What was your toughest ever job interview question?

[swee'pea99]

I was reminded by Arch's "we get free copies of Private Eye and National Geographic, and last week I bagged a "Concrete International" on another thread of the time I, desperate for work, found myself facing a very nice man who pretty much killed my interview before it got going, by asking me: "So, Mr Swee'pea, why do you want to work at Concrete Monthly?" A predictable enough question, for anyone but an idiot, but I was competely stumped, and never recovered. I didn't get the job.

So, what was the worst question you ever had lobbed your way?

 

[dellzeqq]

I've just read your question, and know that this is how I would have replied..

'I love concrete. I adore concrete. I love the simplicity, the smoothness, the mass, the plasticity of concrete. I love the way that it turns from liquid to solid, I love the way that it warms as it cures, I love the way it grips on to the reinforcement. I love the artisanry that goes in to the shuttering, the bending of metal, the tamping (I should tell you right now I despise powerfloating). I adore its strength, the way that it can span huge distances if you take the care to form a hyperbolic paraboloid. I love it for it's ability to set underwater, and the description of that setting written by Vitruvius more than two thousand years ago. Concrete will outlast us all, providing shelter, bridges and foundations without complaint or deflection, a monument to the imagination, ingenuity and enterprise of humankind. Do I get the job?'

 

[G3CWI]

"Do you have any particular preference about the sort of soap that you use?". Interview for British Antarctic Survey. A funny question as in the event as access to water was so hard that we only showered every couple of weeks...

 

[clarion]

dell, I think they may not have given you the job on the basis that your ebullient enthusiasm for the medium sounds a bit unhinged.

 

[Aperitif]

dell, I think they may not have given you the job on the basis that your ebullient enthusiasm for the medium sounds a bit unhinged.

Agree. It might have cemented a long standing relationship though; "a, one for two" (geddit?)

 

[smokeysmoo]

Agree. It might have cemented a long standing relationship

Or it may have just introduced
REINFORCED SET ideals to the MIX.

 

[rich p]

Agree. It might have cemented a long standing relationship though; "a, one for two" (geddit?)

3 to 1 he didn't get the job, or there's mortar to this than meets the eye.

 

[byegad]

After a passably good interview for Second in Maths in a Secondary School the Head Governor asked. 'Can you teach Biology?' I couldn't and strangely didn't get the job. Asking the other candidates in the waiting room, it was even stranger to find that the only Maths teacher among us who could also teach Biology was the internal candidate. Total waste of time.

 

[T.M.H.N.E.T]

"When can you start?"

 

[rich p]

An interviewer once asked me what I considered my worst trait to be, and I said, "Probably my honesty"
He said, "I don't regard honesty as a bad thing" to which I replied
"I couldn't give fark what you think"

 

[T.M.H.N.E.T]

Strangely during my interview for a warehouse job in CRC, I wasn't asked was I a cyclist or if I had any interest in bikes (I wasn't/didn't back then)

 

[Aperitif]

3 to 1 he didn't get the job, or there's mortar to this than meets the eye.

Ah! Your 3 2 1 is meshing with my, a 1 4 2. Something doesn't quite add up. Let's go and get plastered, Rich.

 

[donnydave]

Explain differentiation from first principles, then calculate the total noise of these three sources. When you've done that, what's the natural frequency of this wheel and tyre? Write it on the board, I need a cigarette I'll be back in 10 minutes.

 

[vernon]

The very first question in job interviews for teachers used to be, "If we offered you the job would you accept it?"

The length of the interview was governed by the answer.

 

[swee'pea99]

I've just read your question, and know that this is how I would have replied..

'I love concrete. I adore concrete. I love the simplicity, the smoothness, the mass, the plasticity of concrete. I love the way that it turns from liquid to solid, I love the way that it warms as it cures, I love the way it grips on to the reinforcement. I love the artisanry that goes in to the shuttering, the bending of metal, the tamping (I should tell you right now I despise powerfloating). I adore its strength, the way that it can span huge distances if you take the care to form a hyperbolic paraboloid. I love it for it's ability to set underwater, and the description of that setting written by Vitruvius more than two thousand years ago. Concrete will outlast us all, providing shelter, bridges and foundations without complaint or deflection, a monument to the imagination, ingenuity and enterprise of humankind. Do I get the job?'

I don't think they were looking for a nutter...