Dinosaur interview

WhiteHorse

MoneySavingUser wrote: »

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

Industry complains that it has difficulty finding the 'right people', something which should hardly come as a surprise when a PhD level engineer with 40 years experience finds himself being interviewed by a vacuous, 20 year old Eastenders fan with a cornflake packet diploma in 'HR'.

john539

How about "If you were a biscuit, what biscuit would you be" !

Damn: i've just seen it's in OP's list.

Stephen_Leak

Actually, my local radio DJ's were on about this earlier today, and one came up with a brilliant answer to the "which animal?" question.

A duck-billed platypus. Why? Because it is the only egg laying mammal, so produces both eggs and milk, so I could make my own custard.

PS. And, if they ask the usual "Do you have any questions"?" at the end, you can turn the tables. "Why do most HR people drive BMW's?" "They can't spell Porsche".

TrickyWicky

bap98189 wrote: »

The idea is to see how quickly the candidate can think on their feet.

Slight problem there though isn't there. I'm sure you're bright enough to figure it out but just in case:

Quick thinking doesn't always mean right / correct thinking. Many quick thinkers get things wrong while many slower thinkers (who take the time to think it through thoroughly) get it right or consult others for their input.

Having a quick thinking loose cannon in your company isn't always a good thing.

MoneySavingUser

Been a while since I posted this topic - I still think these interviewers are idiots

RobertoMoir

There's a big difference between asking one or two questions like this to see how people think, and some halfwit reading that example list out one question after another from a bit of paper.

I'm in the IT profession where they've asked a few questions of that kind in interviews for quite some time, but yeah, I'd have my doubts about an employer if I got the big list one after another.

An interview is a two way thing, the candidate is interviewing the company as a suitable place to work just as the company is interviewing them as a suitable hire.

xxJudexx

Has anyone been asked to bring in an object that best describes them? I'm racking my brain to find something unique which would tick all the boxes they are looking for!

Enterprise_1701C

How about your diary?

The_ICT_Engineer

I been asked the dinosaur question before. My standard reply has been.
Sorry I'am not a Paleontologist so not able to help you there.
Even then I been asked what is a Paleontologist, as they did not
have a clue.

Ashles

• 'If you were a biscuit, what sort would you be?'
• The type of biscuit that hates you and your incompetence. Something like a Milie's white chocolate cookie.
• 'Name five uses for a stapler, without the staples.'
• It's hard to think of any that don't involve your head
• 'Name me three Lady Gaga songs.'
• Let me turn that around and ask how you actually got YOUR job. Did someone lose a bet?
• 'With a four-minute hourglass and a seven-minute hourglass, how can you measure exactly nine minutes - without taking longer than nine minutes?'
• I loved that scene in Die Hard 3 too.
• 'On a scale of one to ten, how weird are you?'
• On a scale of 1 to 10 what is the mental age of these questions?
• 'Which TV character is most like you?'
• The helicopter in Airwolf.
• 'Are you exhaling warm air?'
• You are a creepy little man
• 'Does life fascinate you?'
• You're lonely aren't you?
• 'Room, desk or car - which do you clean first?'
• Have you ever managed to get any work done in this company?
• 'What do you think of garden gnomes?'
• Congratulations - you just redefined the word 'inane'

Seriously if these questions were asked in an interview I would assume the person interviewing simply did not have a clue.

As TrickyWicky posts above, just because some can think of quick/amusing answers to these questions would not in any way indicate how suitable they actually were for almost any real job.
Anyone who inserts those type of questions is more likely trying to make the interview process more entertaining for themselves rather than actually learning anything useful about the applicants.