What was the hardest job interview question you encountered?
At last my boss appointed me to be one of the interviewers for our job hiring activity next week. I'm really excited about it so I'm wondering what questions should I throw to interested applicants. Do you know the trickiest ones and those that can help me easily determine a person's attitude towards work? Please share!
"Do you have any questions?"
I was applying for my last job as public relations director of an oil and gas trade association. The person who had held the job, was a friend, who had died of brain cancer. The job was vacant for almost a year.
Another friend suggested I apply. My predecessor was more than six feet tall, broad shoulders and was an imposing figure.
That does not describe me. There were no questions directed to me during the interview except the one I mentioned.
I replied that I had no questions, but a statement. I explained that I knew the person who had held the job before and if they were looking for a clone of him, I was not the person they wanted. I then added if they wanted someone who knew the media throughout the state, understood the importance of the industry and was ready to put in the time to learn what I did not know, I was a good candidate. I then noted it was apparent that I was speech impaired, but that did not stop me from being a news reporter for 16 years and I was sure it would not stop me from representing the Association.
It was about six weeks later when I was called for a second interview, with only two people, instead of the 30 that had been at the first.
That afternoon I had the job and held it for 22 years, until new leadership decided it was time for me to leave.
I normally get this a lot of the time. Why should I offer you a position when you are overqualified for it? Then, my answer to that question is why you ever called me for an interview in the first place to ask that question? Ironically, it is a great travesty that our workforce is turning this way. It use to be that you are denied employment because you are unqualified and lack the education/experience. Now, since more people are getting an education to be qualified to do that particular job they are labeled "overqualified." This is coming from my personal experience.
I went through the over qualified era after losing my job. I got an e-mail reply saying I was too qualified and not to respond. I responded and told how my father had worked for the company and I was willing to take less money. It was an age issue.
I remember there was a time when I went for an interview. I was poised, confident and ready for anything. I nailed the handshake and eye contact. I really thought I had aced that interview.
Then my interviewer leans in close and whispers the weirdest interview question, "Do you believe in UFOs?"
by judalyn eres 8 years ago
What's most difficult job interview question that you have encountered?
by JP Carlos 11 years ago
What's the weirdest job interview question you had to answer?
by Donna Cosmato 11 years ago
What's the best answer to this tough job interview question: "Tell me about your weaknesses."
by Rhonda Malomet 11 years ago
The greatest Weakness interview question: What answer do you give for this question?
by GetFitRight 13 years ago
What is the weirdest or most surprising interview question that you have ever been asked?The weirdest for me was at a receptionist job interview. They asked me to describe how I would make a sandwich. Apparently I answered it wrong because I did not get that job ha ha ha.
by Jerad Maplethorpe 12 years ago
What is your answer to the interview question, "What are your weaknesses?"
Copyright © 2024 The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers on this website. HubPages® is a registered trademark of The Arena Platform, Inc. Other product and company names shown may be trademarks of their respective owners. The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers to this website may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website.
Copyright © 2024 Maven Media Brands, LLC and respective owners.
As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.
For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy
Show DetailsNecessary | |
---|---|
HubPages Device ID | This is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons. |
Login | This is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service. |
Google Recaptcha | This is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy) |
Akismet | This is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy) |
HubPages Google Analytics | This is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy) |
HubPages Traffic Pixel | This is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized. |
Amazon Web Services | This is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy) |
Cloudflare | This is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Hosted Libraries | Javascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy) |
Features | |
---|---|
Google Custom Search | This is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Maps | Some articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Charts | This is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy) |
Google AdSense Host API | This service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Google YouTube | Some articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Vimeo | Some articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Paypal | This is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Facebook Login | You can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Maven | This supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy) |
Marketing | |
---|---|
Google AdSense | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Google DoubleClick | Google provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Index Exchange | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Sovrn | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Facebook Ads | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Amazon Unified Ad Marketplace | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
AppNexus | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Openx | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Rubicon Project | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
TripleLift | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Say Media | We partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy) |
Remarketing Pixels | We may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites. |
Conversion Tracking Pixels | We may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service. |
Statistics | |
---|---|
Author Google Analytics | This is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy) |
Comscore | ComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy) |
Amazon Tracking Pixel | Some articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy) |
Clicksco | This is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy) |