Modern Day Qualifications
Chapter: Random
Sadly, it’s gonna take more than user-experience to impress a tech interviewer these days. Sadly, some interviewees still think what could fly in 1998 still works today. What’s the worst you’ve heard at an interview? Sound off in the comments below!
This ‘toon was inspired by a few tweets I exchanged with a friend.
Enjoy! :D
-Krishna
These beautiful and intelligent people wrote
Tell me what you think!
Philippe
February 2, 2011 at 1:35 amThe most funniest interview moment I got for a programmer function was not so long ago. The interviewee had never seen a Mac before and asked me if the Mac would still work if he used the mouse with his left hand on the left side of the keyboard…
I was speechless.
Michael
February 2, 2011 at 10:24 amIn 1998 I got an sysadmin job because the interviewer and I were both spelunkers.
wdwillis
February 2, 2011 at 5:21 pmi was interviewing for a job once, and there were multiple positions available. the interviewer asked me what i wanted to be (clearly meaning one of the different positions available), i responded “Superman”.
i worked there for over 5 years.
Yoda
February 3, 2011 at 8:51 amI interviewed for a job doing Apple support once. The recruiter doing the interview told me she was going to present some customer scenarios and I was to tell her how I’d handle them…
Recruiter: A customer comes in and asks you if you know what the voltage of a Power Mac G4’s logic board battery is. How do you respond?
Me: 3.6 Volts.
Recruiter: Really?
Me: Yes, I know for a fact, it’s 3.6 volts.
Recruiter: … we were really looking for a response more along the lines of directing the customer to the online knowledgebase or their owner’s manual for more technical information.
Me: But … I know for a fact, it’s 3.6 volts.
Recruiter: I don’t even know that, I’ll have to look it up. Anyway… how about this… what if a customer is concerned about radiation coming from a computer monitor?
Me: I’d ask the customer if they’d consider trying to crack an egg on their forehead to see if it would cook. Since it won’t cook, the radiation shouldn’t be a concern.
Recruiter: -hysterical laughing-
Despite the fact that I both proved knowledge and a sense of humor, I was not ultimately offered one of their open positions.
Tim
February 3, 2011 at 9:15 amMy current experience is that this is all backwards- the interviewers are usually Dipschitz.
Kevin Rubin
February 10, 2011 at 6:40 amOne of the most memorable questions from my job interviews wasn’t even technical… I had to turn around, face a wall and then walk one of the interviewers through tying his shoelace.
Andy Konecny
November 27, 2011 at 3:02 pmAs the interviewer for some early level semi independent support positions, I’ve always had fun testing a candidates’ reactions to and ability to manage unfamiliar situations by handing them some obscure and old card and ask them to identify it the best they can. The most memorable was one lady who’s resume showed lots of hardware assembly work, so I thought this might be her strong area, but instead I got a total ‘deer caught in headlights’ look for over a minute until I prompted her to tell me what can she tell me about the card. While she did finally manage to find some words on the card I had never really noticed, she was clearly not ready for the front lines. This was in the late ’90s and this was a 10+ year old ISA based EGA card complete with dip switches.