I haven't had to interview for a job in many, many years but almost every time I did there was at least one strange or goofy question they would ask. My favorite, because it happened so often (it also came up in performance reviews) was, " Where do you see yourself in five years?" I had a stock answer for this one. "I want to make you look so good that you will get promoted and then I'll have your job."


Anybody have a favorite that you were asked, or maybe one that you ask if you have to interview prospective employees?

This is what made me thing of this:

My stock answer is fishing on Lake Guntersville. I'm less than five years away from retirement.

Man, I love that lake. We have friends who have a house on the lake, and you can walk down, jump in his boat and be catching fish in a matter of minutes. Beautiful lake and there must be a bass in every cubic foot of water, or my friend just has the knack of finding them every time we go out.

Would you steal if that�s the only way you could feed your children?

how long do you have to wear the ankle bracelet?

One thing I like to do that most folks will tell me after the interview that they had not had happen or been asked before is I will ask about specific things on their resume.

Example, they list "Analytical Skills" in the skill set area. I ask them to give me an example of their analytical skills. It seems this is a new buzzword and lots of recent grads list this but few seem to be able to articulate this skill of theirs in any real way.

One dude listed "Advanced Excel Skills". I asked him if he could make a pivot table, he said no. Asked if he could link spreadsheets, he said no. Asked what the most advanced formula he could do in Excel was and he could not name anything. V lookup? He started blankly. I asked if he thought that someone who was "Advanced" could do those things...he said he was not sure.

So yeah just asking about their resume often throws them because often its just copied and pasted from someones resume or something they paid someone to make who really does not know what they can or cannot do.

A strange one I got recently as I have been interviewing myself was "Tell me about what annoys you."

That was a new one to me.

Of course I said "derek" and left it at that.

I know how to do those things. Can you PM me that guy's resume so I can copy it?

Ha that was in the Spring mate. I am sure I do not have it anymore.

But seriously you list yourself as "advanced" and you cannot do those things? Part of the problem is there is no standard for what it means to be have "Advanced Excel" skills. That said if you dont know how to do those things you are for sure not advanced IMO at least.

Yeah so to the point just asking them what do you mean by "XYZ" on their resume is pretty telling.

I like to use NFL standard questioning, asking the applicant if their mothers are crack addicted prostitutes.

Does it affect your short term memory when you smoke weed?

I was once asked why manhole covers are round ?

In order, what are the five most important things in your life?

Ooooh, I like this approach!