Today I overheard a recruitment guy talking to a candidate to be a private wealth manager in Shanghai or Hong Kong

among the (many) things i heard were…..

"if you were an animal, what animal would you be"

same for 'what car'…..

"what three words would your parents (didn't check whether they were alive or had been slaughtered the day before) use to describe you"

other than making the recruitment consultant look like a retard, what is the purpose?

is honey badger & maserati the right answer?

really, what in gods name is to be gained from this shite?

PS, BigJohn – why did you not ask me these things? Are you crap at your job or something?

I'm in the executive search business and spent my early career in Human Resources, so have interviewed so many people I wouldn't guess the number—I think what you overheard is the latest "touch-feely" bulls**t
that some recruiters are using. Every year or two, some new "method" comes out and is the rage, especially among those with less/limited recruiting experience.
I have no idea what on earth they think they are learning from such a line of questions. Recruiters who know their stuff will know in the first 5 minutes of conversation whether an individual is going to be a potential fit for the position—and won't need to know the answers to those questions to figure it out.
I would be really embarrassed to even make a fool of myself by asking them. If I were the candidate being asked, I think I would question the judgment of the company that retained the person to do the recruiting.

I once had the pleasure of being in a meeting the managing director called us to, for a group of 'marketing consultants' to deliver their (very expensive) findings.

They opened with the statement "we asked a number of your customers – if you were a car, what car would you be?"

I had stuff I'd be better off doing, so at that point I uttered the equally relevant phrase "oh for **** sake!" followed by "whats this then? Marketing GCSE?", then got up and walked out.

Got a telling off for that one afterwards 🙂

Some of these things make a bit of sense. "How many petrol stations are there in the UK?" and "What would be required to change which side of the road the UK drives on?" have both been used in interviews by Blue Chip firms, and make a bit of sense – it's about seeing if you have a logical train of thought and can work on the spot.

On the other hand, the "Which fictional character / animal / car would you be" are so transparent as to be unreal – it's obviously a question about how you see yourself, so there's zero chance of you giving an honest answer to an interviewer.

My fave was "Tell me ten things you'd do with a concrete hedgehog".

Really interesting to see the way people responded.

I was at an interview a few years ago. I suspect 'this is one of those stupid interview questions, isn't it?' was the wrong answer because I didn't get the job.

"Tell me ten things you'd do with a concrete hedgehog"

'cave your head in ten times' is presumably not what they'd want to hear?

but may show the attitude a job may require

The guy doing the asking today is fresh out of Uni, it's his first recruitment job, and I expect he really has no idea what to make of the answers he gets, but he thinks he should ask anyway. Chinese guy said 'a bat' – which may have some cultural significance lost on a guy from Smethwick, or it may not.

Unreal

I interviewed for Visa once, and they asked me what I thought Visa did. Apparently I was the only person to get it right 🙂

If I were a car, I'd have to be a Prius 🙂

I thought the 'what animal' etc questions were pretty old hat to be honest.

I'd be a Prius?

Good for a sales job… you always keep going

How about, i'd be a BMW because if you look beyond the exterior you will find a huge cock!

-I think what you overheard is the latest "touch-feely" bulls**t Every year or two, some new "method" comes out and is the rage, especially among those with less/limited recruiting experience.

Oh I bet you're just a real charmer aren't you!

What you heard was not even remotely the 'latest touchy-feely BS', it was just plain and simple BS.

Not sure what is more withering to the soul; the fact that some imbecile was asking these questions (for a Private Banking role as well! The candidate must have wanted to run a mile!) or that Busydog thinks he can know a person well enough inside of five minutes to know whether they are right for a role senior enough to warrant having appointed an Executive Search Consultant.

Surely "we are all animals" would be the answer?

I once had an interview for a headhunting PLC. They kept me waiting almost 40mins.

Then the interview went along similar lines.

I stopped the interview and told them why and explained about punctuality. One of the interviewers looked like he wanted to punch me (barely suppressed) – which I pointed out and he called me 'uncalled' for and 'rude' whilst the other just accepted it.

Such questions are ridiculous and you can see why they ask them 'oh this one is racy and possibly a sales animal' oh **** off!

I had this about a year ago.

My response was "Goodness, I remember we used to play this game at school when I was 12. I think I was always a penguin, but then I used to get excluded from the game because everyone said that was a fish. But let's agree that I can be a penguin. So what animal do you want to be?"

The person concerned had the good grace to blush to the roots of their hair, then belted up and stopped asking such banal questions.

I got offered the job, surprisingly.

Yes, I'm crap…but not that crap.

You should sing

you and me baby are nothing but mammals lets do it like they do it on they discovery channel..

One of the perks of a long term, secure job, is definitely not having to deal with recruitment people.

if you look beyond the exterior you will find a huge cock

You have a huge cock in your interior?!?! That must make sitting in interviews uncomfortable.

Best interview question I heard was for a research chemist for BP or some other big petro-chem company. The bloke bounced a bouncy ball across the desk and my mate caught it. The bloke said '2 questions, Why did that bounce and describe the maths needed for you to calculate how to catch it'. They were the only 2 questions in a 2 hour interview.