Most idiotic question you have been asked at a job interview?

[ReadyForSeason]

Inspired by another thread.

I have been asked what car would I be and what would I be if I could be anything?
I fell for the first one and answered. With the second one, years later I was mature enough to answer “Housewife” - all the manager was interested about is telling how he would be a helicopter pilot…

I would love to be asked this in an interview, and that would indeed be my answer.

Should I put this on my CV?

This wouldn't be allowed now, but when I was just 16 I went for a job as a typist in an accountants office. I was still weighing up my options career-wise (I went on to teach!)

The office was smoky, dirty and had one older, bald guy with a paunch sat in a grubby stained swivel chair (it was grim!!)

He asked me half a dozen questions, made me type a short letter, then said something like, "Now for the tie-breaker...think carefully before you answer...when you're sharing a bath, which side do you sit in, the tap end or the smooth end?" 😨 WTF?? 😳

If I was asked that now aged 60, I'd hand him his knob on a stick. Aged 16 and absolutely shitting myself in my first ever job interview, I just stammered out something inane about only having a shower (which we did ) and made a hasty exit!

JFC. @Simonjt hopefully that wasn’t recent.

"This job requires you to work all shifts including nights. How does your husband feel about that?"

Um, why not ask him? And why are you not asking me?

Do you have a boyfriend? That was in 1985..

I say fell for it because now, with years of experience and professional confidence, I would avoid to answer and turn the question back asking to provide an example.

Why are you not married ?

What? They really said that? What kind of company was it?

Ahh, this one of my favourite jokes too! Also love

(at a bar with a large round of drinks)
Bartender : would you like a tray?
Customer: No thanks,I’ve got enough to carry already.

And when you add slicer in, you're really cooking on gas 👍

(Maybe that should be "cooking with solar" these days?)

Not a job interview, but an interview at a supposedly well thought of university rhyming with with Baimbridge.

Where are you from?

I answered.

Where is your mother from?

I answered. (she's American)

No, that's not possible. Where was she from before she lived there?

It went on and on.

What I haven't mentioned at this point is that the interviewer took one look at my surname and assumed I was Jewish (I am) and proceeded to question my entire being, including making assumptions about my father's occupation as "That's what all Jews are".

It was a long time ago, but it was absolutely wrong then. My sixth form complained. Another girl got similar treatment at another university rhyming with Loxford.

Not necessarily idiotic but irrelevant -

Two immature and giggling staff did the interview and asked: Who do you live with? What is your relationship to him (flatmate)? What does he do for a job? Do you drink (alcohol, yes I do)?

The last question was following up with a statement of “well we like to work hard and play hard here,” said with a petulant tone/face. I told the agency to withdraw my application as the whole interview overall was unprofessional in many ways and they came across as a couple of prats having a laugh interviewing applicants. This was a large international company too.

@madnessitellyou WHOA. Holy crap. What happened after the complaint?

How are your periods?

Vlookup 🤣 I mean it's a pretty flawed function.

They meant try it on not chat up. Would like to see this happen in 2024

Do you go to church?

Tech job in the early 00s.

My answer: Never during work hours.

I was asked how DH (who they knew) would manage meals when I was away. This was 30 years ago but it still annoys me!

How do you feel about working with men?

Do you like to go for drinks after work?

Vlookup is the shittest excel function out there! Totally impossible to debug without counting columns on a random table. I was using index-match until as a pp mentioned I discovered the joys of Xlookup.

"Are you a married lady?"

This was some years ago now, thank goodness, but I gave the recruiter an earful when he called me for interview feedback.

My mum very early 1980's is your family complete? She said yes and fell pregnant six months later. NHS so she kept her job.

Me ...Who do you feel about selling antibiotics for animals without a prescription. I said no I wouldn't since it was against the law. He very swiftly ended the interview. Probably a lucky escape.

Unfortunately, SimonJT and madnessitellyou's experiences don't surprise me.
I've been told I can't possibly have blue eyes given my surname, and have listened several times to the conversation about "where are you REALLY from" directed at DH.

Was I thinking of having any children. This was 1991.

"Tell us why we shouldn't hire you?"

My instant reaction was to laugh and say "because you ask stupid interview questions".

I still got the job🤷‍♀️

Manager turned out to be an overpromoted, under experienced grad in love with stupid HR fads.