OT: Unorthodox interview

[nomar]

It's always good to weed out honest people so you can get more psychopaths in.

Well, it is a law firm.

But, really, like I said, it showed a complete lack of judgment. Saying you don’t want to work hard isn’t honest, it’s stupid. And we definitely want to weed morons out.

 

[Chief00]

An interview is not about the interviewee but the interviewer. How does hiring you make their lives easier and more successful. Keep that in mind in your answers and you will do fine.

 

[UConnMike04]

I’m interviewing for most of this week and next. So far one no-show, and one thought we were a completely different agency. People just don’t really prepare as much I feel like these days. One of the worst ones was a few years ago and we asked about dealing with different cultures in regards to clientele and he showed us a picture of a summer camp he worked at in Bridgeport where it was him (mid 40s white male) in a circle with 10-15 African American kids and said “obviously I’m used to other cultures.” Couldn’t get through the rest of the interview fast enough.

 

[temery]

No question is worse than - "Tell me about yourself"

 

[CL82]

No question is worse than - "Tell me about yourself"

There is only one correct answer to that question:

The details of my life are quite inconsequential. My father was a relentlessly self-improving boulangerie owner from Belgium with low grade narcolepsy and a penchant for buggery. My mother was a fifteen year old French prostitute named Chloe with webbed feet. My father would womanize, he would drink, he would make outrageous claims like he invented the question mark. Some times he would accuse chestnuts of being lazy, the sort of general malaise that only the genius possess and the insane lament. My childhood was typical, summers in Rangoon, luge lessons. In the spring we'd make meat helmets. When I was insolent I was placed in a burlap bag and beaten with reeds, pretty standard really. At the age of 12 I received my first scribe. At the age of fourteen, a Zoroastrian named Vilma ritualistically shaved my testicles. There really is nothing like a shorn scrotum, it's breathtaking, I suggest you try it.

 

[bristol rises]

Prospective employer required a Wonderlic test from every serious candidate pre-offer. I finished taking the test and the HR Recruiter laptop froze while downloading my results. She lost everything and I had to take back-to-back Wonderlics. Poor woman was appalled. I got the offer, accepted, and it became a regular inside joke between the two of us for years.

 

[Kajik]

Thank God I'm self-employed.Having a self important moron asking me stupid questions and judging me I find extremely repulsive

 

[alexd]

I once had a younger-ish female hiring manager ask me at the end of an interview what my "spirit animal" was and why.

 

[8893]

I once had a younger-ish female hiring manager ask me at the end of an interview what my "spirit animal" was and why.

What was your answer?

 

[BPT2Storrs]

This. I feel like every Tom, Dick, and Harry hiring manager heard a story about some deep questions they asked in an investment banking or private equity interview and now everyone has to include these bizarre questions that are totally useless for 90% of the positions they're asked for and where the hiring managers wouldn't be able to glean any information from the answers even if they were useful.

But if we're giving examples, I had a friend in the PE space who shared two weird interview situations. The first was on a pre-interview dinner where a senior member of the firm just reached across the table during the meal and grabbed something of my friend's plate with his fork and another where the interviewers just walked out of the room without saying a word. Both designed to see what the candidate does but both incredible stupid to me.

If you ever find yourself in a position similar to your friend in PE, in all honesty what do you do? It’s clearly a test but if another grown man just leaned over and grabbed food of my plate I’d be livid inside. Do you laugh? Offer more food? Ask the person what in the world they’re doing? I mean Do you even want the job at that point and work for someone like that?

In some industries (finance, law, politics) I think there is more of this “test” to see if you can fit in. I feel you’re damned if you do, damned if you don’t in those situations. Seems odd to me to put people in those circumstances. Guess I don’t have an ego like some of the people in those positions.

 

[alexd]

What was your answer?

I lucked out.. I said "a cat". It turns out she was a cat person. But I didn't get the job anyway.

 

[M.S.G.]

See, those are the questions I excel at. When you ask me about "buzz terms" in education, or things I haven't used at my previous job that you rank to be super important at this job that's where I have to improvise. I would LOVE if someone would ask me about cartoon characters and animals, they'd never forget this candidate.

 

[husky429]

See, those are the questions I excel at. When you ask me about "buzz terms" in education, or things I haven't used at my previous job that you rank to be super important at this job that's where I have to improvise. I would LOVE if someone would ask me about cartoon characters and animals, they'd never forget this candidate.

I have education buzzword burnout. If I hear MICRO-CREDENTIALS or FLEXIBLE SEATING one more time I will quit on the spot.

Do you know what happens when I give my classes FLEXIBLE SEATING? Nothing different at all, because a desk that moves in a circle or a square doesn't make or break a classroom.

And I'm still not sure what a MICRO-CREDENTIAL is, but apparently, I have 3 because I slept through some virtual PD.

 

[WhereistheDove?]

If you ever find yourself in a position similar to your friend in PE, in all honesty what do you do? It’s clearly a test but if another grown man just leaned over and grabbed food of my plate I’d be livid inside. Do you laugh? Offer more food? Ask the person what in the world they’re doing? I mean Do you even want the job at that point and work for someone like that?

In some industries (finance, law, politics) I think there is more of this “test” to see if you can fit in. I feel you’re damned if you do, damned if you don’t in those situations. Seems odd to me to put people in those circumstances. Guess I don’t have an ego like some of the people in those positions.

He reached across the table and took a piece of food right back off the guy's plate. Got offered the job but ended up taking one somewhere else. The weirdness of the interview was part of the reason he turned it down.

 

[Travelman6]

My only experiences are on hiring committees. Had a guy tells us that his ideal classroom was one where "no child ever speaks."

Yikes, ya, that is odd. It is closer to the opposite of that...

Four questions jump out to me:

1. Employer: I have a closed fist. How can you get me to open it?
Me: Open it....
Employer: No
Me: Ok....
Employer: Anything else?
Me: If you open it I have something to give to you....?
Employer: shrugs shoulders, I don't want it.
Me: High five
Employer: *Give me a fist bump with a closed fist
Me: ......*awkward silence for about half a minute...
Employer: Have you tried simply saying "Please"?
Me: ....Please.... open your hand....
Employer: Ok....
Me: So, has anyone ever, uh, got that right?
Employer chuckles I had one guy try to pry my fist open, another one who threatened me, and another one who tried to bribe me with money just to open it. See, here we don't believe in coercion or bribes. Please is so simple, but it works! You see?
Me: Thanks for that interesting exercise.

2. Same employer: Let me be your silverback gorilla
Me: What do you mean?
Employer: What do you think it means?
Me: ..... I don't know
Employer: Trust me!

3. Same employer: (After asking about my experience with teenagers). Describe a difficult situation you had with a teen student and what did you do?
Me: (explains a situation)
Employer: The thing you have to understand about teens is, pause, they have no soul. chuckles. Here, they do what they want because they have the choice to explore their actions and reactions and we trust they will make the choice they need to.
Me: And if a student makes the wrong choice?
Employer: Wrong? That sounds judgemental.
Me: Sorry
Employer: Here, we don't judge a student in their process and if they need help in regard to their choices, we have the connecting room. If children need to reflect on their choice, they go there.

4. Employer: How do you feel about deadlines?
Me: They are important to help society function properly but should be at least somewhat flexible, within reason.
Employer: Interesting.
Me: Why?
Employer: Here we don't have deadlines.
Me: Learning is an ongoing process, I see.
Employer: Exactly, you get it.
Me: (Thinks to self, "So what happens when everyone dumps a semester's worth of work on your desk the last week of the semester?)
Me: (What I actually said) Cool, sounds like an innovative approach that takes into account every student's pace.
I wish I had said the former rather than the latter! Because the former happened...Yay.


I got offered the job. I took it. A few weeks later a male student broke the window to the gym after throwing a rock through it. A few weeks after that another male student pushed a female teacher, the second female teacher of the year, but first since I had arrived. One class underperformed so drastically, the math teacher refused to give class to the students. You would also have kids who snuck popcorn into the classroom and ate out of the paper bag that was in their backpack, would chew gum or drop an f-bomb. In all cases, regardless of it being more minor like gum, a swear, or popcorn, or more severe like pushing a teacher or breaking a window, they went to the connecting room. Sometimes they would stay for about a class, 45 minutes, or the entire day, and simply fill out one form explaining what they did and what they learned from the situation, and poof, off they go. That was the extent of the consequences.

FLEXIBLE SEATING one more time I will quit on the spot.

Do you know what happens when I give my classes FLEXIBLE SEATING? Nothing different at all, because a desk that moves in a circle

Well at this place it was so everyone could feel connected and engaged. The flexible part came from the circle being filled from the part of the circle furthest from the door to the part closest to the door, in order of who came to class. So of course friends always came together to sit together and the troublemakers came last, also together, to also sit furthest away.

 

[UKemba15]

We were interviewing UConn students for an internship on our team a couple years back. In addition to just conversational interview questions, we have 5-6 questions we like to ask each applicant just to compare responses. One of those is “Finish this sentence: ‘Thursday night is for…’.” And one kid had the sensational response of “the boys.” That individual did not get the position, but he did become my hero that day.

 

[UKemba15]

There is only one correct answer to that question:

The details of my life are quite inconsequential. My father was a relentlessly self-improving boulangerie owner from Belgium with low grade narcolepsy and a penchant for buggery. My mother was a fifteen year old French prostitute named Chloe with webbed feet. My father would womanize, he would drink, he would make outrageous claims like he invented the question mark. Some times he would accuse chestnuts of being lazy, the sort of general malaise that only the genius possess and the insane lament. My childhood was typical, summers in Rangoon, luge lessons. In the spring we'd make meat helmets. When I was insolent I was placed in a burlap bag and beaten with reeds, pretty standard really. At the age of 12 I received my first scribe. At the age of fourteen, a Zoroastrian named Vilma ritualistically shaved my testicles. There really is nothing like a shorn scrotum, it's breathtaking, I suggest you try it.

I didn’t spend 6 years in Evil Medical School to be called ‘Mister,’ thank you very much.

 

[boba]

We kill things. Does that bother you?

<We kill (sacrifice, euthanize) pregnant mice and dissect the embryos, that's how you study development. Had a grad student who used others in the lab to kill her mice, she couldn't do it herself.>

I didn’t spend 6 years in Evil Medical School to be called ‘Mister,’ thank you very much.

Oh great, another Harvard grad. Our former tech has decided on Hahvahd. He was wait-listed here, which is just about right.

 

[CL82]

We kill things. Does that bother you?

"No, not at all, but thank you for asking."​

 

[Moose1979]

For many years I worked at a medium sized law firm and we used to conduct interviews in tandem. My partner would ALWAYS end the interview with "what is your biggest weakness?". I think he knew it was a useless question, but he asked it anyway. You can guess the typical answers: "I work too hard", "I'm too devoted to my job", etc. He finally stopped asking when he asked the question of a woman interviewing for a paralegal position and she, without even a second of hesitation, said "Jack Daniels".

 

[8893]

For many years I worked at a medium sized law firm and we used to conduct interviews in tandem. My partner would ALWAYS end the interview with "what is your biggest weakness?". I think he knew it was a useless question, but he asked it anyway. You can guess the typical answers: "I work too hard", "I'm too devoted to my job", etc. He finally stopped asking when he asked the question of a woman interviewing for a paralegal position and she, without even a second of hesitation, said "Jack Daniels".

Did you hire her?

 

[Yardigan]

Thank God I'm self-employed.Having a self important moron asking me stupid questions and judging me I find extremely repulsive

Exactly, always much better to 'be' the self-important....

 

[bendm]

recently made it through the entire amazon interview process but did not get an offer. took 2 months from start to finish. multiple rounds of in person interviews and writing assignments and everything is based on their 14 cult principles. do not recommend.

 

[Improviser]

Exactly, always much better to 'be' the self-important....

Problem with being self-employed and I did if for almost 40 years, is that you still get the stupid questions, but they come from the client.

If they think your answers are stupid, you lose the client. Sometimes, that is not such a bad thing, though.

 

[HuskyHawk]

You people are confirming two things for me. 1. I am an atypical interviewer, never asking any of this nonsense. 2. I am glad that I can proudly say the last and only time that I got a job I interviewed for was 1993. A summer job at a law firm. Never before, never since.