Being interviewed can be one of the most nerve-racking experiences a person can go through — that ISN’T actually life-threatening, anyways. You have to sweat out some employer’s questions as they try to figure out as quickly as possible whether you are the right fit for the company. Essentially, your whole life, personality, education and prior work experience hopefully wins them over in a matter of minutes. No pressure at all or anything.
I digress. A thread on Reddit asked people the question, “What is the hardest job interview question you’ve had to answer and how did you handle it?” And people had so many painful questions to relive. Below are some of the better ones…
“‘What do you like about yourself?’
“‘Uh.'”
“Didn’t get the job.”
– MintberryCruuuunch
“I applied for a management role in my first job when I didn’t have any management experience, and got knocked back.”
“The person they hired failed miserably, and I went for it again about 3 months later.
“They asked me ‘So you applied 3 months ago and were turned down, why do you think you’ll get it this time?’
“I answered ‘This is still my first job. Without leaving and becoming a manager elsewhere, I still have not been a manager. What I’ve done instead is taken every opportunity to gain the relevant traits you’re looking for. So[I] volunteered to coach the group of new starters we had. I took customer escalations where they’ve asked to speak to a manager myself and resolved them. I’ve made myself a presence in the office so that if there is an issue and there isn’t a manager around, staff come to me for help or advice. I’m doing small parts of the manager’s role every day.'”
“I got the job, and in my feedback they said it was between me and someone else, and was incredibly close, but I got the job based on that answer, so I’m pretty proud of myself.”
– 136win136
“Them: ‘Why shouldn’t we hire you?’
“Me: ‘Because I care about my family more than my job, and if I have to choose between them and work, I’ll choose them.’
I got the job.”
– AgileCzar
“It was an interview with a power company for an engineering position right out of college. I think it was supposed to be a ‘high-stress’ interview. The guy asked me:
“‘Tell me about a time where a friend asked you to help him on an assignment that was supposed to be his own work. What did you do?’
“It’s tough because you don’t want to look like you ignored the professor’s rules or cheated yourself. But you also want to look helpful to your fellow students.”
“I said something like, ‘We all struggled with this one class, dynamics. It was hard because there were so many new concepts being introduced so quickly. All of our assignments were intended to be individual, but we worked in groups to better understand the material.'”
“I thought I nailed it, but he just sat quietly for about 10 seconds and said, ‘We’re pretty good engineers here at our company, we don’t struggle with dynamics.'”
“Next question.”
“I didn’t get the job.”
– Goins2754
“‘What is your worst quality?’
“I told them I wasn’t a good team player and greatly prefer to work alone. I also said I knew it wasn’t a good quality to have in that environment but it was something I was actively working of fixing.”
“I did get the job.”
– BobADemon
“I applied to an administrative job at an elite university on the East Coast and made it to the final round of the interview. It was just me and one other candidate and we both met with one of the VPs.
The question itself wasn’t difficult, but the manner in which it was asked really threw me off. The VP essentially walks into the room, shakes my hand, and before we even sit down, asks me ‘So, what can you do for me?’
I was expecting the first two minutes to be small talk so I was caught completely off guard by the straightforwardness of the question. I mumbled out an answer, but I knew right away I didn’t impress. The interview only lasted another 15 minutes and needless to say I didn’t get the job.”
– joel7890
“It wasn’t a single question so much as it was their method of deep follow-up questions that eventually got to a point to where they basically asked me why I’m alive. Not as a ‘What’s your motivation in life’ sort of way, but in a ‘Why do you exist, human?’ way. I repeated to them ‘You’re asking me why I’m alive?’ And they took a short pause to realize where their follow up questions took them and replied ‘Yes.'”
“I’ve never had anyone question my existence before.”
“I paused for a bit and thought about telling them my parent’s life story but thought that was too stupid to do so I just said something along the lines of ‘When I find out, I’ll get back to you on that.’ (Probably wasn’t delivered as smoothly as I remember.)”
“They didn’t really care about the answer they just wanted to see if the interviewees would break or just keep talking for the sake of talking.”
– LFreeze
“‘What do you feel are your biggest weaknesses?’
“Jesus, I couldn’t stop talking. Just kept digging myself deeper and deeper into a hole. I guess I thought they’d appreciate my honesty. Eventually, when I’d run out of actual weaknesses, I started inventing some.”
“Did not get the job.”
– john_wb
“I had an interview for a job and almost all the questions were the normal, ‘If -this- wasn’t working, what would your troubleshooting steps be?'”
“Nailed every question but the final question came out of the blue: ‘Tell me a joke.'”
“The only joke I could think of off the top of my head was one about a father wanting to pass his company onto one of 3 sons. He would make this decision who would be the best by giving them each a duck and seeing who got the highest price for the duck.”
“It’s a long joke but it ends with ‘A f–k for a duck, a duck for f–k and 25 bucks for a f–ked up duck.'”
“Totally NSFW but the only one I could think of. I did get the job and still there almost 2 years later. I think he was just impressed how ballsy I was with that joke and it made him laugh hysterically. He’s an awesome manager.”
– neverenderday
Hang in there folks currently looking for a new job. Eventually someone cool will see that spark in you and give you the chance you deserve.
Via Reddit; h/t Thisisinsider
