Toughest interview questions...
well, i'm gearing up for even more interviews with companies in my area, and i've been rehearsing potential questions in my head over and over again, and trying to loosely anticipate the hardest or strangest questions someone could (legally) ask. the toughest i have heard, believe it or not, was...
"Tell me a joke."
no lie. when you don't see that one coming, it can really get you. you mentally scan through all the ones that are probably in bad taste to one type of person or another, yet try to recall the last intelligent joke you heard so you don't sound like a 5-year old amused by knock-knock jokes (though maybe there are some good knock-knocks out there. who knows?)
anyway, anyone have interview questions they'd like to share, that they have gone through (or have heard others go through)? i'd like the practice, and i think it'd be interesting nonetheless.
"Tell me a joke."
no lie. when you don't see that one coming, it can really get you. you mentally scan through all the ones that are probably in bad taste to one type of person or another, yet try to recall the last intelligent joke you heard so you don't sound like a 5-year old amused by knock-knock jokes (though maybe there are some good knock-knocks out there. who knows?)
anyway, anyone have interview questions they'd like to share, that they have gone through (or have heard others go through)? i'd like the practice, and i think it'd be interesting nonetheless.
Comments
"Just what are you willing to do for this job?"
Unzips pants....
Originally posted by Jambo
Jonathan when offering me job as Moderator:
"Just what are you willing to do for this job?"
Unzips pants....
I'm glad I didn't get asked that question.
"Tell me what you consider to be your biggest (insert number) strengths"
Cue risk of sounding like an arrogant asshole...
"Tell me what you consider to be your biggest (insert number) weaknesses"
Cue risk of giving obvious stock answer or, even worse, risk of admitting that you are never on time for anything and are terminally lazy in a misguided attempt to be honest...
Worst question I have ever personally had was when going for an financial analyst job at an investment bank:
"Tell me why you are passionate about fundamental analysis"
I can't believe the guy managed to ask that with a straight face.
Whatever you do though, DON'T -- under any circumstance -- tell a joke. All they're trying to do is see if your foolish enough to fall for it. To them it may be an indication that you don't consider the backgrounds of those around you before speaking up... just make up a polite excuse and you will have the right answer. Also, don't say "I don't know any jokes" or "I can't think of any"; that might demonstrate a lack of personality to them.
Don't you just love the games corporate America plays with us?? Too much to just come right out and ask straight-forward questions. No, they have to play little mental games and try to trip you up. [Jerkwads...]
As for other types of questions, the ones I don't like but which are hard not to answer, are the ones concerning what you do with your "personal time". There are those who will tell you to speak up and assert that "you don't feel what you do in your spare time is relevant to the job at hand", but that of course risks making the interviewer feel silly or "one-upped". And if you answer (even with perfectly normal things like "photography" or "walk in the park" or whatever), that information can be used to unfairly judge your personality.
Basically, the head recruiter guy may say "We need a couple people, but one's who don't gravitate towards such and such a crowd" or whatever, and so they throw these personal questions in (which they have no business asking, but do so anyway because people are afraid not to answer).
Yet another reason I despise corporate whores. I also dislike the "personal strengths and weaknesses" question. I'm always tempted to say "all the career advisors I speak with encourage me not to answer such questions; are there other job-related questions we might talk about?" But being absolutely correct, the interviewer will once again feel one-upped and likely mark you down for it, though you'll never be able to prove it.
Bastards!
[edited for PC-friendliness]
Originally posted by Moogs
Just make it PC and you can't lose.
whats that mean?
Originally posted by Moogs
That's a fairly easy question to answer, rok: next time just chuckle a bit and say something like "I'd be happy to, if I'm fortunate enough to be among the employees at the next (company social event)." Or, "I feel its best to know someone well before sharing jokes with them. I hope they would afford me the same courtesy as well." Just make it PC and you can't lose.
Whatever you do though, DON'T -- under any circumstance -- tell a joke.
hmmm,... i told the following, which worked well enough for a second interview: "there are only 10 types of people in the world. Those who understand binary, and those who don't." admittedly, it was an IT person.
me: hi.
interviewee: hi.
me: so, whataya wanna talk about?
interviewee: uh. nothing particular.
i think it was a very good answer. he's not conceited, and all going into how much college he's done or whatever. he's not facade'dly interested in me. we shoot the shit for a few minutes about nothing particular. director comes back and takes him to the next guy. he got my vote. in the 30 or 60 seconds we spoke, i got a slight feeling of programming superiority over him, which is good since he's trying for the 'lead programmer' position. so, in some regard it might be good to impress, like with the heads in offices, but down in the trenches it might not be bad to undershow performance, for those of us with inferiority complexes. don't come off as a dolt or anything, of course.
the dba has a regular question he likes to ask noobies. its technical, and not terribly difficult, but culls out those who know sql from those who don't.
and probably terrible advice, but if several people you'll be working with go off for a smoke, it might not be a bad idea to go with. its a bit of a social gathering as well as a lung attacking habit. and a cool, crisp cigarette ought to cool your nerves a bit. a bad idea might be to smoke before hand, in the event that no one smokes and therefore think less of you for stinking like a chimney.
assuming you know your field well (and it might be a good idea to brush up on a few technical points on tangent matters, incase they came up; when the dba asked me that sql question when i first started, i didn't know. i have learned sql since tho), then just try to be relaxed and easy going. let flow what will. try to be ambiguous on anything that could be conceived as offensive. i played down my age and drinking when i first started, cuz i didn't want them to think i was a born-drunkard. i was still in h.s., and i remember a guy asking me "so what do u do outside of school?" "oh, i'm in this club or that, and i program, and blah blah." mindless buggers never checked up on any of my ficticious clubs, or asked to see my programming work. and everyone was cooly surprised by how much i drink when i first went out with them (after the hire of course).
Touché!
I think though, as you correctly surmised, it is a rare situation where the education of both interviewer and interviewee allow a perfect understanding of the meaning behind a joke, without the two people knowing each other.
AND, with the joke being of such a nature that if misunderstood, can hardly be seen as insulting to anyone in particular. Although in this day and age, even that joke is sure to offend someone. And therein lies the rub. You got away with it, but they want to see if you're considering that fact.
Originally posted by thuh Freak
i was still in h.s., and i remember a guy asking me "so what do u do outside of school?" "oh, i'm in this club or that, and i program, and blah blah." mindless buggers never checked up on any of my ficticious clubs, or asked to see my programming work.
that's one thing i find really strange... NO ONE cares about my references. and i have outstanding ones, to boot, from all my past jobs.
Originally posted by rok
that's one thing i find really strange... NO ONE cares about my references.
That's probably because in this day and age, no one is willing to say anything negative about their former co-workers and / or just sticks to boilerplate descriptions. "Oh yah, Joe is a smart guy and a real team player... blah blah".
IOW, if time is money to a recruiting firm or department, they won't waste it on phone references.
I think I gave a good answer (despite being quite annoyed).
"Depth, temperature, salinity, biomass, terrain, and the sixth is bubbles. Now, what does this have to do with flight simulation again?"
"Nothing, I just noticed you had on your resume that you worked on a sonar simulator as an undergrad, and I wanted to see if you were full of BS."
"So how do you know I'm right?" *grin*
That was the only question that one interviewer, of the team of two, asked the entire session.
I got the job.
Originally posted by Kickaha
I got the job.
Answer: It's not natural to have a golf course on the sand dunes, and the area was much more open to locals before the resorts came.
Response: I like golfing there.
Riiiiiight...
The rest of the interview was the good Dr. staring at his PC's clock and me trying slyly to show his pretensiousness.
Next school!
Originally posted by rok
that's one thing i find really strange... NO ONE cares about my references. and i have outstanding ones, to boot, from all my past jobs.
We check references. They can actually be really useful. The last big position we interviewed for we had some really wild results. Basically, the ones with the best resumes ended up being the worst. One of them, when asked for a prediction of the state of our industry in 10 years, basically came up with a story along the lines of flying cars. Yet this person had a ton of experience and a graduate degree (which is required for this position).
And once we started going over references, it was clear that another one of them was trying to get away from her other job. Her responses to some of our questions combined with dry letters of recommendation lead us to believe she was in the middle of a conflict with her boss and trying to leave because of that.
The person we eventually hired had great references. They were obviously sincere (two of them said the workplace would have a hard time adjusting to not having her since she was so key), and, of course, now that she's been here for a year and a half we know why.
The bottom line: when interviewing for a professional position, honesty is really the only way to go. If you aren't qualified and try to scam the interviewer, any competent place will pick up on it. If they don't it's probably a shitty place to work anyway.
Incidently if you're looking for a good book to prepare for tough interviews check out "Knock 'em Dead".
I actually would be embarrassed to ask one of those goofy questions unrelated to the actual job. There is always more than enough to talk to someone about in an interview if you care about the work. One of the questions that can tell you a lot about how someone deals with a job on a personal level (specifically management) is an example of a conflict they had to mediate in the past. It seems like a really dumb and generic question, but can really give a lot of insight into their personality on a few different levels if you read between the lines.