Nothing to add to the title really - what's the worst question you've ever been asked at a job interview ???

Mine was the interview that started

"Good morning Mrs Jay. Sit down....

Now, have you ever sacked anyone?"


Didn't get the job.

I've only had one interview (Unless 'Sorry, don't take 15 year olds' counts)

They asked me to read a sheet about cheese then answer questions about it, pretending I was helping a customer choose some cheese...

I got the job though

I'm not sure what you mean by "worst".... "Worst" as in hardest question to answer? Most inappropriate?

Let me give you an example of "worst" (i.e. as in poorly executed) interview I ever did have.

I had a "technical" (software) interview at a company once and did my normal trick of trying to let the interviewer tell me about themselves as much as possible. This can work to ones advantage since if the interviewer is that self-obssessed they can go for ages and then finish feeling like the interview went really well.

This happened with this chap. He talked, and talked, and talked about all his marvellous work and interesting projects etc.

One hour later he wrapped up with "that was a lot of fun, you clearly know what you are talking about..."

I accepted the job, but then blew them out a bit later when I got offered twice the reddies somewhere else. LOL.

I went for a job in H and M and they asked me what magazines I read and who was my style icon.

They had never heard of 'Practical poultry' or 'Your horse'.

When I said that I was my own style icon they almost refused me the job on the spot, they didnt, but sent me a letter two days later saying I wasn't ideal!!

I got my job at GAME just because I was in the army. He only employed me because he thought I'd have interesting stories!

That is nasty and manipulative, MrB! You should know better!

Not in a job interview, but our first ever interview for a mortgage - with Barclays Bank, Queen Street, Cardiff 1981

"Now then Mr Roberts, do you mind telling me (in front of your wife) what is your annual income?"

The reply was "I have no idea, please ask her, she deals with all the monetary stuff and she has a job and I am currently on unemployment benefit!!!"

I don't know about worst question, but I definitely remember my worst answer!

A diplomatic service interviewer asked me what I thought I would do if I failed to get into the diplomatic service. I gave her a quick rundown of the first 50 plans on my list and got a frosty "Well, with all those alternatives, I don't know why you bothered with us", and LIKE A FOOL, I said, "I'm terribly sorry, I didn't realize you only wanted people without an idea in their heads."

I don't remember which of us was the first to say that perhaps the interview had reached the end of its usefulness!

*Giggles*

That's the kind of thing that would happen to me.

Then again....I have style....I was the person who turned up for work at a competition stables in pink wellies, a fluffy pink scarf, Eeyore ear warmers, rainbow arm warmers, and bright purple jods!!

The head of department where I went for a job in forest research was renowned for fiendish questions.
The job was a junior (they called it assistant scientific officer) statistician.
My interview was in 1984 but I can still remember some of the questions very clearly:

"How would you differentiate x cubed - from first principles?"
"Draw the growth curve of a tree"
"What is the difference between infinite and infinitessimal?"

The same man was most upset when he asked a student in one interview how they would estimate the volume of timber in a tree and was given the answer "submerge it in water and measure the displacement"

I was once asked by Procter and Gamble

A rope ladder is hung over the side of a ship, and the rungs are 1 ft apart.
One rung is submerged, and the second rung just level with the sea.
If the sea level rises three feet , how many rungs are in the water. ?

Answers please ?

4?

It's a nice question, like the "where did they bury the survivors?" one!

The answer is 1, cuz the ship floats on the sea, irrespective of the sea's depth...

Oops...

Thank you for coming in for interview today, Miss Ross. We will let you know in due course.

none; the ship's gone ashore by that time.

I don't even remember the context now...but somehow in my interview for this job, we must have got on to the subject of Wallace & Gromit, and Shaun the sheep. One of the subsequent questions was along the lines of 'And what do you think Shaun would say in that situation?', to which I naturally responded 'Baaaa!'

Luckily, the interviewer had a sense of humour and he told me much later that I'd been doing well anyway, but that clinched it for him!
Unluckily, the interviewer remembers this incident and takes every opportunity, nine years on, to embarrass me by making sideways references to it in front of people - and then when they want clarification as to why I look like this: he tells them in all detail

You could argue that the second rung is also in the water if it is just level with the water.

I once interviewed for a new assistant and asked him about his best and worst line managers, and why he liked/didn't like about them. My manager told me that it was a very naughty question.

I wouldn't like to be asked that question, but his answers have really helped me to (try to) manage him in a way that helps him to work at his best.

not if it's sinking

Mr B is right, the ship also rises, so theres no change from the first position.

WOO! Can I have the job?

I did a bit of work at P&G in a previous life at their Thurrock factory. This is the one which has the little church next door which featured in the "funeral" sequence of Four Weddings and a Funeral... Quite bizarre to see it hard up against the big industrial installation...

P&G aren't open to other - equally valid - responses?

I was asked a question similar to fsharpminors ship question at university interview years ago.

A barge from the local quarry is sitting in a lock on the canal. A large block of stone falls off the barge into the water and sinks. Does the level of water in the lock rise, fall or stay the same?

If the rock is of mass x and volume y, when it is in the boat, it is displacing x grams of water, which is equivalent to x ml. When in the water, it is displacing y ml of water. It sinks, meaning that it has a density greater than water, which has a density of 1g/ml. If the rock has a density greater than this, x/y>1, meaning that x>y which means that when it displaces x ml in the boat, the water level is higher than when it displaces y ml in the water which means that when it falls out the water level falls.

I thought the level would stay the same cuz I felt it displaces the same water whether on the boat or in the drink. I prefer Mr. Pyroman's analysis tho and this kind of stuff always made my head hurt...

Reminds me of another logical thinking question.

Given that a 10p coin weighs exactly twice that of a 5p coin, which is worth more...

a) 1 kilogram of 5p coins

or

b) 1/2 kilogram of 10p coins

When the block is floating in the barge it displaces its own mass of water.

When the block has fallen in the water it displaces its own volume of water.

As the block sinks, it must have a density greater than that of water.

So the volume of water that has the same mass as the mass of the block must be greater than the volume of the block.

So the water level will fall.


I'll have the 5p coins please

with regards to the job interview....i've never had one!

But i like all these logical thinking questions...

A woman gives birth to 9 children. Exactly half of them are girls. How many are girls?

Hehe, what kinds of jobs are these, being asked logic questions?
I've never had a job interview, but the sound fun!

4.5 1 was born a hermaphrodite and therfore is half boy and girl

4 girls and a hermaphrodite.

There is no answer. A hermaphrodite is not half girl, it is a hermaphrodite.

You might say, though, that they were all boys, but half of a boy is a girl (XX-XY), and so half of them were girls...

But the Y gene instead of the X gene is only one of 46 genes.

I take "them" to mean the woman AND the kids, so the answer is 5.

all 9 are girls

Two hardest questions I was asked at interview

Worldwide, how many aeroplanes would you estimate are currently in the sky?

How much do you think a 30 second ad slot in ITV News at 10 would cost?

There are no right or wrong answers to these - it's all about the reasoning....and I got the job!


Several years on I got to interview people with similar questions. As well as the silly questions we have to ask sensible ones too. I interviewed one person who performed really well on the reasoning type questions but was abysmal at all the normal sorts of questions. Before the interview I'd been through his/her CV and pulled out lots of things to ask about to try and get evidence for the capabilities we're looking for. The Q and A went something along the lines of

Q: So tell me about how you were involved in organising..xyz.....?
A: Reasonable spiel that tells me nothing I need to know

Q: How did the various members of the team interact to share the responsibilities?
A: We didn't really, we just all did our own thing

Q: Can you tell me about any situation where you worked as part of a team?
A: No. I'd rather work on my own.

This candidate didn't progress any further in the recruitment procedure, although he did score highly for honesty!

Surely you can't tell how many are girls ?
Just cos you know half are girls doesn't tell you what the other half are !

Exactly - at least honest but probably no idea just how damming the answers were. In the academic world, a gentle seemingly simple question like - do tell me about your publications - would not be asked of the person with a genuine list of publications, but for those who have an over ambitious list of nothing but titles dig their own graves.