Strange Job interview? Help!

In My Humble Opinion
1

“If you could invite any 6 people (or other) to dinner, who would you pick, and why?”

This was asked on the take home interview questions that my wife has brought home. I get the feeling that this is one of those psychological profile type questions that we are not duplicitous to read enough in to. Doper assistance would be keenly appreciated.

Flexibility, nurturing, fun, adventurous (outdoorsy and travel), exuberant outlook on life; these are the tone of the stated qualifications that they are looking for.

So, In Your Humble Opinion, what group of people/animals/aliens/what have you would best reflect these qualities if a person chose to have dinner with them?

2

darth vader.

yes, definately darth vader.

3

Sorry, I forgot to mention that this is an actual serious question that has direct bearing on the future economic well-being of my family. Thanks for participating, however.

4

allright. i apologize for making light of your situation. i have a few suggestions to make up for it, though. hope this helps:

calvin (from calvin and hobbes).
tow sawyer.
teddy roosevelt (not so much on the flexibility/nurturing, but definately outdoorsy/exhuberant type).

if i think of more, ill make sure to let you know.

5

What company or at least what type of company gave her this question.

If its the phone company, say Alexander Grahm Bell and Thoman Edison.

6

This would be for a nanny type position.

7

well dont put down louise woodward then! :wink:

personally, id pick sean connery and alex trebek. oooh, and to round it out, liv tyler, viggo mortensen, and miranda otto. and ghandi.

8

I’d write something or other about being a little taken aback by the question–the way it’s asked conjures up images of some formal dinner party, and I’m just not a formal dinner party person. They’re too stuffy and stiff and artificial and so forth, and avoiding those things is really why I like working with kids.

Only with more time spent on the wording and so forth, of course, but that’d be the basic gist of it.

9

Here’s a few threads about this very subject:

If you could invite anybody to your dinner party

Guess who’s coming to dinner

10

Does your wife know the kid? If so, she can purposely “misunderstand” the question by saying she read it to mean “Who would you invite to dinner? (for my child to meet)” and then name people who match the child’s interests. For example, if the kid was into dinosaurs (and what kid isn’t?), she could say Alvarez, the man who was the big proponent of the asteroid dinosaur-killer theory.

Just a thought.

Amelia Earhardt might be a good name, as would Dianne Fossey (sp!). Or Cecil Rhodes, for that matter.

11

Actually I disagree. You are being hired by the parents, not the child.

What do the parents expect? What are they like? What do they drive? What’s the house like? Political beliefs? Religious beliefs? What do they do for a living? Do they recycle? Are they conservative or liberal? Most importantly, what do they expect for thier child? Get a handle on the parents, they are the ones doing the hiring.

That said, it will also matter if you pick attendies who are alive vs. dead; it shows a difference in outlook and praticality if you invite dead people to a dinner party vs. the more practical, down to earth non-dead.

In other words, depends on the parents, how well you know them, and what they expect. There is no right answer.

My picks(in no particular order):

Einstien
Ghandi
Buddha
Alan Turing
Stephen Hawking
Pierre P. Escoffier

To explain that last for the non-foodies, if you’re having a dinner party, and you can invite anyone ever, you really should invite the father of french cuisine. At least he can cook for the rest of you, and he was a hell of a guy besides.

12

I don’t think it’s a tricky psychological profile question. I think it’s just a way of finding out more about you by finding out who you admire. So just tell the truth. I would throw in one humorous answer.

I might be tempted to answer “six starving refugee children.” However, if I read that answer I’d think the person was full of **it. Personally, I might be able to get away with it, since I actually have worked with refugees, but otherwise it sounds like BS.

13

Not sure what the “(or other)” means. Fictional charcters? People who are now dead?

If the question is limited to those currently alive, I would suggest people from different fields, all with high intelligence and a flexibility of outlook. Some possible candidates: [ul]

**Tom Hanks ** (combines accessiblity with intelligence. Not overawed with himself or the Hollywood system. Popular, showing you’re not too stuffy, and intelligent, showing you’re not an airhead fangirl).

**Stephen Hawking ** Hard to go wrong with perhaps the most intelligent person alive.

**Neil Armstrong ** The first man to leave our planet and walk on the moon is still alive. How could you not invite him, if you were able?

**Michael Crichton ** A writer, director and producer with a Harvard MD to boot. Created televsion series “ER”, wrote best-selling novels made into movies (“Jurassic Park,” “Andromeda Strain,” “Congo,” etc.) Won an Oscar for technical achievement in 1994, a Peabody Award for ER in 1995. Is a computer expert, serious modern art collector and world traveller.

**Maya Angelou ** Internationally respected poet, writer and educator who has worked to improve conditions for women in the third world. One of the few women admitted to the Director’s Guild. Appointed by President Ford to serve on the Bicentennial Commision and by President Carter to serve on the Commission for International Woman of the Year.

Condoleezza Rice currently national security affairs advisor to the President. She is on leave from the Hoover Institution, where she is a senior fellow. She is a tenured professor in the political science department at Stanford University and served as provost for six years.
Previously she worked in planning for the Joint Chiefs of Staff. She cofounded the Center for a New Generation, an after-school academy in East Palo Alto. She serves on the Hewlett Foundation, is a Council of Foreign Relations a National Endowment for the Humanities trustee, and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She’s written many articles and several books on international relations.
[/ul]

That should be make a well-rounded table with some interesting discussions. Hope it helps.

14

Here’s an idea you might not have thought of: Write that she’d invite you as one of the guests. It makes her look family oriented, which would be good for a nanny job.

Come to think of it, maybe this question is trickier than I thought.

15

Hey, Etherman, that sounds like a hell of a dinner party. Can I come too?

16

I’d like to point out that if you invite a bunch of famous people, they’d be unlikely to accept.

17

This is an excellent point, and the question as posed is idiotic:

  1. What the hell does or other mean?
  2. You CAN invite any six people. I can guarantee Einstein won’t show, and Neil Armstrong or Stephen Hawking are bad bets. Besides, Hawking wouldn’t make it up the stairs to my apt. The other 5 would have to haul him up by rope over the balcony. :stuck_out_tongue:

A safe answer is “Since no famous people would likely accept, I’d invite mom & dad, my brother & sister, and neighbors”. It’s a warm-glow kind of thing.

Otherwise, restructure the question before answering. Maybe this is an intelligence test.

18

I took “or other” to mean potential guests such as Tigger or Kermit the Frog.

19

aaaaaarrgg and Etherman,

consider yourself corrected.

20

It’s a nanny position–how about someone fun like Dr. Suess? Or Theodore Geissel (sp? don’t correct me, Gyan9 it is early in the AM and I am feeling lazy) if you want to look smarter. Or maybe one of his characters, like the Cat in the Hat?

Or how about Joan What’sHer Name (Ganz Cooney, maybe? see comment above) who started Sesame Street? Or Jim Henson?

Given the position, I would throw in one kid-oriented person, at least.