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the worst job interview question!

Meis

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Originally Posted by Michigan Planner

Generally, I think the strength/weakness questions and where do you see yourself in X years questions are the worst. It just seems like the interviewer put no thought in coming up with questions that were particularly relevant for the job being interviewed for (unless said job is as a carnival strongman or a palm reader or something).


A couple years back I was asked both of these questions by the interviewers (2 of them) when I interviewed for a city government paid-internship. After I answered, I then asked them what sort of work I'd be doing during the internship. They looked at each other, went 'ummm' and then eventually gave one of those half assed answers that isn't really an answer at all. Yep, they were doing interviews and not only couldn't come up with decent questions, they didn't even know what the person they were hiring was going to do (and one of the women that was conducting the interview was going to be directly overseeing the position I was interviewing for).
 

Fuuma

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Originally Posted by CBrown85
Just curious, but what was your major and/or job? You seem astoundingly well read/travelled for a young guy.

I'm not a young guy, I just look (and think) like one. I'm closer to Iammatt's or GDL's age (so positively ancient) than SWD age.
 

GreenFrog

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Originally Posted by StephenHero
That is my canned answer. They give one of those closed-mouth grins and then move on to the important stuff like what color leather I want in my company car.

laugh.gif


Are you actually 100% serious? I have several interviews coming up and I'm actually seriously, really, tempted to use that.

Please tell me whether you're joking around or not.
 

holymadness

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Originally Posted by Fuuma
I'm not a young guy, I just look (and think) like one. I'm closer to Iammatt's or GDL's age (so positively ancient) than SWD age.

You're fifty?
confused.gif
 

StephenHero

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Originally Posted by GreenFrog
laugh.gif
Are you actually 100% serious? .

Yes, but I have a public demeanor that is very lighthearted and slightly on the the "don't really give a ****" side. I've got a very stern/masculine face and voice, so I always try to overcompensate on the side of cheeriness. I also send my resume in advance and there are a couple explicit jokes inside, so they know where I'm coming from beforehand. Be careful though.
 

Fuuma

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Originally Posted by holymadness
You're fifty?
confused.gif

They're both late thirties, If I was wearing a toga and had disciples I'd die this year. I picture you as Lonsdale so I'll just assume you think we're youngins.
 

Eason

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Originally Posted by patrickBOOTH
For my current job I was actually asked this series of questions in my interview:

There are three doors in front of you, behind one door is a prize, what is the probability that you will choose the door with the prize behind it?

Then, if before you made your decision one of the doors you were not going to choose was opened revealing that there was no prize behind that door in order to increase the probability of selecting the door with the prize behind it would you stick with your original selection, or would you decide to change your mind and select the other unopened door, or does it not matter and why?

Think about it.


Goats and ferraris is a classic statistical probability problem, was this a statistics job?
 

holymadness

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Originally Posted by Fuuma
They're both late thirties, If I was wearing a toga and had disciples I'd die this year. I picture you as Lonsdale so I'll just assume you think we're youngins.

I always picture iammatt as Errol Flynn.
 

rdawson808

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Originally Posted by imschatz
This is actually a quite interesting question. Nothing I'd ever expect to get in an interview .. but interesting nonetheless. For what it's worth .. this is asking "would you rather make a type I or type II error" .. and the correct answer is "it depends".

Not to get too off-topic, but in this case it clearly did not matter. Simplified example: if you're testing a new pharamceutical that may or may not have a side effect of death, it matters a lot to fail to reject the hypothesis "this drug will not kill people." But this job was nothing like that. It just would not have mattered. The only thing I would have been concerned with was the straight-forward outcome of the analysis.

And I wouldn't be doing that sort of work anyway. F***ers. I'm still kind of pissed about it and it was something like 12 years ago.

b
 

rdawson808

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Originally Posted by HomerJ
Hmm. That's not a terrible question for my field

Ahh, Homer beat me to it. Exactly.



Originally Posted by patrickBOOTH
For my current job I was actually asked this series of questions in my interview:

There are three doors in front of you, behind one door is a prize, what is the probability that you will choose the door with the prize behind it?
...
Think about it.


The classic Let's Make a Deal question. You always switch. Your odds of getting the prize go from 1/3 to 2/3. This is a situation where I would go strictly with the probability. I don't know why people get emotional about this stuff.
 

patrickBOOTH

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Originally Posted by Pennglock
Bayes' Theorem. Change Doors

Originally Posted by Eason
Goats and ferraris is a classic statistical probability problem, was this a statistics job?

Originally Posted by rdawson808
The classic Let's Make a Deal question. You always switch. Your odds of getting the prize go from 1/3 to 2/3. This is a situation where I would go strictly with the probability. I don't know why people get emotional about this stuff.

Originally Posted by Pennglock
Bayes' Theorem. Change Doors

All correct! The job does deal with a lot of stats. They told me it wasn't a formal question that they ask, but I seem to be statistically inclined so they were curious.
 

Slopho

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I was once asked in an interview "Why is the sky blue?" The woman interviewing was very attractive so I assume she got it out of some book about how to get people who think on the spot or are thown a curve ball.
 

StephenHero

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Originally Posted by Slopho
I was once asked in an interview "Why is the sky blue?" The woman interviewing was very attractive so I assume she got it out of some book about how to get people who think on the spot or are thown a curve ball.

Was it one of those marketing firms that really "thinks outside the box"?
 

Slopho

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Originally Posted by StephenHero
Was it one of those marketing firms that really "thinks outside the box"?

Basically.
 

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