What is Digg?89 Comments
- noahhoward, on 10/10/2007, -0/+68"Where do you see yourself in 5 years."
[Oh crap, don't say doing your wife, don't say doing your wife, don't say doing your wife...]
"Uhh, doing your.... son?" - theschwabregime, on 10/10/2007, -2/+47I absolutely HATE those questions! You always know you're going to get asked them but they'll always ask the one you don't think of and you bumble your answer, then feel like an idiot and wonder for the next two days if you got the job or not. At least I know how to answer the "Why should I hire you?" question now.
- mookiemookie, on 10/10/2007, -6/+50"How bad do you want this modelling job?"
*bow chicka chicka wow wow* - bobbydiamondz, on 10/10/2007, -0/+34"Why should I hire you?" Well, if you can't figure that out for yourself, I'm not sure I want to work for you.
- fant0m, on 10/10/2007, -0/+28Interviewer: "Why should I hire you?"
Interviewee: "Well sir, it's simple! I got your daughter pregnant and now I need some sort of means to provide and/or pay child support!" - benitojuarez, on 10/10/2007, -0/+28What are your long-term goals? "My favorite answer is, ‘I want your job,'" Moon says
I want your boss's job is a better answer. - brstilson, on 10/10/2007, -2/+19These questions are really only appropriate for a manager at a proper company where the person he/she is interviewing won't be wearing a name tag/hair net/paper hat. Asking "where do you see yourself in 5 years?" at a McDonalds interview is entirely stupid. No one is fooled, everyone knows that almost nobody makes fast food or retail a career. It never made sense to me why interviewers at a retail shop act like they're interviewing for a nuclear physicist.
- fredkreuger, on 10/10/2007, -2/+17"Why should I hire you?"
"Because I'm awesome" is always a good response. - MikeonTV, on 10/10/2007, -0/+15I like the question: What can you do about my bandwidth problem?
- NinjaBoy, on 10/10/2007, -0/+15When a potential employee refuses to even attempt to do what you ask them. Its generally not a good sign.
- gogun, on 10/10/2007, -0/+15I hate "What is your biggest weakness?". I had that one, and I was fresh and new to the job market. I just blankly stared for a while and said "i am too much of a perfectionist." lol how young and stupid I am/was
- Jwoey, on 10/10/2007, -2/+16Yeah! That'll show them that you're the better man! And that's what job interviews are all about, proving you don't need a job.
- pinniger, on 10/10/2007, -0/+14They ask them because that is what some web site told them was a good interview question to ask.
- pistonhonda, on 10/10/2007, -7/+20What are your long-term goals?
Your mom. - bearda, on 10/10/2007, -0/+12If you really hate these kinds of questions take control of the interview. Almost all of these generic questions are to feel you out and get you talking; they're looking for an area you're good at and that they feel is worth talking about. Ask your own questions about how they do business and operate, and expand on your experiences and skills that mesh with their answers. If you stop thinking about an interview as a one-sided interrogation and start thinking of it like a conversation between people in the same industry it makes it easier. If you start asking questions and talking about how you think you'd fit in their company they'll view you as a lot more capable and confident.
- brutalentropy, on 10/10/2007, -0/+11I have always wanted to answer that with "well that depends, how old is your daughter?"
But I've always needed a job when I go on interviews. I almost want to go on interviews for fun, just so I can do things like that... - inactive, on 10/10/2007, -0/+9I hate these questions. "Why do you want this job" is the most irritating. If I didn't want this job I wouldn't have applied. I want this job because:
A) It follows my career path
B) Fits in with where I want to be
C) Make me enough money to buy the next foo
I also hate the "What was your hardest project and how did you solve the problems on that project." Not only does this not have a good answer most of the time (NDAs and such), but honestly, without getting into the nitty gritty it's a pointless exercise and you learn nothing more than a candidate can talk smack about a project in a political way...bah.. - ThatEvilGuy, on 10/10/2007, -0/+9"What book is currently on your nightstand?"
erm...Kama-Sutra.... - mt066, on 10/10/2007, -0/+9"Share with me a conversation you had with your boss or others in your life where some feedback you heard was tough to take"
I hate questions like this that think they are cleverly trying to get you to criticize yourself. Guaranteed everybody just makes up something that sounds like a plausible answer but benign as possible. - chris9902, on 10/10/2007, -0/+8I want to be able to fire your bosses boss.
- superpezgeek2, on 10/10/2007, -1/+9i had an interview where the guy asked me to solve riddles. luckily one of them was the 3 gallon/5 gallon riddle from Die Hard with a Vengeance.
- heyitsgarrett, on 10/10/2007, -0/+8"where do you see yourself in 5 years?"
Celebratin' the fifth year anniversary of you asking me this question! - VeganG, on 10/10/2007, -0/+8A friend of mine told me about an interview he conducted in which the guy actually said, "Google me, I'm all over that *****." He did not get the job.
- RyeBrye, on 10/10/2007, -0/+7HR people are generally asshats who think they are clever. These questions, and the whole interview process, is constructed to make HR think they have a valid job.
The good news is - you will likely only face these kind of ***** questions early in your career. When you get to the point that people start recruiting you, the tables turn and the questions generally go like this: "When can you start, and what do you want to be paid?"
Except for Google - they like to give you their own version of the SAT's over a 3-month period regardless of who you are... I guess some people are attracted to that kind of thing. - xpankrat, on 10/10/2007, -2/+7since you are going to give them 40 hours of your life a week, it's also them who should prove that they deserve to your time.
it should be mutually beneficial arrangement and the respect needs to go both ways. - inactive, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5The worst question I think I was asked was: "How will your love ones describe you at your funeral". I couldnt think of anything but "We really loved him".
What a dumbass question. - Cannfodd3r, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5I take it you'd been watching Trainspotting eh?
- DephexTwin, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5No, you should include it.
- theNazz, on 10/10/2007, -4/+9Should I not include the story about walking out of my last job during the yearly review after telling my boss to jam the review up his ass?
- Jwoey, on 10/10/2007, -2/+6I have! and Ive only had 2 jobs!
"My experience is the universal experience" Why do so many people think like that? - blackjack75, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4If you are a good psycho you can always find a weakness that will them feel bad and revert the situation. Imagine answering: "I have AIDS". They'll feel compelled to hire you. Sure that does take some balls, especially if it's not true.
- Urusai, on 10/10/2007, -1/+5That sounds great, until you realize that most people with paying jobs are incompetent idiots, perhaps even more so in IT. No, interviews are about whether the interviewer would like to hang out and have a beer with you, no more or less.
- bearda, on 10/10/2007, -1/+5With an answer like that, you wouldn't have to worry about it...
- Jwoey, on 10/10/2007, -1/+4Blech, the manhole covers question. None of the answers are proven correct in that there's no way to prove that the original planning considered those qualities. There's a large list of beneficial qualities of a round manhole cover (mobility, doesn't fall through, etc), but that doesn't mean it was part of the original reasoning.
- ToxicGas, on 08/11/2008, -0/+3current interview techniques really only answer the question "who can BS the best and make it APPEAR that they're the best candidate" .... they don't do much to really find out who truly is the best candidate.
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -6/+91) The questions aren't tough, they are banal
2) I think on my feet just fine..that's why I'm in IT
3) Uh, how about the company earning my productivity. - thcobbs, on 10/10/2007, -5/+8And that's the reason they are asked.
1.) Gauge your response to an open-ended, tough question
2.) See how you think on your feet
3.) Make you earn your offer. - xpankrat, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3This question should really be covered by 5th amendment.
- strangewill, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3Toughest assignment? Dealing with administration, you see, computers are based on standards, logic, and are well documented, problems are generally easily assessed if you know what to look for... administration however...
- allan17, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Somehow, I don't think that having AIDS would improve your chances any...
- LiveAtTheBBC, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2I once had the person interviewing grill me on my interests to see how into them I actually was. Half an hour of talking about the Rolling Stones, they called to hire me 5 minutes after I left the building.
- xpankrat, on 10/10/2007, -1/+3Supply-demand also applies to the job market. It might be the employee selecting the company, not the other way around.
Don't think FedEx or Walmart. Think trying to hire CCISP person. In this case asking "why should I hire you ?" is a sign either of an utter arrogance or a complete lack of touch with reality. In either case this is not likely an employer you want to work for. - bearda, on 10/10/2007, -1/+3Having been on an interview panel numerous times, not all these questions are crap. Describing a touch assignment is definitely in-bounds for an interview; it's something that shouldn't be hard for anyone to come up with an answer to, and it's relevant. If you're going for a leadership position, asking if you've ever had to fire someone is a good lead-in to asking more about their management style. The generic questions are usually just lead-ins to more specific questions once you start get a dialog going with the candidate. I don't ask any BS questions about manholes, but some scenario questions or past background and experiences questions can really help you get a feel for a person, and open them to for further discussion ("How did you decide that Scott was no longer a valuable employee?")
From an interviewer's perspective, you've got an hour to figure out if you want to hire this person for the next 90 days or so. You make the most of it however you can. - fortezza, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2You have to remember that some of these interviewers have no clue how to interview. What the do is Google for questions to ask, ask what they were asked when they interviewed, or just ask whatever comes to mind. There really is not a point in this situation, and the way to get the job is to get them to like you, which is arguably a useful skill. After all, you don't want to work with someone that you cannot get along with, no matter how good they are at their job.
- fatdog789, on 10/10/2007, -1/+3Because Wikipedia is always accurate. After all, it's not like there's ever been a major error in Wikipedia...
- abdrahman, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2"retail shop act like they're interviewing for a nuclear physicist."
Even better is the fact that is what I tell them what I plan on doing in 5 years :) - DephexTwin, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Hm... I'm afraid we have filled all open positions for the time being, thank you for you time.
- whataboutdave, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2I would have given him bonus points for making a sweet/risky reference.
- cactus476, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Big Java
I use it as a coaster. - ostracize, on 10/10/2007, -1/+3Noahhoward beat me to the punch below. Okay, bury me please.
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