Job interviews are nothing short of terrifying. We’ve all been there, sweating our faces off in variations of Sir Alan’s boardroom. Trying to nonchalantly sip at our water with a hand as steady as a bucking bronco. Startling ourselves mid-conversation with an eek, like a rip-off Mariah Carey act putting the music industry to shame. There's no doubt about it, boardroom swag is hard to master. Now the list of Top 20 toughest interview questions have been revealed and they’ll do nothing to assuage your fears. (My fingers are clammy just from thinking about them.)
Careers website Glassdoor are the considerate people perpetuating our nightmares. The Independent reports Glassdoor invited hundreds of thousands of candidates to share their trickiest interview questions over the course of the year. Drum roll please finally the results are in.
Claiming Number One spot was the unsettling ‘What on your CV is the closest thing to a lie?’ courtesy of software company, The Phoenix Partnership. A worthy runner-up was Digital Education Company, TES Global with ‘What am I thinking right now?’ (Where’s Uri Geller when you need him?) Then Condé Nast snuck into the Top Three with the devilish ‘How would your enemy describe you?’ Check out the full Terrifying 20 below:
1. 'What on your CV is the closest thing to a lie?' – *Marketing and Communications Employee, The Phoenix Partnership *
The part which says I'm employable.
2. 'What am I thinking right now?' –* Regional Director, TES Global*
How you want to give me this job right nowwwwwww (Come on Uri Geller, help a sister out!)
3. 'How would your enemy describe you?' – Advertising Sales Grad Scheme, Condé Nast
As a babe. Clearly.
4. 'If you had a friend who was great for a job and an identical person who was just as good, but your friend earned you £2,000 less, who would you give the job to?' – Associate Recruitment Consultant, Hays
Friends forever, everyone else whatever - basic #squadgoals.
5. 'What's the most selfish thing you've ever done?' – Graduate Consultant, PageGroup
Taking the last slice of birthday cake in the office…Every. Single. Time.
6. 'You are stranded on the moon with a group of other astronauts and you need to travel 200 miles back to base, here is a list of 15 items salvaged from the wreckage of the spacecraft you were travelling in. List them in order of importance.' –* Sales Employee, Turnstone Sales*
OMG so you Virgin can actually fly you to the moon now?!
7. 'If your best friend was here what advice would he give you?” –Central Clearing Counterparty, American Express
Stay sassy, always.
8. 'Describe your biggest weakness. Then describe another.' – Forward Deployed Software Engineer, Palantir Technologies
I don't have any - I’m perfect and a narcissist.
9. 'How do you cope with repetition?' – Product Specialist, Tesla Motors
Umm…umm…umm…I don’t.
10. 'How would you describe cloud computing to a seven-year old?' – Graduate Scheme, Microsoft
Just picture fluffy clouds in the sky and cute cotton wool buds. Smiles.
11. 'There are three people, each with different salaries, and they want to find the average of them without telling any of the other two their salary. How do they do it?' – Technical Delivery Graduate, BAE Systems Applied Intelligence
Not that I can keep a secret but they could place their trust in me?
12. 'Who is your hero, and why?' – Product Quality Employee, GE
Salt Bae. You clearly haven't seeen the video if you're asking me why...
13. 'What’s your the biggest regret managing people so far?' – Area Director, Regus
That it's brought me here today.
14. 'What would you ask the CEO if you met him one day?' – Performance Analyst, British Airways
Chlander, Ross or Joey? Real talk.
15. 'You have 50 red and 50 blue objects. Split these however you like between two containers to give the minimum/maximum probability of drawing one of the colours.' – Operations Analyst, Clearwater Analytics
Do you have a B&Q colour chart please?
16. 'What does social justice mean to you?' – Content Marketing Manager, ThoughtWorks
Me sitting through this interview.
17. 'What is your coping mechanism when you have a bad day?' – Consultant, Switch Consulting
Calmy levitate out of the room. Then scream.
18. 'Are you a nice guy?' – Product Manager, Badoo
Sure, why not? That sounds fun. Introduce me to one and I'll learn in no time.
19. 'Provide an estimate for the number of goals in the premier league.' – Management Accountant, VAX
(Nervous laughter) I mean, how big is the ocean?
20. 'Tell me about your childhood.' – Learning and Development Employee, Next
Must I really? Like House on the Prairie meets Anne of Green Gables. Are we done now?
See, got it in the bag. No need to thank me, 'YOU'RE HIRED!'
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Follow Siobhan on Instagram @siobhansl
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.