Interview questions from hell

AlephZero

A selection published in the UK Financial Times recruitment supplement, 12 April 2011:

1 Do you sparkle?

2 (Asked by "mature" maile interviewer) So, Miss Williams, tell me what excites you?

3. We have a lot of young girls on the staff. Will this be a problem for you?

4. What's your Facebook status?

5. Your'e not a vegetarian or anything, are you?

6. Where would you hide an elephant?

7. Are you decisive?

8. I see you ride a motorcycle. That's unusual for a woman. Are you going to grow out of it?

9. Do you have any children? Follow-up question: Does your husband have any children?

10 What would you like inscribed on your gravestone?

Feel free to add answers (or more questions...)

Evo

I was called in for an interview with a department head that I had not sent a resume to. (I found out later that she had a friend in HR and they had forwarded my resume to her instead of the department it was intended for.) I went anyway to see what she had to offer. We were sitting at a conference room table and she throws a pencil in front of me and tells me to "sell it to her".

I turned her job offer down and got my resume to the right person.

Gnosis

As I have no interest in working for any company that presents such moronic scenarios, I would simply reply as follows:

“The pencil you have just placed in my possession may be used as a weapon. If you purchase the pencil from me, I guarantee that I will surrender the pencil to you peacefully and then YOU will have the weapon. Now; are you inclined to purchase the pencil from me, or would you prefer to see where I jam it next?”

Andy Resnick

When I was interviewing for college, I was asked "If you were an inanimate object, what would you be?"

berkeman

Sorry, interview threads are no longer allowed on the PF. Thread closed.



Oh wait...

DaveC426913

I was informed in one of my very first 'software developer' interview that I was "obviously" not serious because of my tie. (It was narrow and magenta). People in this line of business take themselves more seriously than that.

I kept my tongue but spent the rest of the interview assuring him that he'd convinced me this was not the place I wanted to work, as there were places out there that welcome individuality and have some corporate culture.

A mere half hour of biting my tongue led to a life lesson wherein I learned that choosing where I don't want to work is as important as choosing where I do want to work.

AlephZero

Hmm.... we use that one as a put-down for job applicants with engineering degrees who say they want to move into sales and marketing.

Before anti-smoking legislation came in, sometimes we asked them to sell us the dregs of a cup of vending-machine coffee, with a couple of cigarette butts floating in it. Interviewers have their seccret siignals for "OK, we agree this one's a reject, so let's have some fun making hiim/her earn his/her travel expenses before we let him/her out of jail...."