Oh interviews!
Some people are afraid of them, but I am always looking forward. It's the skill that you need to develop constantly. No matter how good you are at what you do, you need to be able to present it to new people during the short conversation.
And I think, everyone agrees that interviews are the tests of not only technical skills, but adaptability to the new team.
What is the worst question you have ever been asked in a job interview?
My experience:
1) If I had 7+ years of experience on the software that exists only for 3 years.
and there were many more.......much more......
Latest comments (102)
"Do you know, this company could not offer high salary but a journey to make a great product?"
From a swedish company who:
"Mind us if we send you a personality test?" (what is ultimately a simple IQ test...)
What's your caste? Write it down on top of your resume after clearing final round
It was embarrassing and I said no , I cant and rejected the job offer
what? no way! i am so ashamed that we still have this kind of stupid hierarchy in the societies.
How much is 17x17 ?
They were really waiting for an immediate and accurate answer.
I was asked why did I leave one of my previous jobs and wanted to know why I wouldn't go back. Maybe it's not a bad question, but it felt a bit uncomfortable.
"Where do you see yourself in 5 years?"
I only ever applied to two internship positions until now, but my very first one was a sort of group interview where we had to introduce ourselves following a predefined presentation.
At some point it involved pretty personal stuff like health issues, religious affinities and who you live with (to which the HR interviewer frequently asked "Girlfriend/boyfriend? If so do you plan on getting married/live together?"). I don't know how standard those kinds of questions are, but in a room full of people I didn't know, it felt very invasive. I just skipped over that personal questions section and it might be why I never got to the second round of interviews.
Hiring manager for a city IT department to me walking into the interview room: How much of you resume is lies?
I should have walked out at that point.
What??????I would!
I once had an interview where they used incorrect vocabulary.
"Are you experienced in front office and back office development" and "We're looking for someone who could work with Amber and Mango DB". Suffice to say that company only had one developer and he wasn't part of the interview process.
I was asked to explain how floating point numbers work and why a floating point error would occur.
This was for a web application developer position, the person who asked was just trying to come up with a way to bully candidates.
He picked the wrong developer. My background is in mathematics and I took an entire sequence on numerical methods.
I almost walked out, but I needed the job because my entire dept was getting laid off.
Why were you insulted? This sounds like a fundamental computer science question to me.
Do you know how to do 'x' in 'y'?
x = technology I never used.
The interview feedback = Not industry ready.
I am now in a better job now.
Already used 'x' in projects now.
Don't let an interview define what you are capable of
How would you test a water heater!?!?
Interview for Senior QA position in a company in financial industry.
I have had questions like that. I mentioned it was weird for a Linux system admin role. They then explained it to me that they were more interested in my thought process for troubleshooting an unknown problem. After that it made more sense why they asked it.
But this was senior role! To me, it was just embarrassing.
exactly!!!! ..... don't ... 'thought process' me!!! my god!!!
Maybe they had a problem with water heater and the plumber was late...
This happened on the 3rd world around one of my lowest points. I was looking for a job as a developer and I applied to a local pharmaceutical company.
Not only did they asked you to fill in your resume again on a form after they ask you to bring a printed copy of your resume, but the rest of the form where questions that got too personal, things like:
Do you have a car? (year/make/model/color)
Are you married?
Does your partner owns a car? (year/make/model/color)
I got up without filling in half the form and I gave it back to the secretary and told her this was not worth the $500/month they offered for the job.
Seems like they heard that interview must be held, but no one did a due diligence of investigating what questions need to be asked.
It was a terrible organization, I honestly feel like I dodged a bullet there 😅
"So are you a citizen or do you have a green card..?"
Wanting to know if I'm authorized to work in the country or if I'll ever need sponsorship is one thing, but this question did not sit well with me. It's wasn't even a company that says you most be a citizen to apply for any of the roles. They even operate internationally.
Asking if you are a "US Citizen or Permanent Resident" or visa situation (H1-B, etc...) is a perfectly fine question to be asked over the phone by a recruiter or screener to a candidate. But it's lame if they waited for you to show up at the onsite interview to ask that.
Could you explain more why this question matters? I thought permanent residents and citizens are both authorized to work. There was otherwise no question about visa status. I've also only been asked this once and I've been talking to recruiters pretty frequently lately.
Correct. But I think you are misinterpreting the question. They don't care if you are green card instead of US citizen. They just want to make sure you are EITHER of those two. You can simply say "yes" without more details if that's the case.
The conversation will either go like this
Interviewer: "Are you a US Citizen or permanent resident with a green card?"
You: YES
Interviewer: Thanks.
Or it will go like this:
Interviewer: "Are you a US Citizen or permanent resident with a green card?"
You: No, but I do have an H1-B that is still valid for 3 more years, and I'll need to apply for green card status before the end of that period.
Interviewer: Thanks. Let's discuss that process some more.
Or perhaps this:
Interviewer: "Are you a US Citizen or permanent resident with a green card?"
You: No, I'm currently on an L1 visa from my current company, and will need H1-B or similar sponsorship to work here.
Interviewer: Thanks. Since we are looking to hire for this position immediately, we may not be able to proceed.
This makes sense! Thank you!
its not a common...its a first question that is asked. Most of companies can't sponsor the visa holders, that's why start with that question. (but that's not the right way to ask. I agree).
In the US both citizens AND green card holders are authorized to work, though. Only certain government/federal positions require employee to actually be citizens and they're not one of them for sure! I even asked the employee that referred me :(
What does
$$variablenamemean in jQuery?It doesn't really MEAN anything it was just a naming convention for variables that were known to be holding multiple DOM elements. Although in Prototype the $$ query was the proper one to use when you wanted an array of DOM elements and not just the first match.
Either way all this tells the interviewer is if you followed a specific naming convention. I always remember this as an example of the type of question not to ask candidates.
"What kind of conversations you and your team have about software engineering?"
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