Worst Interview Experiences/Questions?!

Bunter_2

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)

I recall reading something about this scenario. I think the answer is that gravity pulls you towards the centre of the earth. When you get to the centre, the pull of gravity stops but the acceleration you have acquired propels you onward past the centre. Eventually the acceleration peters out and gravity draws you back towards the centre of the earth again. The process continues ad infinitum.

So basically you would go up and down like a yo yo.

alunharford

Bunter wrote: »

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)

I recall reading something about this scenario. I think the answer is that gravity pulls you towards the centre of the earth. When you get to the centre, the pull of gravity stops but the acceleration you have acquired propels you onward past the centre. Eventually the acceleration peters out and gravity draws you back towards the centre of the earth again. The process continues ad infinitum.

Well, this is an engineering question. Engineers have to build stuff in the real world! The earth is:

a) Not spherical,
b) Not uniform,
c) Not solid.

It also has an atmosphere. Changes in your body position will cause different airflow around your body and you'll get splattered all over the sides of your hole.

Even in a vacuum any change in rotation of the earth about any of its axes will get you splattered all over the sides of your hole. You'd probably be killed by changes in amplitude of the Chandler wobble.

jbreckmckye

Rainmaker_uk wrote: »

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

(various examples)

I don't remember being asked anything like this when I was interviewed Girton. I think I was quizzed on structuralism (I mentioned that I'd read Saussure), and had quite a few close reading exercises (I applied for - and studied - English), but I don't recall anything especially esoteric or leftfield.

CCFC_80

I was asked "What would you like to see written on your gravestone?" and of course drew a complete blank and didn't get the job.

In hindsight should have perhaps just said "Oh I am just going to be cremated with my ashes scattered at sea". Quite a depressing and unimaginative question for an HR person to ask in my opinion:(

Bunter_2

alunharford wrote: »

Well, this is an engineering question. Engineers have to build stuff in the real world! The earth is:

a) Not spherical,
b) Not uniform,
c) Not solid.

It also has an atmosphere. Changes in your body position will cause different airflow around your body and you'll get splattered all over the sides of your hole.

Even in a vacuum any change in rotation of the earth about any of its axes will get you splattered all over the sides of your hole. You'd probably be killed by changes in amplitude of the Chandler wobble.

Hmm...and what do you think the effect of the molten centre of the earth would have on the proceedings??

Sammyantha

Funniest one I ever had looking back was when an employer flat out denied that the meeting was an interview in the first place!! He'd advertised the post in the local paper, and chatted to me on the phone. He'd also gone through my CV, requested a reference, and to all intents and purposes given the impression that it was a go-er. However when I got there, he leered, made silly gestures, threw the rulebook out the window, and finished by saying he didn't think much of the neck scarf I'd worn!

I was flabbergasted at the time, but chalked it down to experience. You can't win 'em all, and who the heck WANTS to? Lmao

Sammyantha

ian_h wrote: »

I take it you were never successful at an interview when asked this question?

I'd wholeheartedly disagree with your reply and your assertion that your interviewer is a "tosspot".

This question (especially for sales and customer service roles) allows the interviewer to see whether you can "sell" yourself - after all if you cant sell yourself (who you know better than anything) you are going to struggle selling the firms products/services.

Its also an opportunity to see how you have prepared - you should from your research have an idea of what the company needs from someone in the role you have applied for and you have the opportunity here to demonstrate your qualities to fulfil the role.

Agreed wholeheartedly!

You need to draw up a list of qualities you have then match them to each part of the job spec. When asked this question, go to town with this info

Sammyantha

Rainmaker_uk wrote: »

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)

Why have I never been asked these? Tut :T

Becles

A civil service interview with an interview panel.

They had desks arranged in a horseshoe, and I was sat on a stool in the middle. It was a sunny winters day and my stool was facing the window, so the sun was shining right in my face like an interrogation lamp.

All questions had to be answered to the Chair in the centre which was weird as the man on the far right asked the most questions, but I couldn't look at him when I answered.

He asked is it ever acceptable to be flexible with rules. I said it would depend on the situation and the rules. There was a sharp intake of breath by all and the Chair tutted. I knew then I'd blown it

parainsomniac

Hi, good luck with your interview, what ever the questions are just remember to smile, lots! its a great way of defusing the intensity of the atmosphere.

My oddest/weirdest interview was for the job I am presently in, infact a whole series of disasters happened leaving me cringing in a paniced mess, it worked out well as Im still happily in the job, my employers are lovley and I now laugh about it all.

The Job I had heard about from a friend who worked forthe company already, she let me know there would be as new branch opening and would get me an application form etc,
at the same time I was due for ets surgery, which is a proceure inside the chest, deflating lungs and cuting of sympthatic nerves ... which basically requires a stay in hospital , but you are released sore, bruised and out of breath along with various odd side effects for some, which for me was sweating servery, plus all the morphine in my system and prescribed meds ment I was only good for bed really.

But, on the day after my hospital stay I get a phone call from my friend saying they are doing interviews 'now' and if I still want a job then I needed get the application form from her and fill it in, so thinking it would be a case of just picking up form filling it in for her to pass on, I said 'no problem' ! 30 mins later Im about to atempt to wobble off, looking like a mad woman dragged through a hedge to pick the form up, when I get a phone call from my friend to tell me the management would be there any min and would skip the application form and just do my interveiw now if I liked !!
oh dear !
i really needed a job, I didnt want to look un-interested and decline theinterveiw offer, but I also didnt want to have an interview in a coat and basically pj's... mad hair, doped up to the eye balls with heavy pain killers ... oh and sweating
So there was nothing for it, I told my friend how i was and got her to pass the message before I arrived that I didnt look too pretty, in my pjs and on meds.... due to the op... I just gritted my teeth and hoped for the best, I didnt have much choice at that point..... anyway what was the worst that could happen, lol !
Well It was all fine, not a problem and they were most understanding and really great about the whole timing of the interview for me, I think it may have worked in my favour that I was 'keen' .. or something, lol! I don know, but trying to remember on the spot all your qualifications and employment history when you heavily drugged up is not easy I can tell you!

Appart from that bizarre interview, I then managed to clock up a load of disasters before I actully started the job, this included .. getting very lost on my way to the induction day, arriving 30 mins late after using sat nav asking a postman, police man, phoning my friend and also I only lived 10 mins down the road :embarasse not to mention my preperation of route the night before, I was so determind I would be punctual... brilliant ... impressive ... :grinheart . it was obviously not to be...
..... And then after spending the induction day. cracking appologetic jokes about my 'getting lost' I carried on to make jokes with everyone about how I wont be getting lost when I do my first day in work , lol ect,
guess what.... :eek:
my first day arrives,.....
...thinking I was actually lost on my way on my first day in the workplace, I paniced!!.... I ended up turning round to backtrack my route....to eventually find that actually... I wasnt lost origionaly! and If I had just gone all of 10yrds more in the first place I would have seen the place! doh ...! yep I was late again ! I could have died when I eventually ran in ..

what they thought at that point I dread to think... lol

interview in pj's and gets lost ...twice ... what have we employed !!

So if you feel its going wrong in your interview then remember it could be worse, you could be unavoidably in your pj's.


:beer: