Wednesday, April 19, 2017
Some of the weirdest interview questions I've had so far
1. "On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being the least and 10 being the most, how much do you want this job?"
haha what the hell was I supposed to say to THAT?! I mean, I can think of a lot of answers that would tank you right there: "Zero. I LOVE being unemployed". "Depends on if I can bring my cat to work with me." "Eleven. I will kill all the other candidates right now to get this job."
I mean, it was a pretty basic desk job. How much do I want it? Um ... enough? I want it enough? Jeez.
What did I say? I gave it an 8, mainly because I was fairly meh about the job in general. So I'm sure that that put me behind someone who answered 10, but why lie?
2. "How would you feel about working with millennials?"
What? Um, the same way I feel about working with anybody else? I just went with "I like working with all different kinds of people, because everyone has something they can teach me". Or something like that.
3. "Thinking of yourself, personally, in your personal life, what is a shortcoming you are working to overcome?"
This one actually stumped me. I mean, I was prepared to answer questions about what needed improvement in my professional life, but personally? WTF? What was I supposed to say? "Well, I'm a raging crackhead, but I'm heading to rehab real soon." "Well, everybody says I'm kind of an asshole, but I actually think that I'm pretty cool." In the end I said something about not taking small things too seriously, but I kind of lamed it because I really didn't know what they were getting at with the question. Looking back, I'm wondering if I was supposed to tie a personal shortcoming to a professional situation, like, "I have a problem with punctuality", but why would I want to admit to something like that, esp. since I'm NEVER late? haha.
Okay, your turn: How would you have answered the questions above? And do you have a doozy of an interview question to add?
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7 comments:
I just "LOVE" those "What are your worst qualities?" questions !! Who would answer those at all truthfully?! No matter the question, job interviews are no fun!
Good Luck on your job search!
so glad my last interview was mainly a formality...I never understood some of the questions. I always wanted to respond with - and what does that have to do with the job and my ability to do it?
in your personal life, personally? they were reaching for questions, weren't they.
Kelly, my 'worst quality' is that I like to be helpful, so when I see someone struggling with something I know how to do I offer to help. This is my worst quality because I've been told that other people take this as interference or as a comment about how they aren't capable. :)
Personally? How about "I'm *really* bad at leaving dishes in the sink because I live alone and there's nobody else to care". Or, "I have a terrible habit of buying vegetables and then they end up rotting in the fridge because I never got around to using them".
How completely bizarre and irrelevant of a question!
On the 'scale of 1 to 10' question - if I was interviewing people for a job that wasn't the Most Amazing Job Ever and they said 10 - I would wonder how desperate are they? And who is going to answer "1, I could hardly be bothered to show up for this interview" - what a weird question!
I've never gotten anything truly weird, but, in retrospect, I think it's really inappropriate that a part-time, contingent (short-term) teaching job interview once asked me what my five-year plan was. Like, they aren't prepared to give me a five-year plan or any kind of reasonable expectation that they'll keep me that long, so why should I have any allegiance to them or the teaching profession for five years?
One of the best questions went something like this: If we asked your previous employer what your best qualities are, what would they say? That was a refreshing take on the same, tired questions.
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