30 Of The Most Unhinged Questions People Were Asked During Job Interviews, As Shared In This Online Group
There comes a point in everyone's life sooner or later when we're looking for a job, and if your name isn't Kevin Durant or maybe Lamar Jackson and you don't have employers lining up to you themselves, then you'll definitely have to go through the nine circles of hell... sorry, through the job interview procedure.
It's probably hard to find someone who doesn't have some funny, weird, or instructive tale about going through an interview under their belt, and very often those stories are related to the interview questions. Sometimes the HR guys pretend to act like their colleagues from Google or Facebook, and this turns into some completely unexpected questions that are mostly unrelated to your future job. And sometimes... well, sometimes those who sit on the other side of the table are simply incompetent.
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(I'm deaf and we were writing back and forth to communicate)
She wrote to me "can you read?"
I wrote back "yes. Can you write?"
‘Do you always dress like that or do you have normal clothes as well?’
I was wearing a over the knee flowy black dress with sleeves, no cleavage, not form fitting and it was a f*****g hot summer.
I left right then and there.
"Will you have more children?"
"No, not right now anyway"
"Really, are you sure? You're still quite young and married..."
"Umm...what?"
This was 13 years ago: I divorced a few years later and never had more kids worked my a*s off at another job to improve their processes. Sexism at its finest brought to you by a female lawyer in her 30s no less. Someone who should have known better then to ask those kinds of questions.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average person holds around 12.4 jobs between the ages of 18 and 54, and this figure is actually rising every year. In fact, our world is becoming faster and faster, and the stories of our grandfathers and great-grandfathers, who could work all their lives in one place, are definitely not about us, and not for us as well. Moreover, the U.S. Department of Labor states that approximately 30% of the total workforce will now change jobs every 12 months.
Accordingly, this means more and more interviews and, well, more miscellaneous questions, some of which we will remember as ridiculous, outrageous, or revealing the incompetence of the person who asks them, even if it turns out to be direct company management. Yes, this also happens, we are well aware of such situations.
*Is your husband okay with you working full-time?* In 2011, in the US. My response: *"Yeah, my husband likes that I bring home a paycheck."*
"He's fine with anything I do as long as I feed him and unchain him now and then."
I work in sales and I once had an interview for this job I didn’t want but agreed to go just for the practice. I spend money on clothes that are well tailored - normally I like to show my figure but I was sensible on this occasion. Anyway I was 10 minutes early - like people normally are. The interviewer was a male 50+ who body checked me and looked at me in utter contempt.
Him: Why are you so keen for this role turning up so early?
Me: I like to come a bit early so I can take time to observe the new environment I might be working in. I also am the same with my clients as I like to respect their time and I’d rather be 10 minutes early rather than 2 minutes late.
Him: *rolls eyes*
Me: I’m sorry have I said the wrong thing? *smiles*
Him: Have you ever worked in sales before?
Me: Yes as you can see in my CV I’ve had 15 years of experience in sales and I love what I do.
Him: *looks through my CV as if it’s the first time he’s ever seen one then sets it to the side* Have you ever eaten a beef burger before?
Me: Apologies I don’t understand the question.
Him: It’s a simple question.
Me: Do you really want to know if I’ve eaten a beef burger or do you want to know if I’m Hindu? (I say this playfully and smiling trying to lighten the mood).
Him: *scowls* What are you accusing me of?
Me: *stands up* Thank you for your time.
Him: This interview is not over! *grabs my arm*
Me: Excuse me! Please do not touch me.
Him: F**k off then.
I then leave, get in my car and look up to see him staring out the window still scowling at me.
Maybe this applies more to weird answers, but I also hate when companies ask these questions in interviews.
“Outside of work-related skills, what is one thing you feel you know a lot about?”
My answer: “Cats. I know a lot of facts about cats and cat breeds.”
Apparently, this was not the expertise they were looking for. Their loss.
I’m an expert in cat breeds AND dog breeds! And on wolves! I’d surely have gotten this job!
For many years now, stories have been circulating around the world about strange questions that come across during interviews with applicants at Google, Facebook, Apple and other IT giants. On the one hand, the purpose of such questions is to reveal the creative potential of the candidate for the position, to determine how they will act in a completely non-obvious situation.
On the other hand, when small companies try to adopt this experience, using, let's say, "the Ctrl+C - Ctrl+V method", it doesn't work out very well - after all, for huge corporations, these questions are specially developed by leading psychologists. If you want an example - voila, this story of ours about how the owner of a small clothing store demanded a video resume for getting a low-salary, part-time assistant job.
Them: Sorry even though your portfolio looks good but I can't really hire you because your biological clock is ticking and you're already married for 1.5 yrs so any day you can get pregnant and go on a long leave
Me: But I don't plan on having kids anytime soon
Them: We can't trust a married woman of your age. And it's not just up to you to have a kid no. There's pressure from husband, in-laws etc, what will you do then.
This happened in 2022, just last year. I left the place in rage and thanked them that they showed their true colours in the beginning itself and not when I started working.
Whats your bra size?
I wish I was joking.
The only way this would make even a little sense would be if it's a bra modeling job or something along those lines
Them: Do you know how to use a computer?
Me: Uh, yeah?
Them: What's the difference between hardware and software?
Me: Hardware is physical components like the ram and motherboard, software programs, and applications installed on the computer.
Them: Okay, name a few pieces of hardware and what they do.
This went on for a long time, btw the interview was for a position that had literally Zero to do with computers
HR experts divide interview questions in large companies into four main groups: behavioral, leadership, skills and company-specific. According to experts, correctly posed questions in these four categories are enough to draw up an accurate professional portrait of a candidate. As for hobbies - especially hobbies outside the job, they're in fact not that important - after all, it's not a spouse you're looking for!
I wasn’t asked if I was ever married when “interviewing” for a church Secretary position. In all my time attending the church up until a conversation I had with the pastor/my boss after working there for years, he had always assumed I was widowed. I had never mentioned my child’s father or my supposed husband.
Boss: “Why isn’t your name on this list of widows?”
Me: “I am not a widow.”
Boss: “Then where is your husband?”
Me: “I have never been married.”
Was never treated the same afterward. Dude was a douche canoe.
Clearly he would assume someone is dead than non existent. That's just what they do
They asked me what route I drove to get to the company. I told them. They then commented that I was "outside" the normal range of hiring . . . as in they only hire people who live within a 10 mile radius from the company. I asked why they even bothered to call me in for an interview. They didn't have an answer, and I didn't get the job.
I was interviewing for a trucking logistics company that my husband works for. My husband (without me knowing) had the interviewer ask me what I would say if someone called and asked if we could transport llamas.
And still, opening the door to the next room, where several people are waiting, on whom our nearest future could largely depend, we inevitably get worried. Although you really shouldn't worry. After all, if you are a good specialist, then a decent job will not go anywhere. Well, or, at least, your bag of stories will be enriched with a new amusing tale to tell friends on occasion. So now please feel free to scroll to the very end of this selection of such tales thoroughly collected by Bored Panda, and be sure to tell yours if you have one.
"Do you want to have children soon?" got asked this question when I was 16 applying for summer job.
okay. that is just f*cking wrong. it would be even wierder if it was a male interviewer.
What would you do in a situation where your counterpart/partner is combative and refuses to work with you?
I thought this was a weird hypothetical question to test my resilience and drive, so I responded with something about how I would keep trying to work with him and wouldn’t give up.
Got the job. It wasn’t hypothetical, and they knew in advance that the man specifically didn’t like working with women (some BS cultural reason). Struggled in my role for over a year before finally getting reassigned to a new partner with whom I thrived.
I was once asked to give a real example of how I'd resolve conflict. Apparently my answer of 'I make every effort to ensure that disagreements doesn't evolve into conflict' wasn't good enough and they refused to believe that I'd never had a stand-up flaming row with anyone at work. This at an internal interview with HR at a company I'd worked for for 15 years, with no track record of conflict.
I always think the question: "Do you consider yourself a team player?" a weird question. Like, how do you really think I'm going to answer that? "NO, I hate people and teamwork is frustrating because experience has shown me that people don't pull their weight, I'd rather work autonomously with only minimal input from others unless it's my direct supervisor." A lot of questions are kind of like that. You can't really tell the truth.
Had a smart-a*s VP that asked anyone at the end of any interview "If I handed you a brick right now what would you do with it?". I was being interviewed for an IT position by a couple of obviously not IT sales-types. I told him that I would smack him up-side the head with it for asking such a stupid question. He said that was the answer he was looking for and I got the job. For a couple of years as I moved up in the organization I'd swing by just to watch outside and see the face of interviewees when they got to that question. Most people were absolutely baffled.
"Are you in a satanist cult?"
It was a religious institution and they had an issue with that in the past, so the question was actually kind of appropriate? Still weird though.
I have a growly voice I use from time to time that sounds like the devil himself and has actually scared a few people. This sounds like the perfect time to use it, wish I'd been there.
I see you aren't married. Have you [ever made love] before, and are you currently engaging in fornication?
It was for a fundamentalist preschool.
“I’m currently engaging in fornication during this interview, right now.”
They placed their can of Diet Mt Dew in front of me and told me to sell them Diet Mt Dew.
I was interviewing for a pet store
My retail store interviewer asked me what my “favorite thing” was during the interview. I said my cat. She sighed and said, “no, you can’t sell me your cat.” So I chose my van instead. My van is 21 years old. It doesn’t have a lot of selling points XD
I was declined a job because they didn't know if I could "encompass their 'voice'". I asked for a bit of clarification, and they said "we subscribe to Yodellen". My job has lots of different theories to base info off of, so I was going through my internal rolodex thinking I'd really missed something. The person then said "that is a mix of the wisdom of Yoda, and the fun of Ellen, and we're not sure if you can do that". I don't know how I kept a straight face, but I thanked them and left. I still think about it often and it cracks me up each time.
At first i thought they wanted OP to learn how to yodel, this would vomit sounds so weird
I guess I should answer for myself. I asked this because I was so curious after a job interview last spring (right before I decided to start working for myself) and someone asked me "Are you sure you have all this experience?" I guess insinuated I was lying on my resume (my experience is not THAT great anyway tbh). I could only think to respond "if you don't think thats my real experience, why are you interviewing me?'
Interviewer: what’s your favorite color?
Me: black
Interviewer *disappointed*: no, you can do better
Me: um… purple
Interviewer: ah! You’re a reliable person
Me: *gets the job*
"Are you in a relationship?"
I was far too confused and nervous to confront them about it, but obviously I steered clear from that place.
I have a naturally raspy voice and I had a phone interview and the guy was like "how long have you been smoking for?". Like... Excuse me????
I once had a student with a noticably but naturally raspy voice. Her last name was Smoker.
Someone asked me to pretend I was a fly and discuss my daily plans 😭
“I’m sure I’d be eating tons of shít. By that, I mean working here and having you as a manager.”
Q: why are you applying to this job, frankly you can do better with your qualifications.
I was so confused lol. Like lady I need a job to pay my bills what's it to you?
I once interviewed for a copywriting job and had mentioned on my résumé and in my cover letter that I had a successful blog which was where a lot of my writing experience came from. They asked me during the interview how many hours a week I usually spent on my blog because they were concerned about it cutting into the time I could spend on the job.
I found this pretty inappropriate and insulting. Obviously if I got the job, I would work on tasks related to that job while at it. Having a financially successful hobby doesn’t mean someone is incapable of having a job.
Are you aware of laws on working hour limitations for this job? (You cannot legally do the job more than 16 hours straight- which happened frequently there)
Do you have any other obligations or habits in your life currently that could prevent you from coming in to work on short notice? (Assuming they mean have kids or would get inebriated)
Oh do you know ----? Ah, you had the same last name so I was curious haha. Related to ---? I graduated with their sibling. (Essentially asking if I was related)
All of these things I didn't connect the dots of "asking without asking" legal tricks until much later.
Who is your hero?
You mean batman or spiderman? Do I aspire to be Rosa Parks? Stormy Daniels?
I am my own effing hero.
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So glad asking these sort of questions in an interview already illegal in this country... they are wildly inappropriate. I wonder if these interviewees have some where they can complain about these companies - like a labour ministry or something?
So glad asking these sort of questions in an interview already illegal in this country... they are wildly inappropriate. I wonder if these interviewees have some where they can complain about these companies - like a labour ministry or something?
