Job interviews are inherently awkward, aren’t they? “Where do you see yourself in five years” is such a strange thing to ask someone just on its face, but that isn’t even the weirdest question we sourced from a recent Reddit thread in the AskWomen subreddit.
u/preppy-sweater asked “What are some of the weirdest questions you were asked during job interviews?” and the good folk of Reddit delivered. Check out the best answers we could find and enjoy a chuckle.
1. Deaf
(I’m deaf and we were writing back and forth to communicate)
She wrote to me “can you read?”
I wrote back “yes. Can you write?”
2. Why….?
Them: Do you know how to use a computer?
Me: Uh, yeah?
Them: What’s the difference between hardware and software?
Me: Hardware is physical components like the ram and motherboard, software programs, and applications installed on the computer.
Them: Okay, name a few pieces of hardware and what they do.
This went on for a long time, btw the interview was for a position that had literally Zero to do with computers
3. Pure sexism… and illegal?
“Will you have more children?”
“No, not right now anyway”
“Really, are you sure? You’re still quite young and married…”
“Umm…what?”
This was 13 years ago: I divorced a few years later and never had more kids worked my ass off at another job to improve their processes. Sexism at its finest brought to you by a female lawyer in her 30s no less. Someone who should have known better then to ask those kinds of questions.
4. Why would I?
They placed their can of Diet Mt Dew in front of me and told me to sell them Diet Mt Dew.
I was interviewing for a pet store
5. Byeeeee
‘Do you always dress like that or do you have normal clothes as well?’
I was wearing a over the knee flowy black dress with sleeves, no cleavage, not form fitting and it was a fucking hot summer.
I left right then and there.
‘Do you always dress like that or do you have normal clothes as well?’
I was wearing a over the knee flowy black dress with sleeves, no cleavage, not form fitting and it was a fucking hot summer.
I left right then and there.
6. Not to my knowledge?
“Are you in a satanist cult?”
It was a religious institution and they had an issue with that in the past, so the question was actually kind of appropriate? Still weird though.
7. WHOA.
Whats your bra size?
I wish I was joking.
8. How weird is this one?
They asked me what route I drove to get to the company. I told them. They then commented that I was “outside” the normal range of hiring . . . as in they only hire people who live within a 10 mile radius from the company. I asked why they even bothered to call me in for an interview. They didn’t have an answer, and I didn’t get the job.
9. Schools can ask weird questions too!
I see you aren’t married. Have you had sex before, and are you currently engaging in fornication?
It was for a fundamentalist preschool.
10. This is so insulting
I once interviewed for a copywriting job and had mentioned on my résumé and in my cover letter that I had a successful blog which was where a lot of my writing experience came from. They asked me during the interview how many hours a week I usually spent on my blog because they were concerned about it cutting into the time I could spend on the job.
I found this pretty inappropriate and insulting. Obviously if I got the job, I would work on tasks related to that job while at it. Having a financially successful hobby doesn’t mean someone is incapable of having a job.
11. Seems fair!
Them: Do you do drugs at home, in your car, or at work?
Me: Where’s the option for I don’t do drugs?
Them: …
I didn’t get the job.
12. Gross
Is your husband okay with you working full-time? In 2011, in the US. My response: “Yeah, my husband likes that I bring home a paycheck.”
13. Summer job, inappropriate questions
“Do you want to have children soon?” got asked this question when I was 16 applying for summer job.
14. Uh, okay dude
Had a smart-ass VP that asked anyone at the end of any interview “If I handed you a brick right now what would you do with it?”. I was being interviewed for an IT position by a couple of obviously not IT sales-types. I told him that I would smack him up-side the head with it for asking such a stupid question. He said that was the answer he was looking for and I got the job. For a couple of years as I moved up in the organization I’d swing by just to watch outside and see the face of interviewees when they got to that question. Most people were absolutely baffled.
15. Not so hypothetical
What would you do in a situation where your counterpart/partner is combative and refuses to work with you?
I thought this was a weird hypothetical question to test my resilience and drive, so I responded with something about how I would keep trying to work with him and wouldn’t give up.
Got the job. It wasn’t hypothetical, and they knew in advance that the man specifically didn’t like working with women (some BS cultural reason). Struggled in my role for over a year before finally getting reassigned to a new partner with whom I thrived.
16. Cats
Maybe this applies more to weird answers, but I also hate when companies ask these questions in interviews.
“Outside of work-related skills, what is one thing you feel you know a lot about?”
My answer: “Cats. I know a lot of facts about cats and cat breeds.”
Apparently, this was not the expertise they were looking for. Their loss.
17. How did you not die laughing?
I was declined a job because they didn’t know if I could “encompass their ‘voice'”. I asked for a bit of clarification, and they said “we subscribe to Yodellen”. My job has lots of different theories to base info off of, so I was going through my internal rolodex thinking I’d really missed something. The person then said “that is a mix of the wisdom of Yoda, and the fun of Ellen, and we’re not sure if you can do that”. I don’t know how I kept a straight face, but I thanked them and left. I still think about it often and it cracks me up each time.
18. Me.
Who is your hero?
You mean batman or spiderman? Do I aspire to be Rosa Parks? Stormy Daniels?
I am my own effing hero.
19. Church secretary
I wasn’t asked if I was ever married when “interviewing” for a church Secretary position. In all my time attending the church up until a conversation I had with the pastor/my boss after working there for years, he had always assumed I was widowed. I had never mentioned my child’s father or my supposed husband.
Boss: “Why isn’t your name on this list of widows?”
Me: “I am not a widow.”
Boss: “Then where is your husband?”
Me: “I have never been married.”
Was never treated the same afterward. Dude was a douche canoe.
20. A pizza-zilla
Pizza Hut asked me “if you were an animal what would you be?”