Strangest question a recruiter has asked you?

[stickydancefloor]

Had an online meeting this week with a recruitment agency.

It was all the usual questions until she asked me about the role I held previous to my current one...

"So you were there for 7 years?"
"Yes that's right"
"Who do you keep in touch with from there?"
"Well, no-one nowadays"
"Why's that?"
"I think that's natural when you move onto a new employer that you gradually lose touch with your old colleagues"
But why don't you keep in touch with them?"
"Like I said, we drifted after I left, I think that's quite normal really"
"So you don't speak to any of them?"
"No, it was 7 years ago I left there"
"But why don't you speak to them anymore?"
"Because I'd moved on and things change when you move on and aren't at the same employer"
"So you don't keep in touch with anyone there?"
"NO!!!"

Round and round in a circle!!!!! It was most bizarre!!!!

What the strangest questions you've had from a recruiter?!

Or, if she is familiar with the company, fishing for the name of someone she could speak to about you.

Either way, she was fishing.

What are your sexual preferences, would you do anal? Interview set up in South Africa by a friend to be an entertainment 'hostess' to foreign ship Captains wanting to have a 'classy' and 'safe' night out in Durban.

The interviewer looked like Riff Raff from Rocky Horror. It was mental.

@AlternativePerspective

That reminds me.

I went for an interview recently for a coordinator for a disability charity. The role was part time and paid just £13k a year.

The experience they were looking for was understanding of disabilities, ability to communicate with people on all levels so as to be able to liaise with service users as well as service providers etc. Organisational skills etc.

They rang and invited me for interview.

It was online but it turned out that what they were actually looking for was a senior social worker with a degree in social work and senior management experience.

I’m guessing they didn’t put that on the job spec because there’s no way anyone with the qualifications they were looking for would have applied. and as the interview progressed turned out they wanted full-time commitment on a part time salary.

I withdrew my application.

@AlternativePerspective

I had this with a role recently. Job advertised was a big standard middle of the road administrator role. What the employer actually wanted was a fully qualified manager!! I also withdrew my application and also told them why!

Oxford wouldn’t reject someone for living in a council house

Get hold of a tank? Easy. Just pop down to the nearest pet supplies shop.

Mine was "oh shit sorry do you like dogs?"

As this massive dog came bounding up to me through a door as I was going on a tour of the workplace. Fortunately I did and he was lovely.

I got the job and stayed until recently.

I miss aspects of it. Mainly the dog.

She wanted a lead / contact so she could approach them for business. Obvs

I applied for a position as a TA last year. Due to Covid, I wasn't allowed to visit the school, so the interview was via Zoom.
There was a panel of 10 children (age 9/10) who each asked me a question.

They were brutal!

Questions included:

• "Who would win in a fight between a tiger and a shark?"
• "What would your superpower be and why?"

"Who is your hero and why?" "Where would you live if you could live anywhere, and why?" "What sport would you like to be better at and why?"

I got the job, thankfully.

“ I’m really sorry to ask you this, but as a requirement of the job, are you prepared to be medically examined for ovarian cysts?” This was in 1995. I was very young and naive and it was a well paid job. . I went to a private clinic for the examination, shit scared - it was an external examination fortunately - I had decided that if it was internal - I would walk. When I started the role, my boss told me that the Director had a bee in his bonnet about a female employee who had taken time off with ovarian cysts.

I was a bit surprised to be asked for an office job whether I’d had my BCG vaccine! Apparently the person I was replacing had had TB and the whole office had to be tested (she did recover and subsequently moved on to another role so it wasn’t the reason the role was vacant). I’m still happily there 15 years later!

In the executive search/ headhunting field there are people who are employed - researchers they call them - to build 'market maps'

So they will pretend to have a job for you but actually they don't and just have to quiz you on who is who at your company . They'll ask for names of colleagues and their job titles etc. This is prob what was happening in this case

I was asked "How would you solve a problem?" I asked what the problem was, she said "just a problem ". I asked for an example as it depended on what the problem was as to how I would solve it. She got a bit funny and said just any problem. I answered with a couple of different scenarios and how I'd deal with them . I wasn't offered the job and received feedback to work on my problem solving skills.

@Nonimai

“ I’m really sorry to ask you this, but as a requirement of the job, are you prepared to be medically examined for ovarian cysts?” This was in 1995. I was very young and naive and it was a well paid job. . I went to a private clinic for the examination, shit scared - it was an external examination fortunately - I had decided that if it was internal - I would walk. When I started the role, my boss told me that the Director had a bee in his bonnet about a female employee who had taken time off with ovarian cysts.

I'm genuinely speechless

I trained as a learning disabilities nurse and had a few years experience working with people with profound and multiple disabilities. I went for an interview with continuing care for the NHS, who don't usually employ LD nurses despite the people they care for having very complex needs. They were asking me for tips on how to deal with certain needs (such as how someone who is unable to talk can express they are in pain) and i gave them advice based on my experiences, and I didn't get the job lol.

I interviewed for citizens advice last year and they asked me how I would fit myself into the team if I got the job, which I thought was weird, surely it's their job to make a new starter feel welcome?

I had another interview not long ago for a witness care officer with the police. They wanted very specific examples for the questions they asked, and even when I have examples they wanted more, even saying 'well wasn't that part of your job anyway?' I felt so awkward like they wanted me to be superwoman or something.

I hate interviews!

"Oh, Sunshinepunch this is the first time your kids are going into nursery, how does that make YOU feel as their mum?"

Husband was as horrified as me, he said no one has ever asked him anything about how he feels 'as a dad' in an interview ever...

Asked after having 1st child now you will not be going back to work at all even by my husbands parents My mum would never dare very forward thinking .Work was fine but I didn’t want full time (7nights on 7off of 12hr shifts )This was by a single lady Health Visitor as well why waste all that training and experience .I got a job being in charge of a hospital 1night a week Mortgages were sky high

If you were an animal what animal would you be and you cant say cat or dog.

I refused to answer, saying I thought my qualifications and experience were more pertinent.

He was an absolute David Brent. I took the job and refused to ask the question when interviewing others. He said "its fun" . I said it was twatish. Apparently he is still doing it. HR now warn people in advance

I had the 'If we ( the company) were an animal, which animal would we be?'
Apparently a Panda - true, revered but almost extinct! - wasn't the right answer.
I also got 'If you were a car which car would you be?' and would you rather be a Blue Ocean thinker or a `think out of the box Thinker. FFS.

Not the recruiter but the actual interviewer asked me some odd questions at my interview. I was applying for a management position and in the process of being made redundant from an equal position. Asked me absolutely no questions about my technical knowledge, no questions relating to management of a team etc. But proceeded to ask me about my personal life, whether I was a single mum or had a partner etc etc. The recruiter called when I left and I advised straight away that I wasn’t interested in the position.

[quote Rumblebear]@StCharlotte

I have no stories to add (my interviews have always been boring and 100% about my skills and the role) but what industry are you in?![/quote]
I could tell you but I'd have to kill you

(I got the job but turned it down)

What was my fastest length when I was in the swimming team at school.

Interview with someone who happened to commute into our city from the rural area I'd grown up in. It turned out she was hoping to get her daughter into my old school and was hoping for application tips and useful contacts. It was a state grammar and she was bitterly disappointed to hear my top and indeed only tip was "do well in the 11 plus"

I was asked "if your colleague was not pulling her weight, what would you do?" I answered "work twice as hard" 🤣😂

"How many tennis balls could you fit in this room"

I have aphantasia. I wasn't provided with a tennis ball and so, because I physically couldn't picture one, was just left to guess wildly at how large a tennis ball actually is. Followed by having to guess the room dimensions.

It was a data input job, no estimates involved.

I was in my early twenties sometime in the 1980s and attended an interview where I was asked "So you're not married - why is that?"

I was informed that sexual jokes and sexual innuendo would be part of working night shift on site and as the only female on the team would I be ok with that.