Hell when I was interviewed at Microsoft I was asked and I quote, “If you were a hamburger what would you be and why?”
I asked the manager doing the interview if this was a joke? He replied no its a common question in the industry and was waiting for an answer. The scenarios ran through my head on what sort of outfit it was not to mention its management. In a moment of clarity I respectfully declined to go any further on the interview. The manager was visibly irritated and thanked him for his time and left. He followed me out to the lobby asking if there was something wrong. I stopped and told him if you have to ask that question you won’t like the answer and in all probability won’t understand it.
Bar none the strangest interview I have ever had.
I got a chuckle out of the questions on the list though...
Knew a guy who owned a construction company who would always ask candidates for estimator jobs “Tell me about the time you most badly blew a bid. What happened, and much money did you lose?”
He said “If they claimed they had never screwed-up a bid I ended the interview and put them in a Do Not Hire folder, because they’re a G** D*** liar!”
Psychological screening for candidates at Parallax.
Ive told a vaguely similar story around here more than once so Ill just give you the short version...
I a number of years back I was at an IT interview when the question was asked, “Whats your favorite kind of tree?”
This was the first time I had been asked this type of question that didn’t seem germane to the conversation at hand and didn’t see where it was going.
Im kind of a tree weirdo so somewhere between confusion as to where this question was going and trying to pick a favorite I sat there with various trees flashing through my mind. Realizing that the answer was taking to long I blurted out what I was thinking at that second, “Black walnut.”
This is where she then asks, “What is it that you like about that tree and how do you intend to bring that to the workplace?”
I burst out laughing and that for all intents and purposes ended the interview. Somehow I knew that “valuable hardwood with tasty nuts” was not the answer she was looking for.