HELP! Unusual job interview questions you have heard.

[mickeymedic]

On a lighter point, as one gets older the answers can become more fun. The biggest, and in my opinion, the dumbest of all interview questions is..."Where would you like to be in 5 years." You just walked into this place. The only thing you know about it is the location and what little bit of highly spun info that you were able to glean from the internet. There is no way to comfortably or even logically answer that question. As I have gotten older, I have actually answered that question with the single word, "alive". Still got the job.

I used to participate in hiring EMTs and Paramedics for a rather large ambulance service. "Where would you like to be in 5 years" was actually a very important question for us...it gave us a good idea as to which candidates were looking to do EMS as a career versus those who were using it as a stepping stone. Some candidates were coming in as EMTs and were hoping to be Paramedics in 5 years. Others were coming to work for us while they finished their undergrad degree and applied to med school. Others were hoping to eventually have a career as a firefighter. We ended up hiring candidates with strong skills and good references regardless of where they wanted to be in 5 years. But it helped us see where they were coming from and how long they were likely to stay with us.

By the way...I love your answer of "alive".

 

[mouseforcemom]

Some of the questions I have had to ask are:

Mind you we are in client relations, graphic arts, public relations, etc:

How do you handle constructive criticism? (big red flag question in the interview, you can't be in media/marketing/pr and not be able to handle criticism.)

Where do you want to be in 5 years?

If you could pick 3 words to sum yourself up what would they be?

Tell me about a concept you had in your head, but turned out totally different once you went to design (happens all the time in graphics art). How did you make it work and still deliver your message?

What is your favorite company working in arts/design today? What sets them apart?

What are some of your favorite commercials/print pieces/marketing trends?

When you design/write/conceptualize what is your process?

Tell me about your greatest personal success.

What are your stress relievers? What do you like to do to unwind?

Describe a situation in the last year where a client has been either unhappy or unsatisfied with the trend of their artwork/content and what you did to correct the trend.

What's your favorite social network? How long have you been involved on it?

Is there any type of work you simply will not do (this really is an eye opener, we're a small outfit and we all wear many hats so candidates have to be willing to say take out the trash, make coffee, set up and tear down events, photograph, video/edit, in addition to their regular duties. I do them all & I'm the Director, lol. We take turns.)

 

[Deb & Bill]

We do performance based interviews. Past behavior predicts future behavior.

So our questions are about things you have done in the past.

Tell me about a time when you had a large project and a short deadline.

Tell me about a time when you had a disagreement with your supervisor about how a task would be accomplished.

Tell me about a time when you had multiple tasks to complete and how you prioritized them.

Tell me about a time when you had two employees who worked for you that could not work together very well.

Tell me about the project you are most proud of.

Tell me about a mistake you made and how you resolved it.

Tell me about your experiences working with a union.

Tell me about your experiences working with people of different educational levels.

Tell me how you implemented a new program. Was it accepted by all the employees? If not, how did you get them to buy into it?

Tell me about a customer service problem that resulted in a happy customer in the end.

Tell me about a time when you had to tell a customer "No".

 

[daughtersrus]

This one would scare me. I am not sure they would want to hire a middle-aged suburban mom who has the most boring FB page in the world.

This was for a teaching position. I'm sure it was so that they could see what students would see if they searched her name. DD logged on to the account and when she left the office, logged on with her cell phone and changed the password just in case they tried to capture it.

 

[tvguy]

"Tell me about the most recent time you have had to work 'around the system'?" (I worked in a law office, and dealt very heavily with client trust funds - you DO NOT work around the system, and that is what I told them.)

Interesting.
My mother-in-law worked in a law office, and always said a large part of her job WAS working around the system to protect her clients best interests.

The interview process certainly is interesting, because as a supervisor you look for people who will follow procedure and your orders and make you look good, when in reality to make you look good they need to know when to IGNORE procedure and orders.

 

[Pig Pen]

I always ask "what is the last book you have read?" I don't know why, but it's interesting to see how candidates respond (I started this WAY before Katie Couric asked the question of a certain VP candidate).

 

[OK!]

DD had one where they asked her what "social network" sites she participates in and to provide them with access to the account.

I think that would have been my cue to say, "Well, thanks so much for your time; this just doesn't appear to be a good fit." Good LORD.

 

[tink_lover]

The one I got was "Do you love to win or hate to lose?"

 

[Maridw]

These type of questions remind of when I was in college. I had a computer teacher who was working on his master's in psychology. As he took roll, he had a "question of the day". He would ask things like "what is your favorite animal & why?"; "if you could be something that lived in the sea, what would you be?"

He always had really off the wall questions. Sometimes he would ask the "why" on questions, other times he wouldn't.

The last different question I had was "If you had a problem with another co-worker, how would you handle it?" One that I hate is "how would you describe yourself?"

 

[ckret01]

I have been around a lot of years and I must say that the new trend in abstract questioning is a farce.

What is really accomplished by asking a question like "describe an Orange" unless you work in an orange grove.

Who's your hero? I've been around too long to have a "hero". Life is what it is. If you can wake up in the morning and really feel good about yourself then you have nailed it. If you can honestly say that yesterday I hurt no one, I earned my keep, I didn't use someones weaknesses to enhance my own agenda then you can do the best you can possibly do, unencumbered by guilt.

The real problem with this corporate silliness is that no one that asks the questions is remotely qualified to interpret the answer. They just don't know what a particular answer means, they can only guess based on their own opinions...not a solid structure, I would think.

I have found that in the corporate structure egos are in full rage. Employers ask these questions because they are so full of themselves that they actually really believe that they have found the one question that opens all the doors to the inside of someones mind. They are wrong.

On a lighter point, as one gets older the answers can become more fun. The biggest, and in my opinion, the dumbest of all interview questions is..."Where would you like to be in 5 years." You just walked into this place. The only thing you know about it is the location and what little bit of highly spun info that you were able to glean from the internet. There is no way to comfortably or even logically answer that question. As I have gotten older, I have actually answered that question with the single word, "alive". Still got the job.

WOW! You made some awesome points that I never thought of, thanks for this

 

[tlbwriter]

We do performance based interviews. Past behavior predicts future behavior.

We do the same thing, and candidates often just don't get it. For some reason it's really difficult to get past the "what I WOULD do" answer and find the "what I HAVE DONE" answer. We had one candidate who refused to answer most questions because he said it would violate a confidentiality agreement. Dude, if you can't figure out how to answer "how did you deal with a difficult customer" without naming the customer or the employer, you're really not creative enough for this job.

 

[Robinrs]

I once had an interview where I was asked to spell the word "compliment".


I asked "which one"?

He sat up and said "tell me about it"

I asked if he wanted me to spell the one that was the opposite of insult or the word that meant it went well with something else.

I was hired on the spot!