# Strange, outlandish, or totally stupid job interview questions you've been asked **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 13, 2014, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-outlandish-or-totally-stupid-job-interview-questions-youve-been-asked/678705 "2014-01-13T21:06:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2014, 8:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-outlandish-or-totally-stupid-job-interview-questions-youve-been-asked/678705/61 "2014-01-15T08:16:10Z")
Ah, but nobody had thought of including “ability to communicate with coworkers and general public” in the job specs, see. ---
**Author:** ![SerafinaPekala](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecae2f/32.png) [@SerafinaPekala](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SerafinaPekala)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2014, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-outlandish-or-totally-stupid-job-interview-questions-youve-been-asked/678705/62 "2014-01-15T14:25:57Z")
“Do you like to bake cakes?” (My first nursing job right out of school) It should have been a clue that this would be the most inane supervisor in the history of my career, but no, I lied and got the job. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2014, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-outlandish-or-totally-stupid-job-interview-questions-youve-been-asked/678705/63 "2014-01-15T14:46:11Z")
“Do you support the department’s Affirmative Action program?” That used to be one of our standard interview questions some years back. I asked once if answering “no” would be hurtful to my chances, and they said yes, it would. Now we ask “Can you perform the essential duties of this position, with our without accomodation?”. Sure, like someone’s going to answer no for that one. Things have gotten to the point where they should just ask one question of the candidates: “What is your name?” If it matches the person that was already predetermined to get the job, great. If not, they say “We’ll let you know in two weeks” and when you leave the room they laugh their asses off that you bothered dressing up for the interview. ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2014, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-outlandish-or-totally-stupid-job-interview-questions-youve-been-asked/678705/64 "2014-01-15T15:00:00Z")
_You are asked to paint a room. You must complete the job today. The owner is off-site, and you find that she has left two different colours of paint: blue and yellow. What do you do?_ Under pressure, and thinking this was some kind of trick question, I said probably the only bad answer: “I would mix the paints”. But the interviewer just said “interesting…interesting…”, and I got the job. A few months later, it was my turn to interview someone and my manager told me to ask the paint question. The right answer? “Oh, there’s no answer, it just tells you something about the candidate’s personality” :dubious: * * * Another example: I have a friend that is a college professor and he told me that he always asks candidates the question: “Do you consider yourself a lucky person”? They must give a positive answer to this or they are rejected outright. I see what he’s getting at, and as a “seize every opportunity” kind of guy I’ve had some wonderful and interesting events in my life, particularly recently. But I would still hesitate to call myself lucky. ---
**Author:** ![Flywheel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Flywheel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flywheel)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2014, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-outlandish-or-totally-stupid-job-interview-questions-youve-been-asked/678705/65 "2014-01-15T15:11:07Z")
> [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](#): > > I wouldn’t have gotten that job because I would have provided a smartass answer. I can think of two just off the top of my head. (1) Just long enough to reach the ground, and (2) I make them commensurate with my crimes. (3) Twice the length from the middle to the end. ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2014, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-outlandish-or-totally-stupid-job-interview-questions-youve-been-asked/678705/66 "2014-01-15T16:29:56Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > Ah, but nobody had thought of including “ability to communicate with coworkers and general public” in the job specs, see. Well, color me cynical, but it seems that they _did_ think of that; but they didn’t give a damn and hired him anyway. (I never saw him after that first day.) ---
**Author:** ![kayT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayt/32/3633_2.png) [@kayT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayT)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2014, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-outlandish-or-totally-stupid-job-interview-questions-youve-been-asked/678705/67 "2014-01-15T16:44:31Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > You probably learned not to mention fiction writing ever again on a resume. You can have written the Britannica and been provost at Harvard, but stick a stupid novel on there and you can’t get hired for McD’s. I once got a job because I put “published poet” on my resume. It was a pretty good job too, and had nothing at all to do with writing. But it got their attention. ---
**Author:** ![MikeF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MikeF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeF)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2014, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-outlandish-or-totally-stupid-job-interview-questions-youve-been-asked/678705/68 "2014-01-15T18:22:18Z")
Regarding the manhole cover question. They actually asked this of new applicants at my old job sometime after I was hired. I had never heard of this before and one of the people who managed to get hired told me about it. My first response was WTF? What is the point of that question? I don’t remember which of the two came first but but my replies were then 1) because manholes are round and 2) so they don’t fall in the hole. I like #1 better. ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2014, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-outlandish-or-totally-stupid-job-interview-questions-youve-been-asked/678705/69 "2014-01-15T18:41:27Z")
The reason why they asked the retirement question of the OP is that the place probably has a standard list of questions they ask everyone, just so there’s no bias and they can’t be sued later. Having the same script also ensures that the interviewers don’t go off script and ask anything forbidden. ---
**Author:** ![TimeWinder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bcef8e/32.png) [@TimeWinder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimeWinder)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2014, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-outlandish-or-totally-stupid-job-interview-questions-youve-been-asked/678705/70 "2014-01-15T19:14:02Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > But my son at a well-known software company gave job interviews regularly and says that the results are so random as to be essentially useless. Infamous example: Why are manhole covers round? Official answer: because round covers can’t fall in. While that is so, there are many other possible reasons. Men are (sort of round), round pipes are easy to manufacture and don’t have weak corners… I think the reasons are lost in the depths of history, but there is an official answer. That’s partly why we don’t ask those “brain teaser” sorts of questions any more. The other half is that interviewees hated them (we survey both successful and unsuccessful candidates about their interview experiences). But any of those answers would have been acceptable – the goal wasn’t to get a “right” answer, but rather to determine how people problem-solve when given an intellectual problem from left field. I’m actually unconvinced that the replacement questions (which tend to be of a “write the code to solve this very specific short problem on the whiteboard”) aren’t even worse - they tend to have “right” answers that depend on whether or not you remember specifics of your data structures classes rather that the sorts of problems that are actually encountered by modern software engineers. The correct answer to “how do you sort a linked list” shouldn’t be code, it should be “what sort of moron writes his own linked lists in 2014 when verified correct libraries are available to do it?” ---
**Author:** ![Ace309](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ace309/32/1050_2.png) [@Ace309](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ace309)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2014, 11:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-outlandish-or-totally-stupid-job-interview-questions-youve-been-asked/678705/71 "2014-01-16T11:34:53Z")
> [@dougie\_monty](#): > > When I’ve had interviews it’s particulary upsetting to be asked what I would do in hypothetical situations. > I give what I consider a sensible answer: Go to someone who has authority over me and knows the applicable rules. The interviewers called this “running to your supervisor.” That’s not fair. I don’t think people have innate knowledge (or even schooling) to cope with special situations; they should have some training to learn the rules. Do you answer the question that way habitually? ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Accident](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Mr.Accident](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Accident)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2014, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-outlandish-or-totally-stupid-job-interview-questions-youve-been-asked/678705/72 "2014-01-16T11:43:38Z")
I once filled out an entire application of odd questions. It’s been about 2 years, but I’ll post those I remember. Please note that no where on this application was there a spot for job history, references, etc, and the owner refused to take resumes! Not this is for a coffee shop. 1. What is more important? Family, coffee, money. (She was looking for coffee.) 2. If you could have lunch with anyone ever alive, who would it be? (She was looking for movie stars she liked.) 3. What is your favorite beverage? (Again, coffee.) It just went on like that for 12 more questions. The lunch one I mentioned above required a one page essay on why you would want to eat with that person. I had applied when she was just opening the shop, and talked to her quite a bit that day, which is how I found out what she was looking for. Based on the application and other things she said, I would have sworn the place wouldn’t last a week. It’s been 2 years now, and the only time I see the parking lot empty is bad weather, the place is closed, or the owner is out of town. ---
**Author:** ![Ace309](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ace309/32/1050_2.png) [@Ace309](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ace309)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2014, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-outlandish-or-totally-stupid-job-interview-questions-youve-been-asked/678705/73 "2014-01-16T11:52:28Z")
I was on the other end of this one, but once, I was doing a Skype interview with a candidate who had told me he came from a tiny town called something like Podunk, Nebraska. At the end, I gave him the boilerplate about the timeline and then asked if he had any questions for me. He asked me to name a town in Nebraska. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2014, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-outlandish-or-totally-stupid-job-interview-questions-youve-been-asked/678705/74 "2014-01-16T12:00:07Z")
At the end of the interview: “Which would you rather do: eat a scab sandwich, or dive into a swimming pool full of snot?” To this day I regret not saying, “I can only pick one?” ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2014, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-outlandish-or-totally-stupid-job-interview-questions-youve-been-asked/678705/75 "2014-01-17T00:13:22Z")
In the 1970s, I had just graduated high school. In a sort of backlash against my friends and past, I cut my former long hair, to what the soldiers of the day called ‘a regular’ (See pic in link, only shorter), and went into a Cowboy mode. I went to apply for a job at a Cowboy clothing store. The person in charge glared at me, and asked “Would you cut your hair???” ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Fun\_Ball](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_fun_ball/32/17664_2.png) [@Happy\_Fun\_Ball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Fun_Ball)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2014, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-outlandish-or-totally-stupid-job-interview-questions-youve-been-asked/678705/76 "2014-01-17T00:58:12Z")
I once was asked this question: “you are in a rowboat with a cannonball on a lake and you throw the ball in the water. What happens to the water level of the lake?” I got it right, the water level goes down, but I didn’t get the job (thank goodness in hindsight). They also asked a question that I don’t quite remember about having two jars of jelly beans, one full of red and the other full of half red/ half blue. The question had to do with the how to determine which was which by only taking one jelly bean from one jar at random. Or something like that. That interview sucked. Six engineers picking on newly graduated me! ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2014, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-outlandish-or-totally-stupid-job-interview-questions-youve-been-asked/678705/77 "2014-01-17T03:30:57Z")
> [@Mr.Accident](#): > > I once filled out an entire application of odd questions. It’s been about 2 years, but I’ll post those I remember. Please note that no where on this application was there a spot for job history, references, etc, and the owner refused to take resumes! Not this is for a coffee shop. > > 1. What is more important? Family, coffee, money. (She was looking for coffee.) > 2. If you could have lunch with anyone ever alive, who would it be? (She was looking for movie stars she liked.) > 3. What is your favorite beverage? (Again, coffee.) > > It just went on like that for 12 more questions. The lunch one I mentioned above required a one page essay on why you would want to eat with that person. > > I had applied when she was just opening the shop, and talked to her quite a bit that day, which is how I found out what she was looking for. Based on the application and other things she said, I would have sworn the place wouldn’t last a week. It’s been 2 years now, and the only time I see the parking lot empty is bad weather, the place is closed, or the owner is out of town. Well? How’s the coffee? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-outlandish-or-totally-stupid-job-interview-questions-youve-been-asked/678705.md?page=3)