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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

AIBU to think this interview question went out with the ark?

48 replies

Hydrophilic · 14/12/2012 20:07

"If you were an animal, which animal would you be?"

I was seriously asked this today. I wanted to ask the interviewer why he thought it is helpful. Everyone knows it's actually a quesion about your personality and is thefere eaay to fake. Like I did

AIBU to think it's naff and old school?

OP posts:

festivelyfocussed · 14/12/2012 20:08

Ooh, what did you say?

uptheamp · 14/12/2012 20:08

blimey have never been asked that, i would laugh. what did you say?

TheMonster · 14/12/2012 20:10

Our PSHCE department at school asks students to be prepared for that question.

kinkyfuckery · 14/12/2012 20:13

PMSL, never been asked that in an interview before.

Apart from that one time I applied to be a zoo animal.....

Original poster

Hydrophilic · 14/12/2012 20:17

Some shite about a big cat...

I've NEVER been asked it before. Everyone has shifted to competency-based questions which actually tell you something about the skills people have.

All the bad bits of the interview are coming back to me.

Manager: What support would you want me to give you in your first few weeks.
Me: (Specific) information I need to do my job.
Him: Ive only been here 2 weeks, will I piss you off on your first day if I can't help you with that...
Me:No....

(Trutheful answer, yes. It's what you're bloody paid for and if you don't know you should find out)

OP posts:

IfNotNowThenWhen · 14/12/2012 20:19

Blimey. I have never been asked that. I think I would say a sloth.

quesadilla · 14/12/2012 20:20

what a naff, predictable question. Do you mind if I ask what industry you work in?

FyreFly · 14/12/2012 20:36

my Mum got asked that a few weeks ago! It wasn't for a charity by any chance?

Alisvolatpropiis · 14/12/2012 20:39

I got asked that once! At the same interview I was asked what my dream job was and to describe myself in give adjectices. The last question caused a split second of total panic as my brain scrambled to remember what an adjective was!

Alisvolatpropiis · 14/12/2012 20:39

*five not give

Lavenderhoney · 14/12/2012 20:51

I'm afraid if I was asked that at an interview I would want to say "grr" pretend to claw and fall about laughing. Do people really ask that with a straight face?

It sounds like a really dodgy lounge lizard chat up line. Perhaps there was a management conference somewhere and an hr guy got tipsy and frisky and totally misjudged a situation with his female colleague and blurted out that question---And got a death " you will lose your job" stare. And quick as a flash, he said " ooh no, it's a new interview technique, havent you heard of it? did you think??? No no no"

And so he had to use it in interviews from then on...

PanickingIdiot · 14/12/2012 20:57

If it was the manager who asked this, not some pimple-faced recruiter with half a GCSE, then I'd be having second thoughts about the job. Unless it was an assistant office clerk position at a recruitment agency and I was a pimple-faced yoof with half a GCSE.

Original poster

Hydrophilic · 14/12/2012 21:04

I work in medical sales. At other interviews I have been asked whether I did a days shadowing before applying for my first job in the industry. I think when you have worked in the role for 2 years, a days shadowing is not relevant.

Panicking- It is making me think twice. If his questions are that outdated, his managing style is likely to be too.

Am really getting down with all these interviews with people who like to pick faults in everything you say and belittle your skills.

OP posts:

MrsBW · 14/12/2012 21:07

It's asked purely to see how you think on your feet and whether it throws you.

Same as 'tell me a joke'

Some still do it (obviously, as you were asked it), some don't.

The answer is irrelevant. It's the manner in which you answer.

BridgetBidet · 14/12/2012 21:09

I hate 'How would your best friend describe you'?

She'd say I was alright. Because she's my best friend.

SantaIAmSoFuckingRock · 14/12/2012 21:11

i would be with the 'on the floor laughing' crowd with that one. are you sure it wasn't a trick question? do you think he might have been hoping for people to say "come on, that's not a serious question is it?"

XBenedict · 14/12/2012 21:11

I would an Armadillo - crunchy on the outside soft int he middle!

nowahousewife · 14/12/2012 21:11

Remember an interview is a two way process . . . . for them to find out about you and for you to find out about them.

I think you've probably found out quite enough about them!

autumnmum · 14/12/2012 21:13

I once got asked "how would your husband describe you?" I just said "delightful" and after a horrible pause, they asked me another more normal question. I got the job though!

MrsMoosickle · 14/12/2012 21:14

I was once asked what my death row dinner would be!

nowahousewife · 14/12/2012 21:15

Death row dinner - we play that on long car journey's. Hardly suitable job interview material

pixwix · 14/12/2012 21:24

Death row dinner?? Pmsl!!

Mine have been more mundane i.e this person is displaying x,y, and z, and is desaturating - everyone possibly senior to you has been struck by lassa fever/is in A&E/is dysfunctional/has terminal dandruff, your other colleague is in the toilet with dysentry, and the chap in the next bed is trying to climb down the fire escape thinking it's the stairway to heaven - how would you prioritize and meet the goals and values of the trust whilst displaying empathy to relatives?

But never been asked about animals or death row dinners

Original poster

Hydrophilic · 14/12/2012 21:27

Bridget- "She'd say I'm a bit of a twat'

OP posts:

merrymonsters · 14/12/2012 21:28

I was once asked 'who is your favourite King or Queen of England'. Another pointless question.

FlaminNoraImPregnantPanda · 14/12/2012 22:26

I've never been asked which animal I'd like to be, but my answer would be the one who plays the drums in The Muppet Show.

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