Memorable interview questions

The sun radiates an entire spectrum some of which we perceive and have named colours, they only occur by reflection or refraction. So technically the sun has no colour, it merely generates the means by which we create colour from our own senses..

Interviewer “If you were a pie, what pie would you be?”
Me “Sweet or savoury?”
Interviewer “Doesn’t matter”
Me “A pork pie. Pork pies don’t like stupid questions”

Didn’t get it 🙂

One of my strangest ever job interviews I was asked about alien conspiracies for 20 mins – I ended up being Tom Bakers bodyguard … which was nice.

At an interview for dentistry school after about 10 mins (in a half hour interview) of questions about my dads surgery I told them that if they wanted him to do the course they should have asked him to come, if they wanted to talk to me about me I’d stay if not I’d go.

Offered a place at reduced grades, didn’t bother with them.

Okay, a ‘white’ spectrum is one where power would be equal for all frequencies (different frequencies of EM radiation have different wavelengths as: speed of light = wavelength x frequency). This would look like a flat horizontal line on the graph. In reality, objects like stars, lightbulbs etc might appear to be white but this is actually only being approximately white over the range of wavelengths that we can see.

We only see wavelengths from about 400nm to 750nm (‘visible’ light or EM radiation). These individual wavelengths are colours when we separate them out: a pure 400nm source will appear as blue while a 750nm source will appear as red. When these visible wavelengths are all combined with equal power, we see the result as white.

This is different to a signal or spectrum being ‘white’ in the technical sense which means to have equal power for all frequencies which are present (actually the precise definition is a bit more subtle, but I can’t be bothered with maths right now).

My point about the sun being black was slightly facetious. In general objects derive their colour from the wavelengths of light that they transmit or reflect: a red LED emits light at about 750nm; a red filter on a white lightbulb absorbs all visible wavelengths other than those at 750nm; and a red sweater reflects light only at around 750nm.

While I’m not sure what the absorption spectrum of the sun is, I would bet that it absorbs almost everything, while the emission spectrum is very close to that of a black body. This is the subtle point: while self evidently the sun does not look black, it has the characteristics of a ‘black body’ which is an abstraction of physics.

Nice wiki on black bodys.

Thanks for that, I was with you until “while the emission spectrum is very close to that of a black body”….. so off to wikipedia I go….

EDIT: Whoa! Went there, scanned text, came back….. it is just possible that my brain is about to explode. To prevent this, I am going to stop putting off decorating my bathroom. Here goes

Q: What is the answer to..{fill in your own horrendously technical questions}
A: I don’t know, but if you’d like to give me a few moments I know where to look to find out.

STW?

“If you were an animal what would you be”…”whelk”

“What are your weaknesses”.. “bacon sandwiches”

not had an interview for about 15 years now… I’m not sure I’d do that well

The sun radiates an entire spectrum some of which we perceive and have named colours, they only occur by reflection or refraction. So technically the sun has no colour, it merely generates the means by which we create colour from our own senses

It radiates across a very wide spectrum but not equally. So it has a peak at a certain wavelength, which will give it a colour.

I hate esoteric questions at interviews, either dishing them out or being on the receiving end. Puzzle questions are fine but being asked to draw the animal I associate with or shit like that would have me walking out and I’d expect anyone I’d want to hire to do the same.

Right.. having read the thread.. an object which absorbs all radiation that lands on it is called a black body because it would look black having absorbed all the light that lands on it.

If you warm something up, it will radiate energy. If you warm up a black body it emits energy across many wavelenghts in a well defined way, this is called black body radiation, and the name is given to the particular graph of intensity vs wavelength that was posted above.

First phase of bathroom decoration done. Brain still not ready for any more right now. At least I know what colour the moon is.

I was ask at interview for a student post ‘Do yoy mind be told off by women?’

Should’ve said, “actually, it turns me on.”

The colour of the ‘Sun’ is possibly an in-joke. Sun (the company) provides servers for IT – most IT equipment tends to be in various shades of grey.

Really interested to hear that some people think that “perfectionism” is a strength and therefore a desireable trait. (Cougar)

Seeking perfection in everything you do could mean that you are unable to multi-task and juggle a number of projects at once.

It could also mean that you disregard peoples feelings, rub people up the wrong way and are unwilling to listen to the ideas of others in your search for your version of perfection.

Being a perfectionist, could also mean that you are unwilling to admit defeat or that you have made a mistake.

Also, try and name even one product or service in any industry that is “Perfect.”

Life (and business) is never perfect. Often a compromise has to be reached. Surely, a strength would be to realise this and understand how to achieve success rather than perfection. Both concepts can often be poles apart.

As part of an interview I was asked to take part in the company ‘panto’ and play the part of the pantomime chicken. I was then asked to perform for the interviewer……..

A rather bizarre and also interesting job, but not for me in the end 😆

For a writing job: A married vicar has just run off with the female organist of his parish church, how would you get his wife’s side of the story?

For a sales job: You urgently need to get to a job interview and a bus comes along, and there’s a frail, old lady ahead of you, but the bus driver will only allow one person on the bus. The bus is the only way you can get to the interview. What would you do?

give the old lady money for a cab?

This isn’t an interview question, in fact not even a proper interview when i think about it but..
Advert in the job centre saying such and such a pub was looking for bar staff – head, f/t and p/t bar staff. As I was looking for work, I got the details and off I went. Turned up at the appointed time, walked into the (pretty rough) pub. Only two people there, facing each other at the far end of the bar, so I walked up to them and spoke the one behind the bar, asking if the manager was in. Told no, not in, why who’s asking?
Here about the job I reply
What job?
Barman I reply
I’m the barman he says, and then the other guy, who i’d taken to be a customer chimes in with
And I’m the head barman, if we were looking fora new barman, I’d know about it
Really? <<blinding flash of inspiration, I’m in the wrong fckn pub>>
Well the advert was for head and full time people, and seriously I don’t want involved, but you need to have a word with your boss. bye.