Dinosaur interview

MoneySavingUser · 12 March 2012 at 10:35AM

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2113627/Dinosaur-interview-make-careers-extinct-Prospective-employers-using-extreme-techniques-select-best-staff.html

So you’re fully prepped for the interview, wearing a new suit and your CV is beyond reproach.

But to win that dream job you must work out what sort of dinosaur you are.
Prospective employers are increasingly using ‘extreme interviewing’ techniques which include questions such as: ‘If you were a dinosaur, what would you be?’

I haven't been asked that but have been asked what animal I would be recently

I guess the 'normal' interview is dead now with most companies totally obsessed with competency questions and assigning 'marks' to each answer and now these types of questions becoming more popular too

Genuine questions asked of potential employees include:
'If you were a biscuit, what sort would you be?'

'Name five uses for a stapler, without the staples.'

'Name me three Lady Gaga songs.'

'With a four-minute hourglass and a seven-minute hourglass, how can you measure exactly nine minutes - without taking longer than nine minutes?'

'On a scale of one to ten, how weird are you?'

'Which TV character is most like you?'

'Are you exhaling warm air?'

'Does life fascinate you?'

'Room, desk or car - which do you clean first?'

'What do you think of garden gnomes?'

heretolearn_2 · 12 March 2012 at 10:52AM

Name me three Lady Gaga songs.' - that's got to be age discrimination!

The rest sound like something off Bliiiiiindaaaa daaaaataaaaa

[Deleted User] · 12 March 2012 at 11:15AM

Aww, i've never had fun questions in job interviews. I did once get asked 'If someone offered you a job doing the same with twice the salary, would you take it?'

I think i answered that i'd be stupid if I didn't..

I think they only use these questions when there's a large amount of candidates and they need stupid reasons to weed the numbers down

InsideInsurance · 12 March 2012 at 12:08PM

Have known some silly things being done in interviews but never personally had them that bad.

Closest came when having a second round interview with who my "customer" would be and they said whilst they knew of PMs they'd never had any work for them and so what is the split between what the PM and the Sponsor do in terms of responsibilities, long term actions and day to day stuff.

At the end he asked if he could have 4 of them

Sambucus_Nigra · 12 March 2012 at 12:13PM

'If you were a biscuit, what sort would you be?' 'Are they paying you to be here?'
'Name five uses for a stapler, without the staples.' 'I could - however that would be one minute of my life I'll never get back'
'Name me three Lady Gaga songs.' 'Did someone give you 'dull interview questions' book for your 40th?'
'With a four-minute hourglass and a seven-minute hourglass, how can you measure exactly nine minutes - without taking longer than nine minutes?' "You do know I'm more qualified than you, don't you?'
'On a scale of one to ten, how weird are you?' 'Why, how weird do you want me to be?'
'Which TV character is most like you?' 'I really don't watch TV, I have what's known as a 'life' - you can get one yourself if you try real hard'
'Are you exhaling warm air?' 'I was until I walked into your interview room'
'Does life fascinate you?' 'Not right now, now'
'Room, desk or car - which do you clean first?' "Hang on, I'll text my cleaner and ask her'
'What do you think of garden gnomes?' 'Oh, your secret's out'

cosmoseater · 12 March 2012 at 12:20PM

If I got asked any of those I would walk out and never return.

Stephen_Leak · 12 March 2012 at 12:26PM

Do these people think that being out of work, having no money, etc. is funny?

I wouldn't regret putting the interviewer's lights out if they conducted an interview like this. I clearly wouldn't like working for a firm like this. After all, look at their recruitment policy.

Sambucus_Nigra · 12 March 2012 at 12:30PM

cosmoseater wrote: »

If I got asked any of those I would walk out and never return.

I think I would have to ask whether they were actually qualified in psychology in order to make any meaningful decisions based upon the answers given, or was it really the case that they were actually not taking the recruitment process as seriously as I was and perhaps I should be being interviewed for the HR dept in order to upgrade their professionalism rather than the post I was being interviewed for.

scooby088 · 12 March 2012 at 12:52PM

I would like to think interviews don't go down thie route, but if i ever encountered such an interview i would immediately get up and walk out interview over.

bap98189 · 12 March 2012 at 1:00PM

It's not as crazy as it sounds. The idea is to see how quickly the candidate can think on their feet. There is no right or wrong answer, but being able to come up with a coherent answer and discuss it with no preparation whatsoever is in itself a skill.

Let's face it many interviews are nowadays a test of how well a candidate can reel off one of their 100 pre-prepared answers, rather than a test of their actual ability. This is something different at least.

Alizarin · 12 March 2012 at 1:09PM

I'd love to answer some of these in an interview, much more interesting than 'give an example of a project you've done that was successful blah blah snore'

'Which TV character is most like you?' Reckon I'd have to say Dexter

Doubt I'd be given the job though ...

Dinosaur interview

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