Worst Interview Experiences/Questions?!

Does not apply to me but here are a selection of Oxbridge interview questions:

1. Can a thermostat think? (Experimental Psychology, Oxford)
2. Compare these bottles of Tesco and Timotei shampoo? (Law, Oxford)
3. Could there still be a second-coming if mankind had disappeared from the planet? (Theology, Cambridge)
4. Describe this saucer to me as if I wasn’t in the room (Economics, Cambridge)
5. Describe your school from an anthropological perspective (Archaeology and Anthropology, Cambridge)
6. Do you believe that statues can move, and how might this belief be justified? (French and Spanish, Oxford)
7. Do you think the Bavarian peasants of 1848 had an ideology? (History, Cambridge)
8. Does a snail have a consciousness? (Experimental Psychology, Oxford)
9. Here is a piece of bark, please talk about it. (Biological sciences, Oxford.)
10. How do you organise a successful revolution? (History, Oxford)
11. How many grains of sand are there in the world? (Physics, Oxford)
12. How many monkeys would you use in an experiment? (Experimental Psychology, Oxford)
13. How small can you make a computer? (Engineering, Cambridge)
14. How would you market a rock band? (Economics and Management, Oxford)
15. How would you measure the weight of your own head? (Medicine, Cambridge)
16. How would you poison someone without the police finding out? (Medicine, Cambridge)
17. If a wife had expressed distaste for it previously, would her husband’s habit of putting marmalade in his egg at breakfast be grounds for divorce? (Law, Cambridge)
18. If I were a grapefruit, would I rather be seedless or non-seedless? (Medicine, Cambridge)
19. If it could take a form, what shape would the novel “To the Lighthouse become? (English, Oxford)
20. If my friend locks me in a room, and says I am free to come out whenever I like as long as I pay £5, is this a deprivation of liberty? (Law, Cambridge)
21. If there was an omnipotent god would he be able to create a stone that he couldn’t lift? (Classics, Oxford)
22. If you’re not in California, how do you know it exists? (PPE – Politics, Philosophy, and Economics, Oxford)
23. Instead of politicians, why don’t we let the managers of IKEA run the country (SPS – Social and Political Sciences, Cambridge)
24. Is ‘Taggart’ an accurate portrayal of Glasgow? (English, Oxford)
25. Is it morally wrong to attempt to climb a mountain? (Theology, Oxford)
26. Is the chair really there? (Philosophy, Cambridge
27. Is the moon made of cheese? (Vet Sciences, Cambridge)
28. Is Wittgenstein always right? (French and Philosophy, Oxford)
29. Put a monetary value on this teapot. (Philosophy, politics and economics, Oxford.)
30. Tell me about your life, from the beginning to what made you sit in that chair (Natural Sciences, Cambridge)
31. What colour is that notice board? (Mathematics and Philosophy, Oxford)
32. What effect on the whole of society does someone crashing into a lamppost have? (Law, Oxford)
33. What happens if I drop an ant? (Physics, Oxford)
34. What would happen if you drilled through the Earth all the way to the other side and then jumped into the hole? (Engineering, Cambridge)
35. Why can’t you light a candle in a spaceship? (Physics, Oxford.)
36. Why is it a disadvantage for humans to have two legs? (Medicine, Cambridge)
37. Would I be justified in saying that only morons play sport? (Economics, Cambridge)
38. Would Ovid’s chat-up line work? (Classics, Oxford)
39. Would you rather be a novel or a poem? (English, Oxford)
40. Writing about music is like dancing about architecture. Discuss. (Music, Oxford)

The worst interview technique is when they lean back in their chair and say 'tell me about yourself'

Answer as far as I am concerned is 'well what would you like to know?'

Lets face it we already know we have a tosspot for an interviewer when they do this.

My two worst questions were:

1) What was the date of your last period?

2) Are you an introvert or extrovert? A question that stumped me because I did study psychology and psychologists view people as having a mixture of these characteristics and some view these terms as unhelpful. Plus the job required skills/traits that would fall into both of these camps so I couldn't just give the answer I thought the job required. So, I started to explain why I felt I had both introvert and extrovert traits and the guy told me to just answer the b***** question. So, I politely tried to explain why I couldn't just give a one-word answer. He then got angry and from what he said it became obvious that he had no understanding of the question he asked. Not suprisingly I wasn't offered the job!

Interviewer picking up his BIC biro and handing it to me:

'Sell me this pen'

Answers -

It writes and means you can write things.

It can also double as a straw were your to be stuck on a desert island and need to stick it in a coconut.

A life-saving pen AND you can write a letter to get attention too.

Might struggle for a stamp though.

A-HA! You can stick you note in it, secure both ends with the nib and the cap and float it away. Like a small message in a bottle.

What a pen.

Hermia wrote: »

My two worst questions were:

1) What was the date of your last period?

2) Are you an introvert or extrovert? A question that stumped me because I did study psychology and psychologists view people as having a mixture of these characteristics and some view these terms as unhelpful. Plus the job required skills/traits that would fall into both of these camps so I couldn't just give the answer I thought the job required. So, I started to explain why I felt I had both introvert and extrovert traits and the guy told me to just answer the b***** question. So, I politely tried to explain why I couldn't just give a one-word answer. He then got angry and from what he said it became obvious that he had no understanding of the question he asked. Not suprisingly I wasn't offered the job!

Omg :eek: really?
I can't recall any really bad questions but have had interviews where the interviewer seemed to be on the attack which isn't very nice especially if the attack is regarding your CV or experience.