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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:

ChippingInLovesChristmasLights · 14/12/2012 22:32

Well, it's a good question.

ChippingInLovesChristmasLights · 14/12/2012 22:34

At least now you know to turn the job down!!

... unless you are skinter than a skint thing on a skint day in skint.... then accept it and keep looking!

ToffeeCaramel · 14/12/2012 22:38

I'd say a dog, because I'm a right bitch, I smell and I like shagging people's legs. (Wouldn't really.)

missingmumxox · 15/12/2012 00:40

When I was newly qualified as a nurse, I was asked what I thought about the cost of laproscopic surgery in an interview, I answered I don't care about the cost I am a D grade nurse! in the interview some building was being done and machines starting and stopping all the time at one point when there was a low rumble I blurted out "oh! should have had some lunch!" in a poor attempt at humour.

reader I got the job, and it was at a time when I had applied for over 300 jobs in a year I had been lucky to to get a job on qualifing this was a move on and I found out later they had, had over 120 applications and done 20 interviews, I often wonder if the machinary drowned out my fatuious comment and stupid answer as I did follow up the don't care with a text book answer.

they also interviewed me in a store room?

deleted203 · 15/12/2012 00:46

I'm afraid I'd have answered, 'I have no idea, as it's not something I've ever considered and it has no relevance to how I do my job'.

Wouldn't have been too worried if it had cost me the job, TBH. It's a fucking stupid question in a serious interview.

Tanith · 15/12/2012 00:58

I was once asked what I'd do if I won the lottery.
I told her I didn't do the lottery and privately marked her down as an idiot manager.

I got the job and I was right about her - one of those "hands-on" IT managers who had no idea what she was doing and liked to stay late, messing about with the databases. It would take me at least the following morning to clear up the mess she'd made!

Not4turning · 15/12/2012 01:22

Sorry but this has me laughing. My answer would go something like this 'I would be a pussy', just to test them like!

echt · 15/12/2012 03:38

Apart from being a twatty question, and reason enough NOT to take the job, I would say spotted hyena, because the female dominates. Even a female cub is deferred to by any male. This small reversal of the usual hierarchies cheers me up no end.

At one interview I was asked what my hobbies were. I said hobbies are a male construct, and that I had the gift of repose.

I got the job.

AnitaBlake · 15/12/2012 04:54

I got asked what drink I would describe myself as once in an interview. I said champagne :D I got that jib.

SomeTiggyPudding · 15/12/2012 10:09

I would say I'm most like a hagfish. When threatened it produces masses of unpleasant slime to put of attackers.

Original poster

Hydrophilic · 15/12/2012 18:15

I'm making a note of sowornout's answer for next time. I hate anything like this with a passion. Also included in this hatred is anything "fun" at work that involves singing, dancing or writing a rap to present to the group.

I wish workplaces would wise up and realise we're not all "in your face" type A personalities.

OP posts:

ouryve · 15/12/2012 18:16

I am an animal. A human one.

ChristmasPickles · 15/12/2012 18:25

Oh hydro I feel for you, I went through a phase of doing loads of interviews and it really depressed me how many people fired nonsense questions at me they had learnt in training rather than just try and get to know me and see if I fitted the job.

My friend once got asked another cringe-worthy question - 'where do you want to be in 5 years time?' and she answered:

'Hopefully I'll be married and a stay at home mum with my children'. She didn't get the job!

Molepomandmistletoe · 15/12/2012 18:36

Ouryve - that's exactly what I would have answered with.

I HATE the "Where do you see yourself in 5 years" question. It's pointless. If I could tell the future that accuratly I wouldn't be suffering stupid questions in an interview. Although the answer of "Dead" has made a couple of interviewers laugh and got me the job on both occasions.

Original poster

Hydrophilic · 15/12/2012 19:45

Where do you see yourself in 5 years time?

Cue bland, generic answer about wanting to move up within the company whilst secretly hoping you will achieve your lifelong dream of being a professional acrobat .

OP posts:

deleted203 · 15/12/2012 22:49

I'm so pleased to see that I'm not the only one who loathes these type of 'off the wall' questions. I'm old and curmudgeonly enough to refuse to join in with it and have several times combatted questions like this with 'in what way is this relevant to the position you are offering?'. It usually wrong foots interviewers into saying, 'Urrmmm....it's not really'. What can they say other than that? If they say 'it's designed to reveal your personality' or something like that I've said briskly, 'No it's not. It's pseudo psychology with limited proven credibility. It's designed to see how candidates cope under pressure but I would prefer to give you proven examples from my past work'.

(Told you I was old and curmedgeonly).

BabyGiraffes · 15/12/2012 23:29

I'd be a dormouse and ask if they mind me hibernating about seven months a year - on full pay of course

Lavenderhoney · 16/12/2012 08:47

At the end, I used to ask " can you tell me why you like working here, is there anything you would change or add?" and " what's the turnover of staff in this role/ within the company? "

If I got the 5 years question, I would answer that I hoped the company had a policy of proving from within, perhaps across departments, as I hoped to stay. Did they have any example of that? Do people stay for 5 years or more?

WhenAChildIsBawnTigga · 16/12/2012 09:16

I got asked that on a course once and said naked mole rats because they look like tiny penises, they no longer ask that question.

I'veHadFunAnsweringQuestionsLikeThatTiggaxx

TheBigJessie · 16/12/2012 12:18

Silly question. I would probably just stare at an interviewer as if they were stupid, but in an ideal world, I would say, "Oh that's a quick question, isn't it, to see whether one listens carefully! I am already an animal, I am a member of the species Homo sapiens, a type of mammal found all over the planet."

TheBigJessie · 16/12/2012 12:19

*Trick

Shesparkles · 16/12/2012 12:26

I'd want to say I was a hyena to justify my laughing at the question

EcoLady · 16/12/2012 13:09

I've been asked to tell a joke in an interview ... but it was the School Council interviewing for a primary teaching post.

Q - What's purple and burns?
A - The Grape Fire of London

I got the job!

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