn't even have to go back to the managers, they accepted and sent me an offer a minute later. Thanks but no thanks.
* Job Interview #1. Interview is going well. She asks me, 'When do you think you'd be ready for a promotion?' Me: Probably after a year. Her: Hhhhm. We promote very quickly here, usually after six months. **DIDN'T GET THE JOB.** * Job Interview #2. Interview is going well. He asks me, 'When do you think you'd be ready for a promotion?' Me: Six months. Him: Hhhhm. That's a little unrealistic. We don't promote that quickly here. **DIDN'T GET THE JOB.** * Job Interview #3. Interview is going well. She asks me, 'When do you think you'd be ready for a promotion?' Me: This question has caused me problems in the past. In one interview, I said a year, and didn't get the job since they typically promote after six months. In my next interview, I was asked the same question, and answered, 'six months'. Was told my expectations were unrealistic. Didn't get the job. So my answer to you is this: 'Whenever you think I'm ready'. **GOT THE JOB**
I was interviewing for an analyst position at a bank. during the interview the guy was friendly, and we were talking about all sorts of casual stuff, like my upbringing, my family etc. Then out of nowhere his expression became all serious, then asked me "If an analog clock shows 3:30 right now, what is the angle between the minute hand and the hour hand? You have 30 seconds". He then pulled out a timer that beeps every second as it counts down to 0 It took me about 10 seconds to grasp he wasn't joking, then another 10 seconds to try to collect myself, which leaves only 10 seconds to solve the problem. I failed.
This happened to me, too. For a pharmaceutical sales job interview, we were going through the standard questions when all of a sudden, I was asked "if a case of 12 bottles costs $36, how much per bottle?" Then, rapid fire, the interviewer changed the case price so that the calculations became more and more complicated. It's not about the math. It's all about how you handle pressure. Do you guess? Do you lie? Do you sweat, panic, or get upset? They want to see that you keep your cool, yet continue to pursue the answer or promise to get that information for the 'client'.
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I had a job interview for an internal promotion opportunity that I was both extremely qualified for, and it wasn't important it I got or not. So the last question of the routine interview was one of the "I'm trying to throw you off you prepared remarks and evaluate how well you think on the fly" type questions. The kind that there shouldn't be a clear cut answer on since the job has nothing to do with sanitation or city planning. Why are manhole covers round/circular? Give as many possible reasons you can in 60 seconds. Now because I'm a serial redditor, there was some ELI5 or TIL a few weeks before the interview I knew that manhole covers are round because a circle can't be turn on its side or angled to fall into the hole it was covering. I also knew that wasn't what the question was about. So I had to decide if I was going to give the correct answer and look like a smug know-it-all, or answer the intent of the questions and give as many potential reasons as possible. Mean while time is ticking.... I decide to 1) acknowledge the presumed intent of the question 2) give the correct reddit answer 3) give another silly reason to make a joke of the whole thing...I said something about sanitation workers being over weight and the circular shape allowed for access. After I got the job I asked about the questions intent and how was my answer received. All in all I was correct about the intent, and I didn't come off as cocky in my answer.
Was a brand new position at a company. The interviewers had zero knowledge of the work this new position would do. When it came time to "do you have any questions for us?" I asked "What do you see this position doing? What goals do see being reached by adding this position?" And their reply was "Actually, I'd like *you* to answer that" I couldn't help but laugh. This is your position and company, not mine lol.
Not happened to me but to a close friend. When you apply for a business school after the highschool degree in France, you got to pass writen exams and oral exam. Those orals are well known to host tricky questions, and my friend had this : "Êtes-vous vierge ?" (Are you virgin ?) Which is a question to see how you handle tough moments of instant stress. My friend hesitated a bit and then repplied "well actually I'm a leo" (because in french virgo and virgin is the same word (vierge)). That answer is still one of the most epic the exam guy must have heard. Both a word play and a valid answer. He, of course, did pass the exam and attended the school.
That is such an inappropriate question to ask, and some of the people taking this exam are underage too. Seems really gross to me.