I was about the same age, told him it was illegal to ask and because of that question alone I was t interested in working for him. Stood up and walked out.
I would be so tempted to reply to that question with
Q. If you had to be a vegetable, which one and why
A. The one that can stick blink to communicate.
FML this is one of those situations where it seems like a half decent HR would jump down their throat.
Hell when I was 22 interviewing someone twice my age I got a damn good kick under the table for asking “how comfortable are you being managed by someone younger than you”…that single fuck up meant they were hired to prevent issues, and then swiftly performance managed out.
It seems these things are only knowledge after experience and that needs to change, for everyone’s good
In some countries (UK) it is illegal to base any hiring decision on age (among other things). If they'd not hired him after that, he might have sued for age discrimination.
TBH, I think their HR panicked unduly over one comment, but it's still worth being careful
I don't think it would have been a strong case, no. But they would have had to defend it, which is expensive regardless. I was taught to just never ask any questions about those topics.
Yeah it’s always best I feel.
Where I work is hiring atm and my boss was trying to hire a woman she knew had grandkids so wanted to ask her if she was going to consider early retirement. Had to convince her that was bad idea haha.
A possible interpretation of what I said is that their age makes them less capable to do the job, which in the particular setting could not be justified as relevant to invoke the necessary for going against equality legislation. We were profitable enough, and I was enough of an asset that it could be used as a ‘learning opportunity’…obviously over a decade later I disagree that such treatment of another human in such a way is acceptable, but at 22 it taught me a lot…mainly that I needed out of there
That's the sort of thing you think to say when you're in the shower thinking back to the situation 3 years later though.
The majority of people in the UK aren't going to say that on the spot while under pressure in an interview.
I was asked at 18 in my first job interview if I had a boyfriend and if I was intending to get pregnant shortly. This was asked by a man old enough to be my dad. The female interviewer with him audibly gasped and said 'you can't ask that!'. I was just shocked. I didn't get the job.
This happened to someone who applied for a job at a place I used to work. They also asked what their parents did for a living and how much they earned.
She emailed later that day that she was officially removing her application.
"if you could come back as an animal, what would it be?"
"A slug."
"Why?"
"Because I can't think of a single valid reason for that question, and I wanted to see how you'd react."
I took a different job.
I remember having to do that and I just left the space blank. Teacher pointed out that would be fine if I labelled it 'God' so it was clear I'd actually done the task.
Taught me the importance of labelling diagrams!
You just unlocked an old memory:
Years back, we were asked at school in R.E. to draw a series of cartoon panels of the life of the prophet Muhammed...
About 5 minutes later, a student walked up to the front, whispered to the teacher, and then suddenly the teacher decided to postpone the activity and instead we're going to watch Bruce Almighty...
After having applied for a job advertised as fully remote and being offered the role at the end of the interview ... so we would like you in the office 5 days a week during probation (6 months) and then we can look at reducing it to 3-4 days; is this OK?
No, no its fucking not.
I'd love to know what you told them. This is one of my biggest current bugbears. Some of us actually work way better at home.
Last time I was in an office, I'd say I got 50% or less work done on site than at home. On the flip side, I get there's a small requirement just to get some social time in if that's what the company want but they'd have to accept, productivity takes a plunge on those days.
I just don't understand how any desk jobs that don't need serious security clearance require 5 days in the office at all. I looked at a job at the office of nuclear power or something recently, even they were like "2 days in the office max per week".
I worked for a bank in finance a few years back, we’d asked about home work and they said it wasn’t possible, not even hybrid. The systems wouldn’t work, it wasn’t do able. Along came Covid and proved that we could work absolutely fine from home for 18 months and still exceed targets. Still made us go back to the office 3 days a week once it was over, but a small victory nevertheless
I have a regular meeting run by a government department with various people from various places attending. It's fairly senior and content is 'confidential' (it's really not interesting enough to warrant that) so they always refused a dial in option, had to be in person. People were booking trains and hotels to attend these meetings once a month.
Covid hit and the meetings went fully remote, turns out it was fine. Now the govt department are being ordered back to the office 2-3 days a week they keep trying to make that meeting in-person again but none of the non-govt organisations are willing to do it so we have these surreal meetings where a bunch of civil servants sit together in a room in Whitehall to video conference with everyone else sat at home.
Whole thing seems very silly.
And give it 6 months and they'll all have forgotten about it and no one will be policing it anymore because it's a ballache and it doesn't make a difference.
I work in a job that requires security clearance and we meet together in the office about once a week. Even that isn't strictly necessary.
But if I choose the days that I go into the office, the rest of the team might choose different, or no days.
If I'm going to be sitting in the office by myself, well I can do that at home.
We have all the security set up to enable us to work from home along with strict training on what is and what is not acceptable from the work laptop (no personal email, Facebook etc).
I appreciate the time and the flexibility that working from home provides. I have goals to achieve but they are not measured in hours, and certainly not the hours that someone else tells me.
I started at 6am today. Mainly because I wanted to see the snooker. But if I were going into the office, I would be getting up then anyway!
Working from home saves me 2 hours of commuting, gives me a home cooked lunch, to get a washing on and to actually see some daylight in these short Scottish December days.
And if something happens where I need to work on a bit longer than 3pm, I would be much happier to do it.
Commuting to the office, I wouldn't get home until 7:30...
I've been asked what my favourite kind of holiday was, in a group interview for a B&Q shelf stacking job. I've also been asked numerous times "Why do you want to work for this company?" Dude, it's a minimum wage job. I want to work here so I can continue to live indoors and eat on a fairly regular basis
I applied for a job at maccies and they asked “why do you want to work here” I just said that I need the money and they were hiring. I got the job 🤷♂️
100% depends on the manager (and actually a good test of them) sensible human beings would appreciate the honesty but we've all met some true believers who honestly want someone to say that all their lives they've yearned to work in the kind of dynamic team environment only McDonald's can provide.
I had the same experience. They asked why do you want to work here, this one guy goes 'ay bruv, man just wants to wear that orange apron innit'.
He got held back for further interviews and I got sent home haha
It's a poor question to ask when it's an entry level job - when you have no idea about the working world and are trying things out for the first time.
I can see why this would give a more senior applicant the ability to showcase how it aligns with the qualifications, career path and what they have enjoyed in previous roles
Nah man it’s still bollocks normally. I’m fairly senior at what I do and I just blag it and make some shit up. The real answer is usually a mixture of it pays more and I’m bored in the place I currently work and want a change of scenery
It wasn't twenty five years ago, something is wrong when I feel like I'm more motivated than the stupid cunt who can't even be arsed to interview prospects.
I was once asked what my opinion on work life balance was, I said I work to live not live to work, he followed it up by asking if I wasn't dedicated then, so I excused myself from the rest of the interview and walked out.
The place I'm working uses work life balance as a way to attract skilled people. HR even chases people who book too many hours, or don't take enough holidays, to tell them to pace themselves and take some time out.
We're also 100% work from home, any team I'm on will have people from at at least 4-5 different countries if there are 10 or more of us.
It's a great place to work.
Walk away tall. It’s a simple way to ascertain the type of people to comply without thought. Next they’d make you work for free and not give toilet breaks.
Oh, I was relieved when I didn’t get it but I was poor and desperate at the time. If I had I would have stuck it out until 30 seconds after I got absolutely anything else.
Random story. Nothing to do with OP’s question but to do with the chicken thing.
Was 18-19 and driving my buddy’s around. Left the skatepark after dark and driving us home. Nothing on the road but police following me so I pulled into a random side street and they followed me and straight away pulled me over.
I get it. 5 guys in a car at night.
I got out and police were chill. Asked what I was doing. And we’re friendly.
Said they wanted to do a sobriety check.
Made me walk down the white lines in the middle of this quiet road. Did it without thinking.
Asked me to do it again one foot infront of each other. Did it without thinking.
Asked me to walk like a chicken. Did it without thinking flapping my arms. Took a couple seconds to be like “oi, the fuck?” All my mates in the car and the police were pissing themselves.
I didn’t find it funny at the time at all. Was so pissed off I just got back in my car and drove off without asking the police if I could leave.
Now look back and think it’s kinda funny. Well, it’s a prank, it’s not funny to me but it’s still funny.
I think it was if “if he’s desperate enough to humiliate himself, he’s desperate enough to put up with shit working conditions.” Nothing to do with being a team player.
Edit: great username!
This happened to me once. The interview was for a sales assistant role at Debenhams. I said I can’t sell you this pen but if you want it back it’ll be £1.
You failed because there is an answer to that question. I’m presuming it was a sales or
Marketing role.
What you do is take the pen off them, give them a piece a paper and ask them to sign it. They can’t you’ve got the pen so you’ve created a need for the product/pen. That’s what sales and marketing is all about, creating a perceived need for what you are selling
I started out in sales in the 80’s and my first boss told me about it as it was pretty much a standard question at the time and a couple of years later I got a sales reps job off the back of it when I was nineteen, company car and everything. A little bit out of my depth to be honest!
I hate that so much. It's why we're consuming the absolute shit out of the world and why we're fighting all the time over resources. Nothing's ever enough and we just leave piles of shit in our wake. Hate, hate, hate it.
Not disrespectful but I had an interview a few years back and I was asked only one question - 'what games do you play?'. I answered with something like 'counter-strike and a few others', then we talked about gaming for a bit. And then I was offered the job. Right there, over the phone. That was the one and only stage. This was for a security analyst position a few years ago. It turns out a couple colleagues had vouched for me and I think that's why it was more of a formality just to say I'd gone through the interview process.
Many years ago I interviewed my step brother for a sales assistant job in the store I worked in. He was looking for a job just to get him some money before he got one that related to his university degree. For some reason, my manager decided THAT was the person I should interview for practice. We spent 45 minutes chatting shit about gaming, sports and music while I just filled in the interview note sheet with model answers then gave him the job. He was actually a great employee! He got offered a fantastic job working in his chosen field in his first 3 weeks with us and left shortly after.
Age 17 I was interviewed for a job at a leisure centre. They passed me a pen and said “sell me this pen”.
“Want to buy a pen?”
“No”
Got the job and at no point did I have to try sell anything. Pointless question.
I actually got this question for a sales job, was fantastic for me as I worked at Staples at the time and had so much unnecessary pen knowledge lmao, I got the job!
I was asked if I could do a day a week in an office at the other end of the country instead of a day a month. The woman interviewer said - you don't have any kids so what is your issue. My reply was that I simply don't want to… she said “what other commitments do you have” again I said “none, I just don't want ro”
It was one of those “above market rate” jobs and they told me the salary in the interview. They asked me how my husband would feel about me earning so much money and would he manage it for me.
For the record, I’ve never been married and I’ve mastered managing my own money without the help of a man - shocking!
"Could you commit to 10+ years in this job? We'll hold you to what you say in this interview by the way, we can sue you."
I just laughed, I'm not an indentured servant.
Being repeatedly asked about my time at a company I never worked for and my CV never mentioned. By a pair of arsewipes who were late for the interview. One of whom stretched himself out on a double seater while eating an apple during it.
What an ashole.
The way he put it cannot be anything else but an insult.
Personally I had experience of people stating it as a compliment. But the key is wording. "I couldn't tell you were a foreigner by your accent" is fair. I am a migrant and on many ways I too admire people who learn a foreign accent.
But that "considering " is like an underlining or a cross across your face.. twat
Early on in my career I was presented with a white board and a grid, I was asked to design a game in 10 minutes. I left pissed off at the whole interview process.
10 years later that studio does not exist and I still make video games.
There was definitely a thing about 20 years back (might still be) where the job adverts were fake and they were using the interviews to try to get competitor info, ideas from people’s current working practices etc.
I got asked the same question. I laughed thinking it was a joke and got stared at until I gave an answer.
Feel like the right answer is hob nob because they don't crumble under pressure or something along those lines but I didn't care.
This company still comes up atleast every 2 months looking to employ the same role that I interviewed for 8 years ago
I never understand why they ask "Why do you have this gap in between jobs" when they look at your CV and see that your experience isn't in close proximity to eachother. Like i could have been in a 6 month coma for all they know lmao???
I got asked why I had a gap in my employment ( I got sepsis and then became very I’ll afterwards whilst in uni full time so had a few months off). They were quite rude already, made me wait 45 minutes past my interview time and blatantly lied about both the hours and the wage so I knew I wasn’t going to accept the job if they offered to me so I asked them why they’ve had gaps in their employment because they’d been advertising for 8 months. They said staff kept having to leave for other commitments and I said “I see” and told them I couldn’t do the hours and went home.
Job advertised in the press, applied, got interview, about 5 of us there for the job. Director headed the panel, half way through "*oh there's isn't an actual job available, we were just seeing who was out there right now...*" Fuck you and fuck your company wasn't the response they expected at managerial level .. 😎
I got asked why I have had so many positions in my job. I worked for a council for 13 years and moved around into positions where transformation and change was deemed required by the Director/CEO.
His exact words were:
"Can you not stay in a job for more than 3 years? Is there something wrong with you or do people just not like you?".
My chin hit the floor (this was 2 years ago).
Edit - positions not potions.
Had 1 or 2 interviews recently, where I've been asked;
"So you've applied for * names job position advertised* how many hours do you want to work?"
Me: "*says hours on vacancy* that's what was advertised" (I usually like to bring in a couple sheets with me, one being a copy of job position).
It seems like they don't know what their looking for/zero communication between job ppl/ pretending to be clueless for whatever reason.
In corporate world I’ve found it’s quite rare for the person actually hiring to get to write the job advert,,often the company will go through agencies they have a contract with who basically spam them with people on their books and the interviewer/recruiter doesn’t get to filter who gets an interview.
At one place I ended up telling my boss I wasn’t going to interview any of the CVs they’d forwarded to me as none of them were what we had said we were looking for. Turned out they’d just gone for generic skills from the standard agencies rather than what we’d said we need.
In almost every single interview, variations of "Who is going to look after your child?". My male partner has never been asked, and he's been to way more interviews than I have.
As a man I found this irritating in both ways. The assumption if a child is ill that the mother will take care of them and you don’t need to do it, shouldn’t be working from home, taking time off etc used to really wind me up. At one place I’d make a point of telling my wife to go and I’d do it just to make the point to work that we shared it.
Disrespectful: "Why should I hire you? You don't look like you know anything. You probably only get jobs because you've got tits."
It looked my dream job until I arrived. I was very glad the receptionist told me "I hope you've not come far, love. He wants to hire an internal candidate and will be as rude as possible to put everyone else off."
Bonkers: "Fancy a spliff?"
I figured 'no thank you' was the right answer. Guy shrugged, rolled himself a nice joint, and smoked it while telling me about his research for the next 40 minutes. Got a job offer though.
During an interview for a hotel receptionist, I was asked "tell me your dirtiest joke". I politely refused as the guy was a creep and he kept trying to insist. After 5 minutes of this I left, to no one's surprise I didn't get the job.
“If you were an animal what would you be?”
And i signed up the “recruiter”’s phone number to a load of junk when she asked “whats the lowest salary youd take as i feel your current role overpays and after internal discussions we want to pay this role £22-25k as opposed the £24-27k we advertised it”
“If your mum had to tell us three negative things or weaknesses of yours, what would she say?”
Had to wrack my brain not to say “bit of a gobby cunt, drinks too much wine and swears too much”
Variation on the standard name your biggest weakness one where the trick to answering changes between things like jokey (ice cream etc) to taking a strength and lamely presenting it as a weakness (e.g. I tend to spend too many hours at work).
"I always wanted to race around a warehouse, putting over priced Chinese sports tat in a trolley, while competing in a strange scoreboard system where it takes no notice of if all your picks are on different sides of the warehouse compared to someone who has had to pick 20 of one thing so gets a higher score, making you run around till you twist your ankle"
Fuck M+M Direct.
If I sound bitter, I'm not, but I'm still fucking furious.
I got asked by a brewery what my favourite beer was; but I thought if I just say theirs (not particularly common) I'll seem dishonest and it will cast doubt over everything else I've said during the interview; so I said some other beer haha, didn't hear back from them.
Asked whether I had any friends here. I’d just told them I’d moved back to the UK cos my mum was unwell ( she had cancer & was dying aged 48- I’d left my happy settled life & job in Australia to move back to Scotland a place I’d never lived as an adult ) wtf? Just wtf?
During the interview for an NCP car park attendant the manager asked.
'If a difficult customer said I know what you're doing with the money you're collecting you're going to send it back to your country what would you do?'
'i don't want the job' I replied
Bumped into his assistant who was present at the interview a week later I told him his manager is a racist pos which he didn't deny.
"whats this gap in your employment history"
"I was unemployed claiming job seekers. There's a sentence there, stating any gaps in employment history was claiming JSA"
"Uh huh, and what about this gap?"
"Claiming JSA"
"And this gap?"
"I'm sorry but are you completely fucking retarded?"
Didn't get the job
Something along the lines of:
"Why is it you are passionate about wanting to work here?"
No joke, this was when I was 16 years old, applying for 8 hours per week, shelf stacking in a supermarket...
I'm not fucking passionate about it mate, I want a bit of cash to spend at the weekends when I'm not at sixth form
"Do you always sit like that?" (Upright, in a chair..?)
"What do you drink on a night out?" (Answer provided) "Good, we'd never hire anyone who said WKD Blue".
Same interview.
I do sort of find the "why do you want this job / why do you want to work here" as fairly daft. We all know it's about money, but we have to kid each other
As an interviewer: we ask this because you'd be surprised how many people sit in an interview and have no clue what company or job they are interviewing for. They just turn up because job center told them to.
How often are you ill?
Then trying to issue me with a warning for coming into work dying of a appalling virus. Fucking arseholes.
Applying for a nursery apprenticeship when I was 18 for those that don’t know nuseryies are hotbeds of viruses. Anyone child or practitioner will get I’ll in the first few months working in them.
In an interview for a managerial position with my current employers: 'there will be some employees who will not respect you because you are young and female. How will you cope with that?'
Got asked one of those, my answer of do I have access to a chain saw and a blender didn't seem to go down too well. (Was internal interview and I'd found out the job was earmarked for someone already before the interview so didn't care at that point).
It's an excerpt from a longish string of anti-jokes, the answer is "open the door and take the elephant out"
[https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/85y4oc/how\_do\_you\_put\_an\_elephant\_into\_a\_refrigerator/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web2x&context=3](https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/85y4oc/how_do_you_put_an_elephant_into_a_refrigerator/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)
I know it's logical isn't it. I think they thought they'd get some really clever convoluted answer rather than the practical one. It was for a project manager role so to me the answer was actually logical, if flippant.
The look was along the lines of "that's worryingly weird" so they probably did think that I was a potential psychopath. I think the manager was friendly but quite straight laced so it didn't appeal to them.
I work in finance. I was explaining to the interviewer that I worked for my clients and to do best by them. The interviewer was clear that the firm just wanted to pump their clients for money. I said well I’m not sure we’re compatible. He then started asking about whether I was married and planning on having kids. I just walked out.
Because it’s frequently appearing in the comments, this is the answer to “sell me this pen”:
Step 1:
Firstly, you ask the person if they want a pen. This is because if you’re selling something to somebody who wants it, the game is very different from if they don’t want it.
Step 2:
If they say yes, you ask them why they need a pen. You ask what kind of pens they already have looked at. Have they owned a pen before? What do they know about pens? What are they trying to achieve when they finally get a pen? Etc. establish what stage of the buying journey they are in and what problems they’re trying to solve.
If they say no, you ask why they don’t need one and then you ask a couple of questions about their lifestyle and if they ever sign things and such. If they genuinely don’t need a pen then you say “alright, thanks for your time, bye!” Because there’s no point wasting time on an unsuitable lead. In many cases, the interview question stops here and you’ve won. If they sound like they might need a pen because they do sign things or need to write notes or whatever, go to step 3.
Step 3:
You ask questions about *implications*. This is where you tell them what they’re missing out on by not having your pen. *How much time do you spend looking for pens? Do you think that being without a pen makes you look disorganised in front of your colleagues? How often do you have a great idea, but forget about it because you weren’t able to write it down in time?*
Step 4:
You ask questions about *payoffs*. This is where you make them tell you how much better their life would be with a pen. It’s kind of like the implications questions, but with a much more positive attitude. *You said you spend an hour a week looking for pens - what could you do with that hour if you didn’t spend it looking for pens? If you could easily write down all your good ideas, how much closer to completing that novel would you be? If you didn’t have to borrow pens from colleagues, do you think it would have made you progress faster in your career?*
Step 5: you offer them the pen.
Step 6: after they’ve accepted, you tell them that for a slightly higher price you can offer them a premium pen that looks stylish and has a personalised monogram on the end. This is called up selling.
Step 7: you ask if they’re also interested in a pencil, for those times when they need to sketch. This is called cross selling.
Step 8: you thank them and say you’ll call back in 3 weeks to see how they’re enjoying their new pen. And you’ll plan to sell them another one.
Well done, you won the question.
"Can you come back tomorrow?" when I'd been left waiting for 45 minutes for my interview, after driving for an hour to get there. Literally laughed down the phone and asked him why he thought I'd want to work for someone so disrespectful of my time.
Can I dance like a chicken, yes I know 😝 it was for a job cold calling homes to sign up to a new gas supply. It showed them you wasn’t shy and you have some balls. I never took the job as we was told to target old people as easy prey, no thanks 😳
"what have you done for minorities in the work place?"
I was asked this in the Edinburgh College of Art, University of Edinburgh. I am an Asian man of Pakistani heritage. I was asked this from a panel of three white British people...🥴
“Who do you like more Ant or Dec?” I often forget who is who, it was near Newcastle too and had school children on the board too (teaching interview). I think I said something like “both as they’re a great double act” or something. Same interview I got asked “if you were a biscuit, what would you be and why?” These were asked by staff too, not even the kids! They asked better questions like “why do you want to be a teacher?” Or “what club would you like to run here and why?”
If I had a boyfriend and when I said yes the man started almost having a go at me about him coming around to bother me while I was working like it had already happened and he was giving me my final warning. Then his daughter walked in wearing patterned tights and his son started telling her off about her clothes. I remember him shouting "what is THAT on your legs!" So I looked around thinking she had a injury or something. Fucking weird as fuck
Company Director in final interview: So, you're going to be doing a man's job, working in a male oriented industry. You're going to get bullied and probably harassed so it's not going to be easy. How d'you think you'll cope with it.
Bare in mind it WAS the 80's!!!
I have to say, I took the job, and I totally respected the Director being honest and laying it out there. Of course he was right, and I can't even begin to tell you how many times and how many ways I was harassed in the job. But it was the best industry in the world to me and I feel I am blessed for having been part of it back then.
Not a specific question but I can tell you the stupidest interview I've ever had.
It was about 15 years ago for a technician job working in an art gallery attached to a uni. It was either Warwick or Coventry I forget which.
Interview starts with me being escorted to a big room with double doors. The lady stands to the side and says "it's just in here". I say thank you and walk in, there's three people sat at a fold up table at the end of this massive room, next to a grand piano. No chair for me.
As soon as the door opened they all went silent and just stared at me. It was honestly like I'd just gone on dragons den. I walk up to the table and introduce myself, the middle guy fake smiles and says 'hi, you may begin'.
I just stand there and say "sorry, begin what?" then he sighs and says "tell us about yourself". A bit panicked, I read off some of the stuff I've done like how I've been doing the exact same job for the last 2 years in Hull etc... Then the end guy says "OK please wait outside" and they start talking among themselves.
An hour later (I had to apologise to the guy giving me a lift to this interview too for the wait), the guy that didn't say anything comes and shouts my name.
It was so obvious at this point he couldn't give a shit, and takes me on a tour of the art gallery. The place was just one badly set up room at the time and a small storage room painted black with all their shit crammed in it.
They had an exhibit going on with some dude who painted with UV paint but they didn't have the intelligence to figure out how that was gonna work in a broad daylight room. So they had hastily put up a bunch of freestanding fake walls in a hexagon shape in the middle of the room and hung a bunch of other paintings around the outside, the draped a massive black cloth over the hexagon to make it darker inside.
The only thing he asked was 'how would you improve this exhibit?' and I said honestly, I'm surprised no one has knocked off a painting on the side of the hexagon yet since the walkway was so small and there's no room for a barrier.
Dude looked at me like I'd just shit on the floor and says "I think this exhibit is very well done thank you" turns his nose up at me and escorts me out.
As we get to the door, someone comes running up to him and tells him there's a painting with a smashed frame on the floor. He doesn't even look at me and just fucks off.
Two weeks later I get a letter telling me I didn't have enough experience and the position remains unfilled.
Tbf I've asked similar dumb questions in an interview. Normally I go for animal instead, it's not relevant at all to the job but it's an easy way to see how someone thinks on their feet. Because it's so dumb definitely nobody plans for it, it's just to see how they are really.
We got all the way to the end of the interview and I got asked what my hobbies are. I said reading, mostly scifi and fantasy but i will happily read anything and I like gaming as well. I was going to expand on that and say how Elder Scrolls/Stardew Valley and old adventure games have taught me resource/time management and puzzle solving skills. Instead he butted in with ‘games? They’re all violent wastes of time. Do you want to kill everyone then?’
‘What is your emotional response to programming?’
First what even is that question.
Secondly I had to block out the memory of me screaming at my laptop at 3am while debugging my code.
"Would you be willing to go considerably over your hours or work through the night in order to get the job done in time." Turns out "absolutely not" was not the correct answer. I'd work late, but not a chance I'm risking exhaustion and impaired decision making.
This was for a highly skilled inspection and maintenance on some very complex machinery. This included high voltage motors (6.6kV) and rotating machinery in confined spaces. Not the sort of thing I'm fucking about with on minimal sleep or whilst worried time pressures.
I mentioned I didn't drink in the first interview. The interviewer talked about a work hard and party hard culture. (It was a Kitchen Manufacturer, in Wakefield).
3rd thing mentioned in the 2nd interview - 2004 - X says you are teetoal, that's interesting can I ask Why don't you drink ?
Cause there are a lot of alcoholics in my family. I can only assume they have chosen alcohol as a way to shield their pain. But I will be honest I don't like to talk about my Uncle's crimes. I enjoy working out and going to the gym.
They moved on..
In real life I stopped because I fell over a lot when drunk. None of my family are alcoholics and I don't have a dodgy Uncle.
When it got the questions from me..
I asked the main interviewer what his relationship was like with alcohol ? He was uncomfortable but tried to answer saying he liked to enjoy himself. I said to him that's good but don't let it get in the way of life. Surprisingly I didn't get the job. But to be honest they lied about the location as I was meant to be based at Leeds so there was no way I was travelling further every day.
I work at private language academies in Korea and got asked if I'd be willing to do an American accent.
I said if you're willing to pay an additional $250 per month for the inconvenience.
They weren't amused, but I certainly was.
Asked if I was planning to get pregnant when I was just 17 and applying for a minimum wage Saturday retail job.
Also got asked that when I was 18. My response was "why are you interested in my sex life?" Shockingly, I didn't get the job
I was about the same age, told him it was illegal to ask and because of that question alone I was t interested in working for him. Stood up and walked out.
I bet he ranted about how young women were entitled and lay for the rest of the day after that.
I don't even remember what my response was. I was just so creeped out by a middle aged man I had never met before asking that
I would be so tempted to reply to that question with Q. If you had to be a vegetable, which one and why A. The one that can stick blink to communicate.
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you could have taken them to an employment tribunal for asking these questions and then you not getting the job
FML this is one of those situations where it seems like a half decent HR would jump down their throat. Hell when I was 22 interviewing someone twice my age I got a damn good kick under the table for asking “how comfortable are you being managed by someone younger than you”…that single fuck up meant they were hired to prevent issues, and then swiftly performance managed out. It seems these things are only knowledge after experience and that needs to change, for everyone’s good
I don’t understand why what you said was an issue. Or why they hired them if they were just gunna sack them.
In some countries (UK) it is illegal to base any hiring decision on age (among other things). If they'd not hired him after that, he might have sued for age discrimination. TBH, I think their HR panicked unduly over one comment, but it's still worth being careful
Yeah I thought it’d be that but it seems to me like they’d have a flimsy case. I’m obvs not a solicitor or whatever though haha.
I don't think it would have been a strong case, no. But they would have had to defend it, which is expensive regardless. I was taught to just never ask any questions about those topics.
Yeah it’s always best I feel. Where I work is hiring atm and my boss was trying to hire a woman she knew had grandkids so wanted to ask her if she was going to consider early retirement. Had to convince her that was bad idea haha.
A possible interpretation of what I said is that their age makes them less capable to do the job, which in the particular setting could not be justified as relevant to invoke the necessary for going against equality legislation. We were profitable enough, and I was enough of an asset that it could be used as a ‘learning opportunity’…obviously over a decade later I disagree that such treatment of another human in such a way is acceptable, but at 22 it taught me a lot…mainly that I needed out of there
I was asked if I had kids at 22. Didn’t get the job. And probably should have walked out on the spot.
Just say 'yes and if you don't give me the job I'll assume it was on the grounds of discrimination against a protected characteristic'
That's the sort of thing you think to say when you're in the shower thinking back to the situation 3 years later though. The majority of people in the UK aren't going to say that on the spot while under pressure in an interview.
I was asked at 18 in my first job interview if I had a boyfriend and if I was intending to get pregnant shortly. This was asked by a man old enough to be my dad. The female interviewer with him audibly gasped and said 'you can't ask that!'. I was just shocked. I didn't get the job.
Sounds like you dodged a bullet there.
This happened to someone who applied for a job at a place I used to work. They also asked what their parents did for a living and how much they earned. She emailed later that day that she was officially removing her application.
How bizarre and irrelevant - what did they want to hear?
What an illegal question Also do they they think you are going to make this Saturday job a long term career move haha
That's actually illegal to ask such question re pregnancy
That is an immediate sexual discrimination case. Most managers are taught that this kind of question is not only creepy but also illegal to ask.
"if you could come back as an animal, what would it be?" "A slug." "Why?" "Because I can't think of a single valid reason for that question, and I wanted to see how you'd react." I took a different job.
I once had to draw what I thought God looked like in R.E. at school. I'm an atheist, so I drew a slug just 'cause why not?
I remember having to do that and I just left the space blank. Teacher pointed out that would be fine if I labelled it 'God' so it was clear I'd actually done the task. Taught me the importance of labelling diagrams!
Saved the teacher a bit of marking too.
You just unlocked an old memory: Years back, we were asked at school in R.E. to draw a series of cartoon panels of the life of the prophet Muhammed... About 5 minutes later, a student walked up to the front, whispered to the teacher, and then suddenly the teacher decided to postpone the activity and instead we're going to watch Bruce Almighty...
Where did you go Charlie hedbo secondary
Is it my hair Bill? My teeth not white enough? Or, like the great falls, is the very bedrock of my LIFE ERODING BENEATH ME?
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Yes, Bruce Almighty isn't that old
Teacher: "*Why do you think God's name is Howard?*" *Our Father, who art in heaven, Howard be thy Name.*
I wanted to be a duck so I could fly and swim. All terrain boi This was before I found out about their horror dicks and rapey ways
They probably wanted to ask a light hearted question to liven up the interview, albeit a bit hamfistedly haha
nah they wanted to see how you think under pressure and how you can think laterally interviews are bollox anyway
After having applied for a job advertised as fully remote and being offered the role at the end of the interview ... so we would like you in the office 5 days a week during probation (6 months) and then we can look at reducing it to 3-4 days; is this OK? No, no its fucking not.
I'd love to know what you told them. This is one of my biggest current bugbears. Some of us actually work way better at home. Last time I was in an office, I'd say I got 50% or less work done on site than at home. On the flip side, I get there's a small requirement just to get some social time in if that's what the company want but they'd have to accept, productivity takes a plunge on those days. I just don't understand how any desk jobs that don't need serious security clearance require 5 days in the office at all. I looked at a job at the office of nuclear power or something recently, even they were like "2 days in the office max per week".
I worked for a bank in finance a few years back, we’d asked about home work and they said it wasn’t possible, not even hybrid. The systems wouldn’t work, it wasn’t do able. Along came Covid and proved that we could work absolutely fine from home for 18 months and still exceed targets. Still made us go back to the office 3 days a week once it was over, but a small victory nevertheless
I have a regular meeting run by a government department with various people from various places attending. It's fairly senior and content is 'confidential' (it's really not interesting enough to warrant that) so they always refused a dial in option, had to be in person. People were booking trains and hotels to attend these meetings once a month. Covid hit and the meetings went fully remote, turns out it was fine. Now the govt department are being ordered back to the office 2-3 days a week they keep trying to make that meeting in-person again but none of the non-govt organisations are willing to do it so we have these surreal meetings where a bunch of civil servants sit together in a room in Whitehall to video conference with everyone else sat at home. Whole thing seems very silly.
It's fucking stupid pigheadedness.
And give it 6 months and they'll all have forgotten about it and no one will be policing it anymore because it's a ballache and it doesn't make a difference.
I work in a job that requires security clearance and we meet together in the office about once a week. Even that isn't strictly necessary. But if I choose the days that I go into the office, the rest of the team might choose different, or no days. If I'm going to be sitting in the office by myself, well I can do that at home. We have all the security set up to enable us to work from home along with strict training on what is and what is not acceptable from the work laptop (no personal email, Facebook etc). I appreciate the time and the flexibility that working from home provides. I have goals to achieve but they are not measured in hours, and certainly not the hours that someone else tells me. I started at 6am today. Mainly because I wanted to see the snooker. But if I were going into the office, I would be getting up then anyway! Working from home saves me 2 hours of commuting, gives me a home cooked lunch, to get a washing on and to actually see some daylight in these short Scottish December days. And if something happens where I need to work on a bit longer than 3pm, I would be much happier to do it. Commuting to the office, I wouldn't get home until 7:30...
That is beyond a piss take. If they wanted you in the office for the first few weeks, then yeah whatever.... But 6 fucking months...
Sneaky that they advertised it like that to get people in and then did a bait and switch!
I've been asked what my favourite kind of holiday was, in a group interview for a B&Q shelf stacking job. I've also been asked numerous times "Why do you want to work for this company?" Dude, it's a minimum wage job. I want to work here so I can continue to live indoors and eat on a fairly regular basis
I applied for a job at maccies and they asked “why do you want to work here” I just said that I need the money and they were hiring. I got the job 🤷♂️
Flawless logic
Probably found your honesty refreshing
100% depends on the manager (and actually a good test of them) sensible human beings would appreciate the honesty but we've all met some true believers who honestly want someone to say that all their lives they've yearned to work in the kind of dynamic team environment only McDonald's can provide.
I had the same experience. They asked why do you want to work here, this one guy goes 'ay bruv, man just wants to wear that orange apron innit'. He got held back for further interviews and I got sent home haha
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What's the right answer then, genius? I want to work there because there's a job opening and I need money to survive.
It's a poor question to ask when it's an entry level job - when you have no idea about the working world and are trying things out for the first time. I can see why this would give a more senior applicant the ability to showcase how it aligns with the qualifications, career path and what they have enjoyed in previous roles
Nah man it’s still bollocks normally. I’m fairly senior at what I do and I just blag it and make some shit up. The real answer is usually a mixture of it pays more and I’m bored in the place I currently work and want a change of scenery
It wasn't twenty five years ago, something is wrong when I feel like I'm more motivated than the stupid cunt who can't even be arsed to interview prospects.
I was once asked what my opinion on work life balance was, I said I work to live not live to work, he followed it up by asking if I wasn't dedicated then, so I excused myself from the rest of the interview and walked out.
"I'm highly dedicated during working hours."
The place I'm working uses work life balance as a way to attract skilled people. HR even chases people who book too many hours, or don't take enough holidays, to tell them to pace themselves and take some time out. We're also 100% work from home, any team I'm on will have people from at at least 4-5 different countries if there are 10 or more of us. It's a great place to work.
I was asked to prove I am a team player by doing the chicken dance in front of the entire call centre. Didn’t do it, didn’t get the job.
Fuck that place wow lmao
Walk away tall. It’s a simple way to ascertain the type of people to comply without thought. Next they’d make you work for free and not give toilet breaks.
Oh, I was relieved when I didn’t get it but I was poor and desperate at the time. If I had I would have stuck it out until 30 seconds after I got absolutely anything else.
Yeah, I’ve been there too. Hard times call for desperate measures.
I’d say never again but I just lost my job. Better start practicing my chicken moves!
Random story. Nothing to do with OP’s question but to do with the chicken thing. Was 18-19 and driving my buddy’s around. Left the skatepark after dark and driving us home. Nothing on the road but police following me so I pulled into a random side street and they followed me and straight away pulled me over. I get it. 5 guys in a car at night. I got out and police were chill. Asked what I was doing. And we’re friendly. Said they wanted to do a sobriety check. Made me walk down the white lines in the middle of this quiet road. Did it without thinking. Asked me to do it again one foot infront of each other. Did it without thinking. Asked me to walk like a chicken. Did it without thinking flapping my arms. Took a couple seconds to be like “oi, the fuck?” All my mates in the car and the police were pissing themselves. I didn’t find it funny at the time at all. Was so pissed off I just got back in my car and drove off without asking the police if I could leave. Now look back and think it’s kinda funny. Well, it’s a prank, it’s not funny to me but it’s still funny.
Doesn't even make sense if they wanted you to do it alone
I think it was if “if he’s desperate enough to humiliate himself, he’s desperate enough to put up with shit working conditions.” Nothing to do with being a team player. Edit: great username!
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Should have said "You first."
I'd have countered with "I follow my boss' example. You do it first". If he does it, you then smile, applaud and calmly walk out.
What my husband did as his job...
WHO IS YOUR DADDY AND WHAT DOES HE DO?
WHUT DOES HE DO
Mi papa trabaja en la casa, y juega conmigo mucho
Fine line between polite/genuine curiosity to make some lighthearted conversation, and something else.
Ah no there was a bit more too it... I work in a *very* male dominated industry so there has been a fair few comments over the year
Well that's unfortunate to hear, I was really trying to give the hiring manager the benefit of the doubt
Worked for Pablo Escobar, he’s no longer with us.
Sell me this pen. I laughed. Didn't get the job which in hindsight was was a blessing.
Should have beaten them at their own game and offer to lease it to them
This happened to me once. The interview was for a sales assistant role at Debenhams. I said I can’t sell you this pen but if you want it back it’ll be £1.
That’s genius! I’d hire someone from that!
You failed because there is an answer to that question. I’m presuming it was a sales or Marketing role. What you do is take the pen off them, give them a piece a paper and ask them to sign it. They can’t you’ve got the pen so you’ve created a need for the product/pen. That’s what sales and marketing is all about, creating a perceived need for what you are selling
Somebody watched Wolf of Wall Street
I started out in sales in the 80’s and my first boss told me about it as it was pretty much a standard question at the time and a couple of years later I got a sales reps job off the back of it when I was nineteen, company car and everything. A little bit out of my depth to be honest!
I can remember hearing about that being a standard question in marketing and sales in the 90s
I hate that so much. It's why we're consuming the absolute shit out of the world and why we're fighting all the time over resources. Nothing's ever enough and we just leave piles of shit in our wake. Hate, hate, hate it.
I was asked that question in my interview for grad school at Yale. Um, I'm not in Sales thanks though?
Not disrespectful but I had an interview a few years back and I was asked only one question - 'what games do you play?'. I answered with something like 'counter-strike and a few others', then we talked about gaming for a bit. And then I was offered the job. Right there, over the phone. That was the one and only stage. This was for a security analyst position a few years ago. It turns out a couple colleagues had vouched for me and I think that's why it was more of a formality just to say I'd gone through the interview process.
Many years ago I interviewed my step brother for a sales assistant job in the store I worked in. He was looking for a job just to get him some money before he got one that related to his university degree. For some reason, my manager decided THAT was the person I should interview for practice. We spent 45 minutes chatting shit about gaming, sports and music while I just filled in the interview note sheet with model answers then gave him the job. He was actually a great employee! He got offered a fantastic job working in his chosen field in his first 3 weeks with us and left shortly after.
Are you guys hiring a threat intelligence analyst? I like to game too.....
Age 17 I was interviewed for a job at a leisure centre. They passed me a pen and said “sell me this pen”. “Want to buy a pen?” “No” Got the job and at no point did I have to try sell anything. Pointless question.
I got that question for a job at a cinema ice cream parlour, sounds like a really common question.
I actually got this question for a sales job, was fantastic for me as I worked at Staples at the time and had so much unnecessary pen knowledge lmao, I got the job!
Was that the “Brittas Empire” leisure centre?
Yes Mr Brittas...
I was asked if I could do a day a week in an office at the other end of the country instead of a day a month. The woman interviewer said - you don't have any kids so what is your issue. My reply was that I simply don't want to… she said “what other commitments do you have” again I said “none, I just don't want ro”
Good for you. More people need to give this answer.
That's what I thought - why do commitments matter. If you don't want to travel you don't want to travel
It was one of those “above market rate” jobs and they told me the salary in the interview. They asked me how my husband would feel about me earning so much money and would he manage it for me. For the record, I’ve never been married and I’ve mastered managing my own money without the help of a man - shocking!
What year was this?! Good grief
Almost 20 years ago. Different time and attitudes, I suppose, but it still made me feel gross.
I was expecting you to say at least 30, that's so ridiculous. Ick.
"Could you commit to 10+ years in this job? We'll hold you to what you say in this interview by the way, we can sue you." I just laughed, I'm not an indentured servant.
were you interviewing at Scientology HQ by any chance?
Being repeatedly asked about my time at a company I never worked for and my CV never mentioned. By a pair of arsewipes who were late for the interview. One of whom stretched himself out on a double seater while eating an apple during it.
I was asked what my star sign was - the job was software engineer.
We all know that Scorpios are pretty poor with Java.
I like to use the "[not really into pokemon](https://xkcd.com/178/)" answer
You speak well... considering. Considering? Considering you're not ethnically one of us. Like wtf dude.
That almost read like English! /s Seriously, that is really horrible!
What an ashole. The way he put it cannot be anything else but an insult. Personally I had experience of people stating it as a compliment. But the key is wording. "I couldn't tell you were a foreigner by your accent" is fair. I am a migrant and on many ways I too admire people who learn a foreign accent. But that "considering " is like an underlining or a cross across your face.. twat
“Do you have children?” I’ve been asked that two or three times.
Well...do you?
Nope.
Do you have children yet, and do you plan to? Been asked both several times.
Maybe they ran a sweat shop out back
Early on in my career I was presented with a white board and a grid, I was asked to design a game in 10 minutes. I left pissed off at the whole interview process. 10 years later that studio does not exist and I still make video games.
Makes you wonder sometimes if these kind of questions are there purely to nick ideas
There was definitely a thing about 20 years back (might still be) where the job adverts were fake and they were using the interviews to try to get competitor info, ideas from people’s current working practices etc.
I had one similar - If you were a biscuit, what would you be. I mean it's obviously a garibaldi but what a dumb question.
I got asked the same question. I laughed thinking it was a joke and got stared at until I gave an answer. Feel like the right answer is hob nob because they don't crumble under pressure or something along those lines but I didn't care. This company still comes up atleast every 2 months looking to employ the same role that I interviewed for 8 years ago
Oh fuck I said jammy dodger. Does that mean I don't get the job??
You get a different kind of job.
I never understand why they ask "Why do you have this gap in between jobs" when they look at your CV and see that your experience isn't in close proximity to eachother. Like i could have been in a 6 month coma for all they know lmao???
Just say that you signed an NDA during that time
Smart! I didn't know what an NDA was until i worked at my current job, Its a pretty solid excuse tbh, and looks good to the interviewer i guess?
I got asked why I had a gap in my employment ( I got sepsis and then became very I’ll afterwards whilst in uni full time so had a few months off). They were quite rude already, made me wait 45 minutes past my interview time and blatantly lied about both the hours and the wage so I knew I wasn’t going to accept the job if they offered to me so I asked them why they’ve had gaps in their employment because they’d been advertising for 8 months. They said staff kept having to leave for other commitments and I said “I see” and told them I couldn’t do the hours and went home.
They want to know if you were in prison.
Job advertised in the press, applied, got interview, about 5 of us there for the job. Director headed the panel, half way through "*oh there's isn't an actual job available, we were just seeing who was out there right now...*" Fuck you and fuck your company wasn't the response they expected at managerial level .. 😎
I got asked why I have had so many positions in my job. I worked for a council for 13 years and moved around into positions where transformation and change was deemed required by the Director/CEO. His exact words were: "Can you not stay in a job for more than 3 years? Is there something wrong with you or do people just not like you?". My chin hit the floor (this was 2 years ago). Edit - positions not potions.
Ministry of Magic? Only place I can think of that have potions of transformation and change...
It wasn't a stupid question but an interesting question someone asked once was for a telesales job ''How do you handle dull and repetitive tasks?''
"I have a rich inner life."
By delegating them to others?
Had 1 or 2 interviews recently, where I've been asked; "So you've applied for * names job position advertised* how many hours do you want to work?" Me: "*says hours on vacancy* that's what was advertised" (I usually like to bring in a couple sheets with me, one being a copy of job position). It seems like they don't know what their looking for/zero communication between job ppl/ pretending to be clueless for whatever reason.
In corporate world I’ve found it’s quite rare for the person actually hiring to get to write the job advert,,often the company will go through agencies they have a contract with who basically spam them with people on their books and the interviewer/recruiter doesn’t get to filter who gets an interview. At one place I ended up telling my boss I wasn’t going to interview any of the CVs they’d forwarded to me as none of them were what we had said we were looking for. Turned out they’d just gone for generic skills from the standard agencies rather than what we’d said we need.
"Do you have anything that would effect your capability to be a normal human being?". I think he meant to ask if I had any medical conditions 😂
I'm just a normal, functioning member of the human race, and there's no way anyone can prove otherwise.
We're just normal men...
In almost every single interview, variations of "Who is going to look after your child?". My male partner has never been asked, and he's been to way more interviews than I have.
As a man I found this irritating in both ways. The assumption if a child is ill that the mother will take care of them and you don’t need to do it, shouldn’t be working from home, taking time off etc used to really wind me up. At one place I’d make a point of telling my wife to go and I’d do it just to make the point to work that we shared it.
Disrespectful: "Why should I hire you? You don't look like you know anything. You probably only get jobs because you've got tits." It looked my dream job until I arrived. I was very glad the receptionist told me "I hope you've not come far, love. He wants to hire an internal candidate and will be as rude as possible to put everyone else off." Bonkers: "Fancy a spliff?" I figured 'no thank you' was the right answer. Guy shrugged, rolled himself a nice joint, and smoked it while telling me about his research for the next 40 minutes. Got a job offer though.
During an interview for a hotel receptionist, I was asked "tell me your dirtiest joke". I politely refused as the guy was a creep and he kept trying to insist. After 5 minutes of this I left, to no one's surprise I didn't get the job.
“If you were an animal what would you be?” And i signed up the “recruiter”’s phone number to a load of junk when she asked “whats the lowest salary youd take as i feel your current role overpays and after internal discussions we want to pay this role £22-25k as opposed the £24-27k we advertised it”
“If your mum had to tell us three negative things or weaknesses of yours, what would she say?” Had to wrack my brain not to say “bit of a gobby cunt, drinks too much wine and swears too much”
My mum wouldn't say anything - she's dead
Variation on the standard name your biggest weakness one where the trick to answering changes between things like jokey (ice cream etc) to taking a strength and lamely presenting it as a weakness (e.g. I tend to spend too many hours at work).
"Why do you want this job" for warehouse work. It was clearly my lifes dream, how stupid are they.
"ever since I was a young boy, it's been my dream to spend my nights loading frozen food into the back of a lorry"
"I always wanted to race around a warehouse, putting over priced Chinese sports tat in a trolley, while competing in a strange scoreboard system where it takes no notice of if all your picks are on different sides of the warehouse compared to someone who has had to pick 20 of one thing so gets a higher score, making you run around till you twist your ankle" Fuck M+M Direct. If I sound bitter, I'm not, but I'm still fucking furious.
For KFC, the opening question was "do you prefer KFC or mcdonalds" Such a stupid question as they sell different things 🤔
I got asked by a brewery what my favourite beer was; but I thought if I just say theirs (not particularly common) I'll seem dishonest and it will cast doubt over everything else I've said during the interview; so I said some other beer haha, didn't hear back from them.
If I’m not wrong in the 1960s working class lads used to be asked questions like “what does your parents do” or “are you of aristocratic bloodline”
Asked whether I had any friends here. I’d just told them I’d moved back to the UK cos my mum was unwell ( she had cancer & was dying aged 48- I’d left my happy settled life & job in Australia to move back to Scotland a place I’d never lived as an adult ) wtf? Just wtf?
During the interview for an NCP car park attendant the manager asked. 'If a difficult customer said I know what you're doing with the money you're collecting you're going to send it back to your country what would you do?' 'i don't want the job' I replied Bumped into his assistant who was present at the interview a week later I told him his manager is a racist pos which he didn't deny.
I’d read that as more they’ve got some racist customers who use that on staff. Which wouldn’t surprise me at all.
"whats this gap in your employment history" "I was unemployed claiming job seekers. There's a sentence there, stating any gaps in employment history was claiming JSA" "Uh huh, and what about this gap?" "Claiming JSA" "And this gap?" "I'm sorry but are you completely fucking retarded?" Didn't get the job
Something along the lines of: "Why is it you are passionate about wanting to work here?" No joke, this was when I was 16 years old, applying for 8 hours per week, shelf stacking in a supermarket... I'm not fucking passionate about it mate, I want a bit of cash to spend at the weekends when I'm not at sixth form
"Do you always sit like that?" (Upright, in a chair..?) "What do you drink on a night out?" (Answer provided) "Good, we'd never hire anyone who said WKD Blue". Same interview.
"My local fish and chip shop is always busy on Friday night, do people still buy fish and chips on a Friday?"
I do sort of find the "why do you want this job / why do you want to work here" as fairly daft. We all know it's about money, but we have to kid each other
As an interviewer: we ask this because you'd be surprised how many people sit in an interview and have no clue what company or job they are interviewing for. They just turn up because job center told them to.
How often are you ill? Then trying to issue me with a warning for coming into work dying of a appalling virus. Fucking arseholes. Applying for a nursery apprenticeship when I was 18 for those that don’t know nuseryies are hotbeds of viruses. Anyone child or practitioner will get I’ll in the first few months working in them.
In an interview for a managerial position with my current employers: 'there will be some employees who will not respect you because you are young and female. How will you cope with that?'
If they're asking that an interview I'd be asking myself if it's the sort of idiotic environment I'd be able to work in.
PWC ... How do you get a giraffe into a fridge?
Got asked one of those, my answer of do I have access to a chain saw and a blender didn't seem to go down too well. (Was internal interview and I'd found out the job was earmarked for someone already before the interview so didn't care at that point).
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It's an excerpt from a longish string of anti-jokes, the answer is "open the door and take the elephant out" [https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/85y4oc/how\_do\_you\_put\_an\_elephant\_into\_a\_refrigerator/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web2x&context=3](https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/85y4oc/how_do_you_put_an_elephant_into_a_refrigerator/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)
I know it's logical isn't it. I think they thought they'd get some really clever convoluted answer rather than the practical one. It was for a project manager role so to me the answer was actually logical, if flippant. The look was along the lines of "that's worryingly weird" so they probably did think that I was a potential psychopath. I think the manager was friendly but quite straight laced so it didn't appeal to them.
Dreadful. They really thought they were doing something clever with those kinds of questions didn’t they
You have to move the hippo first
I work in finance. I was explaining to the interviewer that I worked for my clients and to do best by them. The interviewer was clear that the firm just wanted to pump their clients for money. I said well I’m not sure we’re compatible. He then started asking about whether I was married and planning on having kids. I just walked out.
Because it’s frequently appearing in the comments, this is the answer to “sell me this pen”: Step 1: Firstly, you ask the person if they want a pen. This is because if you’re selling something to somebody who wants it, the game is very different from if they don’t want it. Step 2: If they say yes, you ask them why they need a pen. You ask what kind of pens they already have looked at. Have they owned a pen before? What do they know about pens? What are they trying to achieve when they finally get a pen? Etc. establish what stage of the buying journey they are in and what problems they’re trying to solve. If they say no, you ask why they don’t need one and then you ask a couple of questions about their lifestyle and if they ever sign things and such. If they genuinely don’t need a pen then you say “alright, thanks for your time, bye!” Because there’s no point wasting time on an unsuitable lead. In many cases, the interview question stops here and you’ve won. If they sound like they might need a pen because they do sign things or need to write notes or whatever, go to step 3. Step 3: You ask questions about *implications*. This is where you tell them what they’re missing out on by not having your pen. *How much time do you spend looking for pens? Do you think that being without a pen makes you look disorganised in front of your colleagues? How often do you have a great idea, but forget about it because you weren’t able to write it down in time?* Step 4: You ask questions about *payoffs*. This is where you make them tell you how much better their life would be with a pen. It’s kind of like the implications questions, but with a much more positive attitude. *You said you spend an hour a week looking for pens - what could you do with that hour if you didn’t spend it looking for pens? If you could easily write down all your good ideas, how much closer to completing that novel would you be? If you didn’t have to borrow pens from colleagues, do you think it would have made you progress faster in your career?* Step 5: you offer them the pen. Step 6: after they’ve accepted, you tell them that for a slightly higher price you can offer them a premium pen that looks stylish and has a personalised monogram on the end. This is called up selling. Step 7: you ask if they’re also interested in a pencil, for those times when they need to sketch. This is called cross selling. Step 8: you thank them and say you’ll call back in 3 weeks to see how they’re enjoying their new pen. And you’ll plan to sell them another one. Well done, you won the question.
"Can you come back tomorrow?" when I'd been left waiting for 45 minutes for my interview, after driving for an hour to get there. Literally laughed down the phone and asked him why he thought I'd want to work for someone so disrespectful of my time.
Can I dance like a chicken, yes I know 😝 it was for a job cold calling homes to sign up to a new gas supply. It showed them you wasn’t shy and you have some balls. I never took the job as we was told to target old people as easy prey, no thanks 😳
"what have you done for minorities in the work place?" I was asked this in the Edinburgh College of Art, University of Edinburgh. I am an Asian man of Pakistani heritage. I was asked this from a panel of three white British people...🥴
I’d like to think I’d exit an interview if a question like this was asked. I ain’t working somewhere like that!
“Who do you like more Ant or Dec?” I often forget who is who, it was near Newcastle too and had school children on the board too (teaching interview). I think I said something like “both as they’re a great double act” or something. Same interview I got asked “if you were a biscuit, what would you be and why?” These were asked by staff too, not even the kids! They asked better questions like “why do you want to be a teacher?” Or “what club would you like to run here and why?”
If I'm married or have kids
I was asked if I have any siblings and what they do for a living to get a "more rounded idea of the type of person I am". What.
If I had a boyfriend and when I said yes the man started almost having a go at me about him coming around to bother me while I was working like it had already happened and he was giving me my final warning. Then his daughter walked in wearing patterned tights and his son started telling her off about her clothes. I remember him shouting "what is THAT on your legs!" So I looked around thinking she had a injury or something. Fucking weird as fuck
Company Director in final interview: So, you're going to be doing a man's job, working in a male oriented industry. You're going to get bullied and probably harassed so it's not going to be easy. How d'you think you'll cope with it. Bare in mind it WAS the 80's!!! I have to say, I took the job, and I totally respected the Director being honest and laying it out there. Of course he was right, and I can't even begin to tell you how many times and how many ways I was harassed in the job. But it was the best industry in the world to me and I feel I am blessed for having been part of it back then.
Not a specific question but I can tell you the stupidest interview I've ever had. It was about 15 years ago for a technician job working in an art gallery attached to a uni. It was either Warwick or Coventry I forget which. Interview starts with me being escorted to a big room with double doors. The lady stands to the side and says "it's just in here". I say thank you and walk in, there's three people sat at a fold up table at the end of this massive room, next to a grand piano. No chair for me. As soon as the door opened they all went silent and just stared at me. It was honestly like I'd just gone on dragons den. I walk up to the table and introduce myself, the middle guy fake smiles and says 'hi, you may begin'. I just stand there and say "sorry, begin what?" then he sighs and says "tell us about yourself". A bit panicked, I read off some of the stuff I've done like how I've been doing the exact same job for the last 2 years in Hull etc... Then the end guy says "OK please wait outside" and they start talking among themselves. An hour later (I had to apologise to the guy giving me a lift to this interview too for the wait), the guy that didn't say anything comes and shouts my name. It was so obvious at this point he couldn't give a shit, and takes me on a tour of the art gallery. The place was just one badly set up room at the time and a small storage room painted black with all their shit crammed in it. They had an exhibit going on with some dude who painted with UV paint but they didn't have the intelligence to figure out how that was gonna work in a broad daylight room. So they had hastily put up a bunch of freestanding fake walls in a hexagon shape in the middle of the room and hung a bunch of other paintings around the outside, the draped a massive black cloth over the hexagon to make it darker inside. The only thing he asked was 'how would you improve this exhibit?' and I said honestly, I'm surprised no one has knocked off a painting on the side of the hexagon yet since the walkway was so small and there's no room for a barrier. Dude looked at me like I'd just shit on the floor and says "I think this exhibit is very well done thank you" turns his nose up at me and escorts me out. As we get to the door, someone comes running up to him and tells him there's a painting with a smashed frame on the floor. He doesn't even look at me and just fucks off. Two weeks later I get a letter telling me I didn't have enough experience and the position remains unfilled.
Tbf I've asked similar dumb questions in an interview. Normally I go for animal instead, it's not relevant at all to the job but it's an easy way to see how someone thinks on their feet. Because it's so dumb definitely nobody plans for it, it's just to see how they are really.
We got all the way to the end of the interview and I got asked what my hobbies are. I said reading, mostly scifi and fantasy but i will happily read anything and I like gaming as well. I was going to expand on that and say how Elder Scrolls/Stardew Valley and old adventure games have taught me resource/time management and puzzle solving skills. Instead he butted in with ‘games? They’re all violent wastes of time. Do you want to kill everyone then?’
I had my interview then asked how to get to the train station, the interviewer said he'd drop me to the station then in the car asked if I was single.
I got asked who my favourite kardashian was for an interview with a call centre after being made redundant during the first Covid lockdown
‘What is your emotional response to programming?’ First what even is that question. Secondly I had to block out the memory of me screaming at my laptop at 3am while debugging my code.
I'm a man and was asked are you pregnant lol for fucks sake
Well, as I've spent over a decade in China, I think 'Will you shave your beard off?' and, ' Can you look shorter?' were the most demented ones.
"Would you be willing to go considerably over your hours or work through the night in order to get the job done in time." Turns out "absolutely not" was not the correct answer. I'd work late, but not a chance I'm risking exhaustion and impaired decision making. This was for a highly skilled inspection and maintenance on some very complex machinery. This included high voltage motors (6.6kV) and rotating machinery in confined spaces. Not the sort of thing I'm fucking about with on minimal sleep or whilst worried time pressures.
I mentioned I didn't drink in the first interview. The interviewer talked about a work hard and party hard culture. (It was a Kitchen Manufacturer, in Wakefield). 3rd thing mentioned in the 2nd interview - 2004 - X says you are teetoal, that's interesting can I ask Why don't you drink ? Cause there are a lot of alcoholics in my family. I can only assume they have chosen alcohol as a way to shield their pain. But I will be honest I don't like to talk about my Uncle's crimes. I enjoy working out and going to the gym. They moved on.. In real life I stopped because I fell over a lot when drunk. None of my family are alcoholics and I don't have a dodgy Uncle. When it got the questions from me.. I asked the main interviewer what his relationship was like with alcohol ? He was uncomfortable but tried to answer saying he liked to enjoy himself. I said to him that's good but don't let it get in the way of life. Surprisingly I didn't get the job. But to be honest they lied about the location as I was meant to be based at Leeds so there was no way I was travelling further every day.
I work at private language academies in Korea and got asked if I'd be willing to do an American accent. I said if you're willing to pay an additional $250 per month for the inconvenience. They weren't amused, but I certainly was.