Had interview with AT&T for a job I didnt want recently and felt like honesty was best policy..

HR: What are some of your weak points in terms of employment history?

Me: Mostly gambling, and 19 year old strippers

HR: Excuse me?

Me: I tend to spend all my money on gambling and strippers, and all my waking time trying to find ways to get more money for said addictions.

Pick a weakness you have, the question is a test of character for the most part. Everyone has a weakness, if you take the line you're perfect, it's a sign of refusal to continue to learn.

What you know is far less important than all the things you don't know. Would you invest in a business plan that skipped over any possible risk?

i sometimes over think routine things when the simple answer is right in front of me

I'm an engineer and if I felt that the interviewer had a good sense of humor I'd say "All of them unless the ping pong ball budget is too big."

Lol your friend's biggest weakness is he's a complete moron.

A friend of mine had a biology interview at an Oxbridge university. The interviewer said "tell me about bananas" and didn't say anything for the rest of the interview.

I had one where the interviewer said "imagine a world the same size as the earth but completely flat. Now imagine the earth's seas were moved there. How deep would the water be?"

I've heard of financial interviews where they'll say "you have $1m. You get an 8% return on it for ten years. How much do you have?" and you have 30 seconds to give them an answer.

When I've had this question I've said "I don't know a lot about abc part of the job. That's why I'm applying - I don't want to do a job where I already know how to do it all"

My world's worst question is when they say "tell me about a situation where you took the initiative" or some such because it's not like I sit there and catalogue that crap. And that's pretty much the answer I'd give - "sorry, that's just one of the things you do sometimes - it isn't remarkable, it's something everyone does, it doesn't stick in the mind"

This makes me want to fill up the trunk of my car with pinp pong balls and start lining up some interviews

The finance one isn't bad if you know the Rule of 72. 72/8 = 9 so your money doubles in about 9 years, and then you get another 8% in the 10th year for a total of $2.16 million (actual answer $2.1589 million)

Probably the answers I would give. I don't know anything about bananas so I probably wouldn't get the biology job.

Dude, gravity wouldn't pull things off the edge of the earth into space.

I guess you'd have a bubble of water surrounding the solid mass?

I'd probably say, however thick the flat the world is.

If there were no undulations on the surface, (mountains, hills, etc...), what would contain the water? Maybe im missing the point of the q.

These case interview q's can be pretty interesting. I recall reading about a microsoft int that asked 'why are manhole covers round?'.

Easy.

'Well sir, I was back-packing across Europe with three friends and in Amsterdam at the time when... :::continues with a Quagmire-like story:::
... so I think its safe to say I know a thing or two about bananas.'

I dont have any sort of biology background but I wonder what I could think of off the top of my head. ha.

Good source of Potassium
Same family as Orchid (random fact)
Tastes bitter before ripe
Tastes sweeter as it ripens
Settles the stomach
Mostly grown in South America
Can be used as a common theatrical prop

I'd probably just stop there.

Easier to pick up and move around than a square cover? idk.

You would need more information. What do they mean by "a world the same size as the earth"? Same size in mass? And how thick is "completely flat"? It obviously has some thickness or else it has no mass and the question doesn't make any sense. Then it comes down to what is the ratio of water/earth? I have no idea what the answer to that question is. But bringing up these concerns is probably good enough to pass the interview question.

Start naming banana dishes like Bubba does with shrimp in Forest Gump.

I think they mean the earth is still a sphere but all land is the same height and so the surface of the planet is 100% covered in water.

All of these questions are pretty stupid these days since so many people know about them and they now tell you nothing about the candidate. As for the manhole covers, while I believe there are many reasons, I think number one is that its impossible for them to fall into the hole (you could rotate a square cover to fall into the whole).

Banana Fosters
Banana cream pies
Banana splits
Banana popsicles
Banana sodas
Banana candy
Banana taffy
Banana ice-cream
Banana bread

Only places that have asked me this were located in towns that felt like they were 30 years behind mainstream America.

I interviewed for a job at a plant that manufactured things for the Government (civilian contractor but still very uptight) and they went through several of the standard questions that don't have answers.

"Where do you see yourself in 5 years?"
"What are some of your weaknesses?"
"Can you tell me about a time where you really took initative on a project and how that went?"

They asked some technical questions later. There were two main engineering managers there and one was doing most of the talking. They presented me a problem and asked how I would go about solving it. I laid out a plan and began walking through the information I would gather and how things would communicate. The guy asking the questions kept saying, "No, no that's not really right" and heavily leading my answers - drawing on top of my diagrams etc. The other interviewer finally said "No, I think [Aceium] is doing what you're saying, just explaining it differently."

I got an offer for the second guy's team. I wouldn't have worked for the first guy even if they had made an offer. He seemed closed-minded during the interview and subsequent plant walk-through.

My answer would be that the hole is round, so the cover ought to be round as well. Much easier to get round holes than square holes, so that explains why the holes are round. Also round tunnels hold up to forces better.

The interesting thing is that there are actually other shapes that would be impossible to fall down a hole. Circle is the most basic shape, but there are others. As jj said, a square is not one of them.

grunch

Interviewer: Do you have any weaknesses?
Dilbert: Sometimes I work too hard.
Interviewer: How is that a weakness?
Dilbert: Well, sometimes I work so hard that I forget to eat or bathe, eventually dying. My bloated, stinking corpse will sit in my cube forever, spreading disease and decay!

Back at the office.

Wally: How'd it go?
Dilbert: They want someone hungrier.

edit: read thread, entertaining stuff

This reminds me of a programmer we had working for us a few years ago. Would play Warcraft relentlessly for DAYS. He had to write a program to remind himself to eat, drink, and bathe. Super gross.