Interview Questions

I usually say and ask something along the lines of:

"Everyone says they are a good communicator or have excellent communication skills. What is a good communicator to you and what examples can you give where you've had a breakthrough due to good communication?"

I still stand by the “weakness” question as a tough one to nail: it’s hard to answer that without sounding either arrogant or pretentious. Either way everyone is full of shit when they answer it.

Who’s going to say, “well, I have an attention problem that I deal with by surfing/ posting on HCH,” which in my case is the real answer. Or “I eventually find my work to be boring and I therefore drift in and out of focus and waste a lot of time. But I’m adept at getting shit done when the pressure is on and so in the end it’s no big deal.”

Those are real answers for me.

The other ones sound made up. I guess one would be, “I’m a bit of a perfectionist and sometimes have a hard time letting go of a project when it’s gone past the point of diminishing returns.” I’ve used that; but it’s complete bullshit. I just made it up one day getting ready for an interview.

The one I ask that seems to trip people up, or at least
ID the ones who aren’t prepared, is “why here?”

Surprisingly people are often not ready for that one.

RE: the weakness question, like @creepycoug I take the bull by the horns and (yes, honestly) tell them, “well, this is what my past/current boss said on my last performance review...” this always takes them aback, and then quickly follow up with, “and I am/did address(ed/I got) it by...”. It’s worked so far. 😄 I don’t do very well with bullshitting.

With the questions I’ve asked them, it’s either been, “walk me through a day in the life of the person that holds this position” or “if you could change anything about this department/company, what would it be?”

True be told the interview “question” (though it’s not really a question) that still to this day is a challenge is “so tell me a little bit about about yourself.” I usually shoot back with “what do you want to to know?” This could be them just making small talk, looking to see if you’re a decent cultural fit... I don’t know. I hate overly broad questions like that.

HoustonHusky said:

I always like asking a version of what is the most out of the box problem solving/solution you’ve hade to a have a breakthrough at work or even at home. I always thought it was a very basic question and I’m usually looking for people that can think on their feet and learn completely new things quickly and well, but you would be amazed at the highly educated folks that can’t think of an answer for it.

"Okay, so new year, new quarterback, new running backs, new OL. We're getting our shit pushed in by a fearsome Beavis skwaad. What are you gonna do, you know?

You ready for it? Get this: Run. The. Damn. Ball.

BOOM goes the dynamite! When can I start?"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWtnY8cHlTo

A good warm up question I like to ask as an interviewer is “tell me about how you prepared for the interview today.”

It’s a softball but you’d be surprised how many swing and miss.

doogie said:

Pie? or Cake?

Cake!

pawz said:

dirtysouwfdawg said:

My favorite question to ask that really fucks with people is would you rather turn a project in on time but it not be perfect or turn in a perfect project but be late...

Another fun one is when they have too many jobs and show less than 3 yrs at most of them... so you’ve had a few jobs, can you explain to me why you’ve left each one and why if I hired you would you still be here in 3 years?

@Pitchfork51

I wouldnt motherfucker