I was being interviewed for a place on a dentistry course at a Uni, they found that my dad was a dentist and kept asking me details about his practice and his work, on the 5th or 6th question in a row on him I turned to the interviewers and said ‘if you want my dad to do the course why did you waste my bloody time and call me for an interview, I’m pretty sure he doesn’t want to do the course again though.’ Fairly remarkably I was offered a reduced grade offer, didn’t take it cos they were dicks.

Got chatted up at an interview once – he wasn’t my type 😕 still got the job though!
Also this being Scotland (and coming from Glasgow) despite having left School 22 years earlier I was asked “what school did you go to?” I declined the 2nd interview.

We used to play Bulshit stinkbomb whereby if the interviewee was a dud (we always did panel interviews) The finance director would be primed to ask – “If you planted music, what sort of flowers would grow?”

Went for an interview in tthe NHS, cycled from home 15 miles, in cycling gear,hid in car park and got changed into suit,last time i ever wore a suit in that job, left cycling gear at reception,got asked how i got there and i said i cycled,got asked why i cycled and didnt drive, explained i had got made redundant and couldnt afford or needed a car, and at the time a Mr Norman Tebbit, was in the news telling the unemmployed to get on their bikes and look for work, i explained i had took the Nice Mr Tebbits very good advice and got on my bike and was looking for work, the 4 people who where interviewing me all smiled,and nodded approvingly.

I got the job, i asked my new boss, when i started why i got the job, he said because of the norman Tebbit content,and support ofr the conservative partys ideas,i didnt have the heart to tell him i hated everything the conservatives had done to ruin ukplc.

Went for an interview in tthe NHS, cycled from home 15 miles, in cycling gear,hid in car park and got changed into suit,last time i ever wore a suit in that job, left cycling gear at reception,got asked how i got there and i said i cycled,got asked why i cycled and didnt drive, explained i had got made redundant and couldnt afford or needed a car, and at the time a Mr Norman Tebbit, was in the news telling the unemmployed to get on their bikes and look for work, i explained i had took the Nice Mr Tebbits very good advice and got on my bike and was looking for work, the 4 people who where interviewing me all smiled,and nodded approvingly.

I got the job, i asked my new boss, when i started why i got the job, he said because of the norman Tebbit content,and support ofr the conservative partys ideas,i didnt have the heart to tell him i hated everything the conservatives had done to ruin ukplc.

Bet it wasn’t an English teachers job though was it? 😆

My 1st interview for the prison service ended with, ‘& what do you do in your spare time?’. ‘Mountain biking mainly’. ‘Really! what bike do you ride, where do you ride…blah blah bah’

I got the job.
Cheers Geoff!

Only got asked about the company I was interviewing for a job for when I went to BNFL for a placement. Said ‘you process nuclear fuel’. After working there for a year not sure I could add to that really.

My weird interview question (asked to me not by me) was whether I’d be comfortable working in an office with mostly female staff. They seemed totally serious that a 20-something in the 21st century going for a graduate level job might have a problem working with women, and might be happy to admit it. I suspect I just looked baffled but on the way home I wondered if it was a coded warning that the whole office would be hormonal at the same time every month. I didn’t get the job but some years later realized out that a bloke I was working with was the one who did. He said they were nice but a bit strange and I was better off not getting the offer…

This job requires a large amount of flexibility, what do you understand by that?

You ask I do.

I got that one.

Two interviews stick in my mind:

When I was 18 I went for a job as an instructor at Brands Hatch race School (I was racing single seaters at the time). I got into one of their crappy old Escort XR3i’s for an assessed lap or two with the senior instructor. I’m barrelling into Paddock Bend when the other crappy XR3i in front blows its engine and covers the track in oil. I go off the circuit, across the gravel trap, hit the tyre wall and roll about 3 times. Got out of the car, helped the instructor out of the car, sat in the gravel trap to get my breath back (and wok out which way up I was). I went to ask the instructor what happens next and can I have another go in one of their other crappy XR3i’s when he just starts screaming at me.

I didn’t get another go. I didn’t get the job and I got a bill for £8k for the cost of the car. I didn’t pay.

In another interview I turned up to an engineering company all suited and booted. I huge guy comes to get me and he looks like he’s been swimming in an oil tank. “‘ello” he says, “I’m Barry, General Manager. Effing come in and effing sit down.” I got the job. It was great!

My mrs at an interview..
Them ‘where do you see yourself in ten years time?’
My mrs ‘in a villa in Tuscany drinking wine and eating pizza’…
She got the job.. 😀

I have always asked why I should work for them? Simple but its a two way process!

Once Interviewed a guy when I was a rec con and asked him about a previous job with little detail on his cv. Turned out he spent all day replying to text messages from desperate blokes thinking they were texting bored house wives! Impressed that he could get £300 out of some sole punters in one day, I found him a job!

Partner – “Working for a large firm can often entail working long and sometimes unsociable hours, should it be required. What would your response be if I said to you at 6pm on a Friday “John, I’m going to need you to work this weekend””
John – my response would be “What are you doing in my car?”

Brilliant, I hope you gave him the job for answering honestly to an unreasonable request.

Partner – “Working for a large firm can often entail working long and sometimes unsociable hours, should it be required. What would your response be if I said to you at 6pm on a Friday “John, I’m going to need you to work this weekend””
John – my response would be “What are you doing in my car?”

Just sat here laughing at that one. My other half asked what I was laughing at, so I told her.

She didn’t get it, says it all really

“Work to live, not live to work”

Not an interview but part of my personal assessment
“And how do you see your future with the company?”
“I’d see a future with this company as an admission of defeat”
Next contract not renewed for some reason.

Recruiting for a senior role on my team, I had a candidate want to change the date of an interview. He contacted me saying his wife was seriously ill and he couldn’t leave her alone. Not wanting to disadvantage him I rescheduled a mutually convenient date.

On arrival for his rescheduled interview the guy turned up 1.5 hours early and asked if I could see him straight away as he was “a busy man”. Slightly taken aback I replied that I couldn’t, so suggested he was welcome to wait and could either get something to eat from our restaurant gratis or maybe go into the town centre for a coffee and a look around.

At the scheduled time I collected him from reception asked him how his journey had been and said that I hoped his wife was better. He replied she was much better – she had totally recovered from her cold… Somewhat gobsmacked I took the guy to a meeting room and we began the interview. It didn’t get any better. Every question I asked was answered by replying with the the words of my question relayed back to me in slightly a different order and accompanied with a big confident smile. He wasn’t successful in securing the role.

Interviewer:’what type of sales person are you?’

Me: ‘I’m like a broken barometer – No pressure’

I have to admit I’ve been the guy who turned up not knowing much about the company. It was my first interview and I was fresh out of college with no interview technique at all. Sure enough, first question – “so what do you know about the company” and I replied talking about a pretty major project that another sector of the company was involved in (happened to have read about it in a newspaper before). Thankfully there was a written part to the interview which I excelled in. Did enough to get on the reserve list though and eventually got the job!

I was once invited to a interview at the office of a company, their new office, so new they hadn’t moved in yet.
I knew this because i was on site working on the dam place.
I guess i should have taken the hint.

but i have done some pretty lame interviews.

I got interviewed for a support role at my old sixth form college. When the Principal asked me how the place had changed since I was there as a student, I replied “you used to have a beard”. I got the job.

A year later I applied for a teaching job at the same place. The students we had to reach for 20 minutes as part of the interview threatened to lead a walk out if I didn’t get the job 🙂

We once had a teacher at interview ask for a flipboard in the classroom for the teaching task instead of the interactive whiteboard, because she didn’t like modern technology. It was for an IT teaching job.

The most frustrating one I had was a few years back and I had spent a long time researching the company well and practising technique and felt in good form; the head of the department interviewed me, he was an older chap and I thought he was smug and condescending and frankly hiding his inadequacy, but I really needed a job. Nevertheless, the interview went well and went on for some time, and I felt I’d not put a foot wrong for once.

Finally, he put away his notes, leaned back, and said “You interview well and have good knowledge. But you’re too old. This team is all in their 20’s, it stays that way, thanks for coming in, goodbye” and smirked. This from someone significantly older than me.
Grrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!! So why did you waste an hour of time, you could work out my age with the most basic grasp of maths from my CV you pillock! Never forgot him and it still rankles, but the company has long since gone pear-shaped.

when interviewed and asked “is there anything you want to ask us?” I’ve often used the “describe a typical day in the role?” as a fallback.

I was once told – By one of the panel ” we roll in around 9 and try to get rid of the hangover and work out what we will do for the day!”

Thing is it was never like that, I’ve never quite worked out whether he thought that’s what did go on or whether it was just a joke!

I had a panel interview for a university place at a department that was well-known for asking difficult questions involving stuff nobody was taught at A-level. They were a bit up themselves and started the day congratulating us as a group on even getting an interview there.

The ice-breaker was “have you been to any other interviews yet “

Yes I’d had one, and they asked me what I though of the place – I said the university as a whole was too isolated from the town, attitude seemed insular and the guy who showed me round took great pleasure in telling us about the “us & them” incidents that occur. The department had a good reputation but then so did several others around the country.

They all found this highly amusing – especially the external member who was from that department 😳
The rest of the interview mostly involved jokes about the other university and no hard questions. I assumed I’d blown it but they offered me a place. Went to Manchester as I’d had a great piss-up and curry the night after my interview with my brother who was there at the time – that’s what I call a selection process.