Weird Job Interview Questions

[Psykoma]

Personality is irrelevant to a candidate's ability to do the work.

Not even remotely true.

This is what I've been told by every interviewer/recruiter I've ever spoken to:
"The CV screening is to find out if you can do the job.
The interview is to find out if we like you."

Unless the company has a piss-poor recruitment process, every candidate that makes it to an interview can do the job, from there it's just picking a personality that works with the company.

 

[Roofstone]

I remember this small shop I was applying to gave me this gem:

"If your mate was turned into an animal, and the only way to turn them back was to mate with them. Which animal would give you the least psychological issues?"

It was a wolf, for the record.

A wolf.

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

A friend of mine mentioned having a very tough question during his interview and was given all the time they wanted, alone to answer it.

Imagine a square/rectangular piece of paper. You are playing a game against one opponent in which you take turns in placing a coin on the "board". The aim of the game is to be the last person to place a coin entirely on the paper as the first player who cannot place an entire coin on the board, loses. The question then, do you go first, or second, and how can you be assured of winning. (The size of the board and of the coin are irrelevant, provided the board is square/rectangular).

Took him 90mins to come up with the solution, which the interviewers said was one of the quickest they'd seen.

 

[Fasckira]

Pffft, I used to do interviews and one of my co-workers liked to ask the question "If you were a fairground ride, what ride would you be?".

The question is meh at best and you quickly get used to carefully thought out answers but the best answer has to be when we were interviewing one guy who responded "Yes.".

We looked at each other and my co-worker looked confused and said, "Sorry.. I mean, if you had to describe yourself as a fairground ride, what one would you pick and why?"

He responded again, "....yes."

The rest of his interview went in a similar vein and he didnt get the job.

 

[HDi]

It's not as strange as some, but I was asked, "What would your friends tell me about you?"

...which I wasn't prepared for at all, so I just answered "That I can hold my liquor."

I got the job. Though I doubt that answer helped.



...and I'd hope that Lilo and Stitch was one of the five correct Disney movies, otherwise, fuck those guys.

 

[Krixous]

Well for one interview i got asked if i prefer stripes or polka dot.

and i ask all potential future employees at my work when i interview them do you like tacos right in the middle of all the lame have to ask them question. (I mean honestly being forced to answer how do you deal with a angry customer the answer is always phone one of your managers and one of us will tell them to fuck off)

 

[EHKOS]

"Are you pre-op or post-op?"

Yep.... Because I'm transgender, people seem to feel free to ask about my genitals at will.

Yeah, this is a common one for us, interview or not.

I would think that would be illegal, since asking your sexual orientation is. That sucks.

OT: Beauty and the Beast, Pirates of the Caribbean, and, I'm probably not getting the job for this but, Atlantis.

Also Atlantis is one of the best games Disney put out for the PS1.

 

[GonvilleBromhead]

Also, do you think this Disney movies question is a legitimate one in any way?

It depends on the job somewhat. If it required a good knowledge of Children's movies, or was in some way artistic in its nature (and thus the ability to demonstrate knowledge of a wide range of possible inspiration)...seems fair enough.

The one I've had a few times has been "So looking at you CV....hang on, Air Raid Warden?!"


That former job confuses a few people

See what you are saying but I struggle to see how you could have "five correct answers"!

I was taken to a coffee shop, offered coffee (I had tea, I'm not a bloody Yank ) and then told to spend 1/2 hour writing about what motivated me, which was annoying.

The only way, logically, I can see there being five correct answers was if those five correct answers were "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio, Bambi, Fantasia and Dumbo"...the five earliest, to demonstrate that you don't just know the new stuff. Otherwise...a tad odd.

EDIT: Unless there were five wrong answers. I can see that some companies may not particular want people who list their favourite Disney movies as "Coal Black and the Sebben Dwarfs" and "Song of the South"...

 

[bluepilot]

"Are you pre-op or post-op?"

Yep.... Because I'm transgender, people seem to feel free to ask about my genitals at will.

Yeah, this is a common one for us, interview or not. As for that Disney movie question, fuck no that's not valid. People have different reasons for liking different things, and making it so some person can lose the job because they don't like the movies you like is beyond retarded.

"beyond retarded".... welcome to the world of job seeking.

Jon interviews have certain questions to see how well you "fit" into the company. This can include asking, "what is your favorite TV show", "if you could be a cartoon character who would you be?"

I was asked once about, "what dinosaur would I be?" I answered: Velociraptor, because they can work in a team and adapt to new challenges such as door opening. So. got. the. job.

You talk to me like I've never had to work to find a job before. In reality, I've gone through several jobs, and I think that some of these questions are rather dumb, like the aforementioned Disney one due to the answering criteria. For example, my favorite Disney movies probably aren't on that list, and if that was a requirement to answer one of the "valid" solutions for a completely unrelated job, it is veritably beyond retarded because you're denying a perfectly applicable worker a job for an unrelated reason. It's like requiring a job applicant for a library to have gone skydiving before: does that make any goddamn sense to you?

Actually I was agreeing with what you said and offering my own example of a silly question I was asked plus my own silly answer. Sorry to have caused any misunderstandings. I was not trying to patronize you or anything like that. Were you ever asked anything random in an interview?

 

[an annoyed writer]

Actually I was agreeing with what you said and offering my own example of a silly question I was asked plus my own silly answer. Sorry to have caused any misunderstandings. I was not trying to patronize you or anything like that. Were you ever asked anything random in an interview?

Ah. your intent wasn't as clear as you wanted it to be. And yeah, I've been asked some odd questions, but merely the usual ones(what animal would you be, etc. etc.)

 

[Headdrivehardscrew]

These are usually trick questions. The actual movie choices are irrelevant, the Interviewer is expecting you to follow up with arguments as to why you like said movies, to see if you can break down and assess a situation.

that I get...but the OP did say that aparently they had movie choices which were "right and wrong" which as you can imagine is utterly fucking stupid regardless of what information they think that tells them

I could explain in great detail why hunchback in my favorite disney movie...but if its not beuty and the beat/lion king (and another one the OP didnt know) then I'm aparently wrong whatever I say

I just dont understand the logic....unless they are judging the intellgegence/charachter of somone based on the fact that they choose the "best" disney movies...its just too subjective to call

mabye the OP just misunderstood the situation...because no one employer would judge you for not liking the right disney movies

Depends.

Around here, these tests are conceived by folks with a major/master or doctorate in psychology, often with specific demands by the client. So, if there really are right and wrong answers with the Disney movies question, it might revolve around age or a boring streamlined personality. If you like, say, the Lion King, everything's fine, but if you go for, say, Songs of the South, things get complicated and you're either too old or racist anyway, so off you go, shoo shoo. More often than not, the interviewer has no proper clue about why an answer to a question like that is considered 'correct' or 'wrong', they just have to apply the key and be done with it.

"So, this guy's application looks good, he's a really friendly chap, but he chose 'Aladdin', so I don't think we can send him off to work in Qatar..."

While some questions might actually let you reason your way into the job no matter your answer, I would absolutely expect some of these questions to be constructed and handled in such a way that they are just considered an absolute litmus test with absolutely no leeway, for whatever (valid or ass backwards) reason.

 

[Jayemsal]

"Are you pre-op or post-op?"

Yep.... Because I'm transgender, people seem to feel free to ask about my genitals at will.

Isn't that question illegal to be asked in a job interview? I remember being in reemployment and they said questions about gender, age, sexual preference, and like if you have aids is illegal.

Didn't stop them from asking me.

 

[Alilacia]

Oddest/most prying question I was asked at one job interview was: "Are you planning on getting pregnant/having kids?"

 

[Karhukonna]

It's not really a weird question, but perhaps an illegal one. Seeing as how we have a law of conscription, it's theoretically okay for an employer to ask if you've served, but they can't deny your employment simply because you either didn't serve or chose civilian service.

Also, since they can ask if you've served, they can pretty much just slide the whole military/civilian question into their original question. "Have you served in the military?", my boss asked me during my interview. Legally, he was just checking if I still had a term of service ahead of me, as they're legally supposed to hold my job position for me for the duration of my service, and might opt for a short term contract instead. I knew, however, that he was also getting to know me. It's not fair, that my service record affects my chances, for better or worse, but it's a fact that most employers prefer a military background, rather than a civilian or prison one.

Luckily, mentioning that I had served a full year triggered a casual follow up question, "an NCO, eh?", which immediately earned me points, fair or not.

So yeah, not really a weird question, just a really sneaky one.

 

[Bomberman4000]

In an interview recently I had a manager ask me "Why SHOULDN'T I hire you?" and "What question DON'T you want me to ask?"

Both questions seemed really out of place and caught me off guard, and in my answer I even told him it was weird to ask me to give him reasons not to hire me.


One of my favorite questions I like to ask in interviews (I've been in management for a little while and other job selection positions) is "If you were a part on a bicycle, what part would you be and why?" To me that question and questions similar to it help me understand if the potential hire understands teamwork and the importance of every position within a team.


I've also been asked when I started losing my hair. The older I get (I'm 25 now) the less unusual it is, but I started balding at 17. That question just seems nosey to me though.

 

[BlackBark]

OK, I've been reading everyone's answers and thinking about it some more. First of all, I can now recall three of the five answers: Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King and Toy Story 3. From this, it appears that the interviewer has chosen very popular and or very famous ones. So, given three choices, I think quite a lot of people are going to choose at least one of his top five, considering how well known they are, even though it might just be one of the only ones they know of or have actually seen. Anyway, I will never be able to find out exactly what the motivation behind the question was for this particular interviewer.

I can understand the answer that a lot of people have been putting forward that it can be a kind of personality test and in some ways, I think that might be a part of it, but I really wonder if you could accurately deduce anything based the answer to this question. It is entirely dependent on the interpretation of the interviewer.

Personality is irrelevant to a candidate's ability to do the work.

Not even remotely true.

This is what I've been told by every interviewer/recruiter I've ever spoken to:
"The CV screening is to find out if you can do the job.
The interview is to find out if we like you."

Unless the company has a piss-poor recruitment process, every candidate that makes it to an interview can do the job, from there it's just picking a personality that works with the company.

I think this is completely true. Once it comes down to the interview, it is mainly to do with whether or not they like you and think you will fit in with the other employees. However, not liking the same Disney movies is a pretty bad reason to not hire someone, although I am quite certain there are many even more stupid reasons that people have not been hired, based on the interviewers likes and dislikes.

 

[soren7550]

One time I was asked that if called upon, if I could/would perform a song and dance number "You know, just like American Idol!" (her words, not mine). This was for a cashier job. Didn't get that job.

For an online application for a cashier job at Radio Shack, it contained a timed test for you to complete. It said to not use a calculator (used one anyway since it's a job where you use a computer that does all the math for you anyway), and among the questions were things for algebra, word problems, riddles, and one type of question that I couldn't figure out the nature of for the life of me (it has a few random words or a short sentence, and the answers you had to pick were four random letters). Didn't get that job either.

And as for the Disney question, I don't see how it's really relevant to most any job, nor how there could really be any 'right' answers. There's also the question if live action films are applicable (such as Pirates of the Caribbean), films made by companies associated with Disney (such as Toy Story), or films made/distributed by companies owned by Disney (such as Princess Mononoke).

 

[waj9876]

"What is your sexual orientation? Heterosexual, Homosexual, Other(Please Elaborate)" It was a new chain convenience store. Pretty shitty chain now that I think about it. It didn't last long. I didn't get the job because I refused to answer that question.

I do wonder if I would have been hired if I had explained that I was pansexual. That I pretty much like every gender, no matter what gender they used to be...Probably not. I live in the southern part of the United States. This state isn't known for it's tolerance of change and difference.

 

[Cette]

One time I was asked that if called upon, if I could/would perform a song and dance number "You know, just like American Idol!" (her words, not mine). This was for a cashier job. Didn't get that job.

I could swear that Cold Stone Creamery outright has people doing just that as part of the interview process. Fuck that noise fuck it long and dry.

Also if there are correct answers to that Disney question then whoever put that should be fired out of a cannon.


My lack of patience with this sort of of business has led to long stretches of unemployment but damn does it work out if you can talk to real manager instead of some jackoff whose only job is to ask people stupid questions irrelevant to their ability to perform the task for which they are hired.


Clearly there's not bitterness here.

 

[Headdrivehardscrew]

Oddest/most prying question I was asked at one job interview was: "Are you planning on getting pregnant/having kids?"

I used to consider this question to be invasive, sexist and unfair.

Then one project, already five years in the making, nearly fell apart because of a rather selfish lady that came fresh off uni, seemingly bright, motivated and useful to the purpose, the post we hired her for.

In the interview, she stated that, aye, she'd be all dedicated, totally behind this project and wasn't planning on getting pregnant 'anytime soon'. Just four months later we got served with statements and legal documents and whatnot from her lawyer letting us know that, at the moment the interview took place, she'd actually already been pregnant, pointing out that she'd answered the question truthfully but would, inevitably, drop out due to childbirth, demanding all the monies and everything she legally could, leaving us one key man/woman down, poisoning workplace climate, dropping motivation significantly and even demanding to be allowed to come back to the job (or a comparable position) when she'd eventually feel like coming to work again. Pretty much everything that was already stressful and taxing turned to shit right there. We still managed to make it, but it's hard to explain why you would have to pay two expensive carpet-floor professionals when we struggled to get just one post green-lighted, and one simply not contributing anything to the job at hand, getting royally reimbursed for, what, two months of actual work, the act of having hired a lawyer and then just living the good life on somebody else's wallet for almost a year. I think that's not quite 'fair', no matter how one happens to define that word.

So, yeah, I absolutely do understand why anyone with their hearts and minds in the right place would feel offended by the question, but if you've ever been through this trauma once, facing facts of shutting an already struggling - but utterly important - project down and risking the jobs of dozens of people and seeing a good leader get axed for his 'leniency' and 'mistake' - I totally get why this question should not only be considered valid, but utterly important. The consequences of this one particular lady using her rights to the full extent? It's just the absolute minimal quota of females hired now, trans ladies and post-menopause ladies with experience preferred, as they pose a lesser risk of posing a costly threat by randomly pooping out babies and siccing hungry hungry lawyers on their employer.