Strange Job Interview Questions

[Hayabusa1989]

2 hours ago, TetraSky said:

"Well actually I use a Windows phone"
*Is told to GTFO of their office*

Amazing. Big Fan of that comment

[TopDollar]

39 minutes ago, The_Protagonist said:

It's a smart idea to have. It's not a good thing to post controversial or offensive things on an online account that is meant to represent you. Ideally do not post offensive things anyway!

Concur. I think people tend to forget that if you have your employer info listed on your social media, then you are unofficially representing that company.

 

I've heard of situations where people have contacted the employers of others over disagreements on the internet. Fortunately in those cases, the employer investigated, determined the employees had not violated any harassment policies, and issued a bulletin to their employees supporting their freedom of speech rights and warning that people were doing this.

[The_Protagonist]

21 minutes ago, TopDollar said:

Concur. I think people tend to forget that if you have your employer info listed on your social media, then you are unofficially representing that company.

 

I've heard of situations where people have contacted the employers of others over disagreements on the internet. Fortunately in those cases, the employer investigated, determined the employees had not violated any harassment policies, and issued a bulletin to their employees supporting their freedom of speech rights and warning that people were doing this.

And that's why I lock my profile away! Privacy is fine, I'm not really a controversial person anyway :L

[aisle9]

8 hours ago, Zusafek said:

Its not so strange now, but when I'm interviewing people for my company.....I ask for their facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, etc.

 

My reason for this is to make sure they won't damage relations with clientele.  I've actually had to turn down good applicants due to behavior I can't have associated with my company. And that is why I don't use social media at all. 

I was once asked for all of my social media login information by an interviewer (back in 2009). I said no. They said I couldn't work there if they couldn't review my posts and pictures to make sure "you'll represent [company] well outside of the workplace environment." I thanked them for wasting my time, and told them that I didn't want to work for the thought police. End of interview.

 

If you and I had interviewed it would have gone much the same way, only today I'd have told you to f*ck yourself.

 

The strangest, most random question I've ever been asked was "paper or plastic, and why?". My answer was paper, because the bags are sturdier and can be reused more easily, plus they're easier to store and recycle. I won, apparently. The interviewer told me afterwards that she was looking for people who would think through the problem logically and not just say, "plastic, no idea why, I've just always used it." Ultimately we couldn't come to an agreement on compensation, but it was one of the better interviews I've ever had.

[AshleyAshes]

24 minutes ago, aisle9 said:

I was once asked for all of my social media login information by an interviewer (back in 2009). I said no. They said I couldn't work there if they couldn't review my posts and pictures to make sure "you'll represent [company] well outside of the workplace environment." I thanked them for wasting my time, and told them that I didn't want to work for the thought police. End of interview.

 

If you and I had interviewed it would have gone much the same way, only today I'd have told you to f*ck yourself.

I think it's important to understand the difference between looking up ones accounts as they are publicly viewable on the internet and asking for usernames and passwords.

[Windows7ge]

Related to what seems most popular in the thread right now about social media. Arguably the LTT Forum could be considered a social media platform. Just that the core of the website revolves around technology. I'd mention the website in a interview just so I don't sound completely anti-social because like a surprising number of you I can relate to as I have no social media either except for this website, a YouTube acc which I just use to comment on videos (which is rare), and a gmail which isn't social so I don't know why I mentioned it. A few years ago I had a FB acc for the entirety of 10 mins...then I deleted it (It probably still exists on a hard drive on their servers but it's deleted as far as FB itself is concerned) because I found it was a waste of my time that I could spend wasting doing something else that was just as unproductive but more fun. If a company didn't want to hire me because I didn't use any popular social media platforms I wouldn't want to work for them because that is an irrelevant expectation to most jobs (unless your job is to manage a companies social media or similar position) and saying that not having one of any is asocial behavior? Oh I'm sorry I don't go online frequently to talk to people because I spend most of my time WALKING OUTSIDE OF MY HOUSE TALKING TO PEOPLE IN PERSON. Following those types of companies logic that should be even more desirable than having any social media.

4 hours ago, Hayabusa1989 said:

Android or Iphone ? 
Although that last one sort of makes sense as i am working in IT. 

Which is the right answer because I'm working on a career in IT but I very much dislike all apple products. Primarily because the price tag is well beyond any competition and then even more because you have 0 upgrade path both for iPhone & the latest macbook then also because they only release new product every couple of years while every other well known company gives you dozens of options. 3~4 years pass Apple gives you ONE or two and with the latest phone they expect a grand in the US for it. (I could rant all day about my distaste for apple.) I'd rather have a REAL apple. A Granny Smith apple. Way less expensive, probably be of more use to me. Healthier.

 

I bought an overpowered for my purposes HTC One A9. 4 core processor with a less powerful 4 core co-proccesor, 13MP camera, 3GB of RAM, 32GB internal storage with microSD expansion slot. (You can google it if you want more specs) Cost me $297.50. Been using it for a little over a year now. It can do way more than I have use for at less than 1/2 of the latest generation iPhones.

 

I'm just looking at it from an economic point of view at this point. If an overpowered for my purposes phone can be had for ~$300 why would I spend x2 that or even x3 even if that more expensive phone have more features and is more powerful?

[imreloadin]

I've been asked a couple of really odd ones. The only one I can remember off the top of my head is "How many tennis balls could you fit into a limousine"...

[Hayabusa1989]

20 minutes ago, Windows7ge said:

Which is the right answer because I'm working on a career in IT but I very much dislike all apple products

For the record i said that i prefer Android. 

However

The correct answer is Apple iPhone and here's why : 

If you have users in a corporate environment and you wish to give them mobile phones the most secure handset of the 2 is the iPhone, If you are in IT at a SMB-Large company  they won't care about spending an extra x amount of dollars/pounds on buying an iPhone if they feel as though the platform is more secure and easier to use. Remember people in companies are not all Tech Users and with that in mind the Apple line-up is DEAD simple. We give our users iPhone's and it keeps our bosses and us happy. The Appstore is secure and well audited, sideloading apps isnt really a thing, We update them constantly and nobody dares to jailbreak. From a security standpoint iPhone's are rarely hacked and that's comforting. (for reference we ban anyone using iCloud and they can only backup at their desks with iTunes)

Remember a company will try to save money but they are still People - Normal average people who would love the latest iPhone as a perk. Even top bosses won't care about the extra spend if they can turn up to meetings with an iPhone X. an Extra £200-400 for 20 People is not much if your tech budget is in the £100,000's or more. Especially if the company doesn't count it towards your Tech Budget. 

Now the lower end staff ? Yeah sure give them iPhone SE or some cheapo Android, but for your most senior staff members - iPhone. It'll make them happy and they won't worry about Data being stolen. 

[Monte_Carlo]

"How do you justify America invading everyone?"

 

Needless to say that threw me for a loop.  Still managed to get the job after some bluster.  Idea was to see how you respond to curve ball questions, and this was one hell of a curve ball. 

[Misanthrope]

They're all just fucking stupid: You're mostly never interviewed by your actual boss, co-workers or somebody who has any fucking clue of what you will actually be doing (Exception is if you're interviewing to become another BS artist HR recruiter) In fact most of the positions I've gotten or got serious consideration were precisely because the future boss or people you'd be working with were the ones interviewing me. 

 

The only confirmation bias I can think of is that I almost always look for fairly technical positions so it is fairly evident to me to realize who actually wants to find out what I know on the subject or what I could help with and who just wants to say "No" because I didn't met an arbitrary requirement like a specific Major, minimum years of experience, how clean cut I look or how good my people skills are: irrelevant bullshit for data analysts.

 

[Windows7ge]

1 hour ago, Hayabusa1989 said:

For the record i said that i prefer Android. 

However

The correct answer is Apple iPhone

Fair enough. If a company that utilizes apple phones still hired me despite my lack of use of one it'd just get the absolute minimum required use. From a security aspect I see your point. I do believe iPhones are not impervious though I don't think any piece of technology is 100% hack proof even if it's non-electronic. A day might come where a  hole  in the software is found & exploited. Then some companies might open up to Android users more often.

[System Error Message]

im unsearchable, probably the reason why i find it hard to get a job.

If you dont believe me, try search for me all around  .

[Hayabusa1989]

3 hours ago, Windows7ge said:

Fair enough. If a company that utilizes apple phones still hired me despite my lack of use of one it'd just get the absolute minimum required use. From a security aspect I see your point. I do believe iPhones are not impervious though I don't think any piece of technology is 100% hack proof even if it's non-electronic. A day might come where a  hole  in the software is found & exploited. Then some companies might open up to Android users more often.

100% agree with you and it's the same I barley use my work iPhone but it's useful if I'm low on battery or need navigation and wanna use my phone at the same time . And companies won't care what phone you use if you have the prerequisite skills

[AshleyAshes]

6 hours ago, System Error Message said:

im unsearchable, probably the reason why i find it hard to get a job.

If you dont believe me, try search for me all around  .

This is what you wasted your 1337th post on?

[Taja]

To the people complaining about asking for social media... Well, you know they will find you anyway right? They got your full name and its really simple to find a personal facebook.

And it makes sense, people show their shit side on facebook very often, thats why I always heard that you should be aware of what you post because you have to assume everyone will see it and it may matter more than you think.

[IAmAndre]

Just now, Taja said:

To the people complaining about asking for social media... Well, you know they will find you anyway right? They got your full name and its really simple to find a personal facebook.

And it makes sense, people show their shit side on facebook very often, thats why I always heard that you should be aware of what you post because you have to assume everyone will see it and it may matter more than you think.

Well, many people (too many people actually) don't use their real name on FB.

 

I've personally been asked weird questions like :

- Are you interested in this job?

- Is it okay for you to stay at work for the most part of the night to fix a bug?

[AshleyAshes]

4 minutes ago, Taja said:

To the people complaining about asking for social media... Well, you know they will find you anyway right? They got your full name and its really simple to find a personal facebook.

And it makes sense, people show their shit side on facebook very often, thats why I always heard that you should be aware of what you post because you have to assume everyone will see it and it may matter more than you think.

Well, it's pretty easy to hide's one account to non-friends, which also shields your employer mostly from anything stupid you may post online at the same time.  That said, yeah, a lot of people can be Googled easily or just have their named punched into Facebook to have their posts pop up.  In which case, maybe you shouldn't post about how you think ISIS should bomb Domino's after your pizza took more than 40mins for delivery.

 

Of course my concern isn't an employer digging up my social media posts.  It's something I post getting traction outside of my circle on social media 'Visual Effects artist who worked on Movie: The Motion Picture rants on Facebook about the film's troubled production history!' followed by screen caps of the juiciest quotes.

 

...So I leave my rants about films I've worked on to IRL interaction with friends.  ...Usually with booze present and while I lie across my couch, complaining with exhaustion, while someone pats my head.

[System Error Message]

some people have multiple facebook accounts. You have no idea the horrors that some spread that cause shootings and deaths just because of false information.

[Windows7ge]

9 hours ago, Hayabusa1989 said:

100% agree with you and it's the same I barley use my work iPhone but it's useful if I'm low on battery or need navigation and wanna use my phone at the same time . And companies won't care what phone you use if you have the prerequisite skills

Once I figured out how to use it I'd definitely take advantage of the fact it'd most likely have Data. I don't pay for Data on my Android because 98% of the time I don't need any. Even when I'm not home most of the places I go to have Wi-Fi. However if I'm at a customers and they have no internet google would be a great tool. So, I'd take advantage of my employers data plan.

[Eduard the weeb]

whats our favorite food for a grocery store.

[Windows7ge]

11 hours ago, System Error Message said:

im unsearchable, probably the reason why i find it hard to get a job.

If you dont believe me, try search for me all around  .

I'll take your word for it. If people tried hard enough or got some clues I'd be trackable however the amount of undesirable dirt I have on the internet is microscopic. Unless you got into my old PlayStation Network (ps3) account from when I was 13~14 and used until I was about 19 OR got into my personal phone and saw the conversations I have with my life long best friend who is like a brother to me...either conversation histories would make me undesirable to any employer.

[Windows7ge]

1 minute ago, Eduard the weeb said:

whats our favorite food for a grocery store.

Does it have to be organic? Is cheese, meat, or processed food acceptable?

[Eduard the weeb]

Just now, Windows7ge said:

Does it have to be organic? Is cheese, meat, or processed food acceptable?

not really sure I wrote down KBBQ and Ramen they never hired me,

[Windows7ge]

Just now, Eduard the weeb said:

not really sure I wrote down KBBQ and Ramen they never hired me,

Oh that's what they asked you? I took the question out of context. I thought you were asking everyone in the thread a random question.

[Eduard the weeb]

6 minutes ago, Windows7ge said:

Oh that's what they asked you? I took the question out of context. I thought you were asking everyone in the thread a random question.

oh ok well lol