What's The Oddest Thing You Have Been Asked In An Interview>

[ToraToraTora]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22844117
In the one about the giraffe, that's a lead in to the old joke. "how do you get an elephant in the fridge?" - Easy, open fridge door, place elephant in fridge, often followed up by "how do you get a zebra in the fridge", often the response is: "open fridge door place zebra in the fridge" - wrong!

[emmie]

why do you want the job.

[grasscarp]

I was asked what I would do if I found out I hadnt got the job. (This was for a job that I had been doing for some time in an acting capacity).
I replied: I would think it is a bit much, as if I am the wrong person for the job I should have been replaced a long time ago.
(I heard a BBC director whisper to another on the board - I was flabbergasted by that last remark). Half an hour after I left the room they contacted me to say I had got the job!

[CheekyChops]

At the same interview, I was asked the following 2 questions:

"Imagine you are out doing your weekly shopping and whilstat the checkout, you decide to buy a scratch card. When you get home and scartch it off, you realise that you have won £25,000. What would you do with your winnings?"

"It's Saturday night and you are hosting a dinner party for some friends. If you could invite one person from the past or present, who would it be and why?"

[marval]

I was asked at an interview, If you were asked to get a ladder, how would you do it?

[grasscarp]

Cheeky the last one is sometimes asked as you can choose anyone - alive or dead. I heard of someone who answered this with "oh definitely alive".

[Buenchico]

Interview with a head teacher for the post of mathematics teacher (several weeks after having an informal chat with the head of department, and involving a round-trip of 350 miles for me):

HT (arriving in his office after I'd been waiting there for at least 10 minutes): "Sorry, I'm late".

Me: That's OK. Thank you for seeing me. I see, from the pennant on your wall, that you're a Liverpool fan"

HT: "Yes. What team do you support?".

Me: "I don't really follow football that much but I always try to keep an eye of the progress of my home team, Ipswich".

HT: "Oh, that's interesting. Well, I don't think that there's anything else I really need to ask you. The job's yours if you want it"

[ToraToraTora]

Right so to get a job we need to support Ipswich!

[ToraToraTora]

...or at the very least be interested in their performances!

[bednobs]

i must be missing something - your thingy is a joke?

[DTCwordfan]

Picture the chairman of an Intl group, his S-African MD and the ex Brit Ambassador to S-Africa.

"Where would you like to fight in WW3?"

Answer - "Sri Lanka"

Response, now curious, "Why there?"

Answer - "If we are going to ask questions the quality of this one, I am out of here."

A colleague with the same 3 underwent the following -(I know that they were wary of who went out there but in the middle of a leading business school, you are not going to get rabid socialists such as at the LSE).

"Have you, your family or friends worked in South Africa?

"I haven't but one of my closest friends has. He chose to take his gap year out there working in medical services in the Black Townships - he's now a doctor."

MD of the Group: "I don't think that is a good idea, messing around with God's nature."

ex Brit Ambassador: "Steady on old chap, bit strong, wot."

Their last candidate was a dark-skinned Brazilian, our advice: - "Sock it to them Luis....."

[FredPuli43]

A little careful observation counts for a lot. When I went to be interviewed for a pupillage (apprenticeship), I noticed an ashtray full of fag ends had been hidden behind a curtain. The interviewer began "Do you smoke?". "Yes", said I ,lyingly. "Oh good" he said" I could never take anyone who didn't smoke". I got the pupillage (and had to smoke, but what the heck,I got the start in the career)

[FredPuli43]

When I was doing the interviewing, it always surprised me that what seemed, to me, to be a question which anybody would have asked of themselves, completely flummoxed most candidates. It was "What do you think you are going to dislike about this job?" Perhaps it's more difficult to answer than it seems. It was meant to sort out the starry- eyed , those who'd never thought, and those who daren't give an answer, from the rest.

[Tilly2]

Not an odd question, but for my current post, the first question was, 'How many hours would you like to do Tilly?'

[ToraToraTora]

that's a b'stard of a question fred, a bit like what are your fauls. Easy answers, difficult to frame the answers hence flumoxed! The problem that a candidate has is to answer a negative without telling the obvious truth! It's like my all time favourite, "what is your ambition?" - now the real answer is, " not to have to work for pittance in a dump like this" - however we must make up something that sounds positive!

[ToraToraTora]

PS: I never hire anyone who uses a phrase from the BS bingo card!

[FredPuli43]

Tora, I never thought so , because I am not asking the candidate to admit any fault in themselves. If they are sensible they will, sooner or later, find something which irks them in the job, about the job itself, not the people. That's inevitable.So they ought to have some idea in advance of what is negative I was interviewing for careers at the Bar, but the rue is general . There the honest reply could be " Six hours preparing for,and going 100 miles to do, a case which doesn't happen" or "Being handed 1,000 pages of papers at 4pm for a trial tomorrow at 10.30". Now any candidate who didn't know of such things hasn't really thought what the job involves. Unsocial hours and workingmany hours for no result are part of the business and could well cause someone to give up.

[Peter Pedant]

Definitely this:

half way thro the interview, one interviewer interjected:

ma feesh fuloos......

I goggled at these nonsense syllables and then o god its Arabic
I said I had worked in Egypt and means "there is no marney...."

NO money, no money - what the hell does he mean ? He was of course dripping with dosh

and I said, ya ustedh, ...... ( I am sorry you have no money...)

and it turned out that he didnt think much of the pay I was gonna get.....

It taught me not to try to speak foreign languages in interviews when it was my turn to interview

[Mosaic]

1979, first interview straight our of college, with a Miss Witherdovaries, headmistress of girls school.
Q1: I see you are engaged.
Q2: I think you live too far away for us

Neither of which were questions, and strangely enough she didn't appoint me.

[Buenchico]

I applied for a job mentoring long-term unemployed people (with a Government-funded firm).

The interviewer didn't really ask me any questions; he just kept banging on about how important it was that the long-term unemployed should receive 'prompt and positive feedback' from all of their job applications. (He mentioned it about 50 TIMES in an hour-long 'interview').

When I left his office, I hoped that I'd got the job but otherwise (being among the long-term unemployed myself) looked forward to receiving the 'prompt and positive feedback' that the company prized so highly.

I had to wait TEN MONTHS for a ONE LINE letter, telling me that I'd not got the job!