What was the most intriguing question you were asked during an interview?
10 comments
"When did you last fail your colleagues really badly and what did you do to fix it?"
Saying "I don't think I ever fucked up really badly" was not an option, and the interviewer clearly told me "listen, I have to fill this form and it asks this". So I started making up bullshit answers, but of course I didn't want to make up something so bad I would fail the interview. And every time, the interviewer would say "hmm, but that is not really a big fuck up. What else do you have?".
Interviews are weird. Makes me think that when a company behaves like this, I should just tell them that I am not really interested anymore. But usually when you apply somewhere you want the job, right?
Saying "I don't think I ever fucked up really badly" was not an option, and the interviewer clearly told me "listen, I have to fill this form and it asks this". So I started making up bullshit answers, but of course I didn't want to make up something so bad I would fail the interview. And every time, the interviewer would say "hmm, but that is not really a big fuck up. What else do you have?".
Interviews are weird. Makes me think that when a company behaves like this, I should just tell them that I am not really interested anymore. But usually when you apply somewhere you want the job, right?
I accidentally did DROP DATABASE; on the development database everyone used at PayPal back in 2004. I was in ok with the sysadmin and he restored a backup in like 10 seconds when I told him -- "I think I fucked up pretty good and need your help to fix it...I dropped the dev database and I'm hoping you can restore it.". I guess I wasn't the first and probably wasn't the last either.
To me : How would you explain your previous job to a 10 year old?
I think of it as simplifying a Rube Goldberg machine in large part.
I like how this xkcd explains it: https://xkcd.com/722/
How would you build a search engine fir the hidden web (all sites behind tor, logins, captchas etc)
solve this coding problem which has nothing to do with the job you will be doing
What’s your favorite snack?
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Which isn't unusual, but was in context where I was applying at a retail sports clothing store with a degree in engineering, because I had too much free time on a few weekdays. Ironically I outlasted many generations of turnovers for most of the fall/winter, and finally quit from rushing to get there on time after my day job and excessive parking tickets.