65 Job Interview Questions So Bizarre, You Won’t Believe They’re Real
Typical engineering type question.
“You have a perfect sphere the size of the earth. You wrap a string snugly around the equator. It is a magic string with no stretch. Now you add 6 inches to the string. Would you be able to fit your hand under the gap created?”
You give your answer and then are asked to prove it mathematically.
One of my friend used ot work in finance and was applying for a job in the video game industry.
Interviewer: “so you were working in finance???”
friend: “yes. I know it’s a 180° turn but…”
I:”Well I’d even say 360°!”
f: “Well no, 360° I’d be back where I was”.
“How do you think out of the box?” I was really young and came from a non-American family so I had never heard of that quote before. I asked the interviewer who was an HR manager to explain what it meant. And he just repeated the question. I said to him I don’t know this term, “Out of the box.” Then he looked upset at me. Thinking back 20 years later, he should have said it means how do you think up new ways to tackle problems. Terrible interviewer and terrible Hr manager.
What’s your favorite Pokémon?
For an accounting position, at cabinet company, with no known Pokémon association.
When I interview candidates, I barely ever ask technical questions, and if I do, I intentionally make them as vague as possible, because I want to see how people find information, not how much they know already. I tend to pull from scenarios I regularly get from non-technical people. (In my company, it’s not unusual for things to get escalated to engineers quickly). So my goal is to see how quickly they can tease out a problem based on very limited information.
I usually start with “a user claims that the internet isn’t working. What do you do?”
One candidate went with:
“I’ll restart the internet router”
“For the whole company?”
“Yes.”
“Ok. You restart the internet router and now other people are reporting that the internet is out and the user who reported it still says the internet is out.”
“Well, that always works.”
“It’s not working tho. What are you going to do now?”
“But restarting the router *always* works”
“Let’s move on to the next question…”.
I was asked for in a consultant type role for daycares.
If I came across a spill in the hallway of a daycare… who should report it.
I was Legit puzzled. I’m a health and safety rep in schools. I literally took a good 5sec thinking this is a trick answer… it has to be.
So I responded it’s everyone’s responsibility. Since I’m seeing it. I need to report to site supervisor. If the ece sees it, they need to report it. If the cook sees it. They need to report it
Sorry but is that the answer you were looking for.
Their response…. oh yes.
Me: oh I want sure if that was a trick question.
Them: no…. but your the only one who responded correctly 😳😳😳😳😳🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯
Floored… absolutely floored.
I was once asked if I was a Democrat or a Republican. I don’t think employers should be able to ask that.
Interviewer: So, if you had vacation planned and we told you two weeks before that you can’t take it because we had to bump a release through no fault of your own. What is your response?
Me: If it is a “mental health day” not a problem. If I have airplane tickets, rooms, etc booked. I expect the company to pay for my losses.
*Room went silent*
Question was asked again later on from a slightly differently. I gave the exact same answer. It was at that point I realized I wouldn’t accept or get that job. As that was not the answer they wanted. They wanted me to happily burn my money for their failure.
She asked me who would win in a fight a dragon or unicorn?
I said they are both magical and beautiful and should not be fighting (it was an education leadership role so I was thinking in terms of students and perceptions).
She answered No because dragons are evil, i didn’t get the offer lol.
OK, so I’m old enough and lived in the Deep South (USA) long enough that this might not have been that uncommon in the day.
I was in my last semester of college and interviewing for my first professional job (IT). The interview process was going smoothly, and I felt pretty positive about the company and the role. I got to the assistant director of the department, and he was the textbook old Southern gentleman. He was asking me a series of questions about my fit for the role and getting to know me when, out of the blue, he asked “Have you accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal savior?”.
I wanted (and got) the job, so without missing a beat, I said of course. We never spoke about it again. I’m still an atheist.
