Friday, June 4, 2010

Top 5 Stupid Interview Questions

So interviews can be a daunting task for many, for others it’s become a habit esp in the last 2 years and there are the adrenaline junkies that enjoy interviews. I recently went for an interview and was asked many questions that seems to have been taken out of a "How to interview for Dummies" sorta book. I am writing this post to because I think that there are some questions that are really stupid, redundant and to ask them makes the interviewer look dumb.

Here is my Top 5 Stupid Interview Question

1) Where do you see yourself in 5 Years? : Really?? Why on God's green earth and everything precious to Zeus would someone ask that question? I mean I don't know what im going to have for dinner tomorrow and you want me to tell you where I see myself in 5 yrs. Some interviews kinda got "smart" so now their asking "where do you see yourself in 3 years". I crack up everytime I hear this question. I want to pull out a mini crystal ball out of my pocket and stare at it for 3 mins and say "well my crystal ball has a crack in it I will have to get back to you on that."

Now I understand the purpose of this question but its irrelevant and stupid for the liars the 21st century

2) How do you see our company benefiting you? or Why do want to work with us?: I think the most obvious question to this is Money. Now I know people will say that its the experience and access to knowledge and oh the company is an awesome place to work at etc. etc. The bottom line is MONEY. To prove this theory offer the person a lesser salary than they were receiving and let’s see if they say Yes to the job.

3) Tell me your 5 strengths : Well yes I will tell you but does it need to by only 5? It's obvious I'm gonna lie about it. If not a lie then how do I prioritize all my "full-of-myself skills" in 5.

4) Tell me your 5 weaknesses: "Yeah sure, I am such a perfectionist and i think that is one of my biggest weaknesses because I like to pay attention to all the details". This is what it actually means - I am lazy SOD and all the work bottlenecks at me. How do I know this? Simply because NO ONE, NO ONE, ever tells the truth about their weakness. Now nothing is achieved by asking this question because the interviewer is not getting the truth.

5) Are you a Team player? : "Hell Yeah! I love playing counterstrike and being a part of the team.". Or "No I love sitting in the basement of my mum's house watching old WWE matches wearing my fav undertaker tee and old jocks sipping on a cold beer. My favorite is the title match between Undertaker and The Heart Break Kid". The obvious answer to a question like that is 'Yes!'

Now I understand the reason for asking such questions. These were relevant before Google. However, a quick Google search will tell you how to tactfully maneuver around these questions.


These questions are redundant, what they are meant to achieve isn't. Hence my request, Dear interviewer, is prepare for an interview as much as we prepare for one. Put some effort into it because if you don't then you may end up hiring a tool who Googled their way in.

4 comments:

  1. LOL! This is soooo true!...the same old questions and the same old bulshit lies! lol! For every interview this year, i felt like such a fake! (and btw...google didn't help!)

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  2. All of these are very typical questions that one might come across at every interview in Bombay. Rarely have I gone for an interview, but I have been asked these very same questions at one or two of them I'd gone to, by *dessicated cunts* who look bored with their own lives and wives.

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  3. Every time I get asked one of these, I die a little bit inside.

    But the best one I heard was one that my sister got asked. The interviewer asked her "What character from Friends would you be?"

    As I understand it, my sister just looked at him like he'd sprouted another a pair of antennae and then asked how the question pertained to the job. She had never watched Friends (still hasn't) and in that moment, she realised that the employer was the type to make stupid assumptions. We actually went out to celebrate her not getting that job.

    The thing is, she was going for graduate jobs, so a certain level of intelligence and skill was expected from her. That's fine but I think that the interviewee has every right to expect a similar level of intelligence from the interviewer. Not asking ridiculous questions would be a good start.

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  4. *a pair of antennae, sorry. Not another pair. That *would* have been strange....

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